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"The Story of a Suicide"

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Dick Whitman, Feb 3, 2012.

  1. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Really well-done New Yorker piece this week on the Rutgers University student who committed suicide after his roommate spied on him via a jury-rigged Web Cam.

    http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/02/06/120206fa_fact_parker

    Some takeaways (some factual, some editorializing on my part):

    * Tyler Clementi was not in the closet. He was very much out of the closet. He was not outed.
    * He did not have sex on camera. Made out and that's about it.
    * His roommate is doing himself no favors by continuing to lie about shutting off his camera before the second attempt.
    * Kids are fucking cruel to each other.
    * I wish teen-agers talked to each other more instead of retreating into the Internet instead.
    * The perpetrator seemed more concerned about Clementi being poor (which he wasn't) than about him being gay.
    * The perpetrator should not go to jail. No way. This has gone far enough.
    * And, along with that, gay rights activists need to be a little more level-headed here. Their reaction has been very ugly.
     
  2. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Jury selection begins today:

    http://gma.yahoo.com/tyler-clementi-cyberbullying-trial-begins-today-182111675--abc-news.html
     
  3. Webster

    Webster Well-Known Member

    I really liked the story -- what is amazing as to how much of these kids life is now electronically stored.

    The roommate was a jerk -- I'm not sure that he was a criminal jerk though.
     
  4. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I think the story does a good job illustrating that we need to be judicious when we are examining for evidence of a hate crime. If you want to believe that a hate crime took place, you can certainly read the tea leaves that way. But the writer gives us a very plausible alternative explanation for the roommate's comments and postings every step of the way - for example, the fact that the man that his 18-year-old roommate was spending time with was a 25-year-old.

    I hate when people get made into examples.
     
  5. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    I might term the article "well written" as opposed to great.

    I just do not see how you can term a story "great" where the outcome is teen suicide.
     
  6. Webster

    Webster Well-Known Member

    I think that it is pretty clear that the roommate would not have been criminally prosecuted but for the tragic end to the story. My guess is that this simply would have been a situation where minor university discipline would have been the upper end of the punishment.

    And the story does a nice job showing that Tyler Clementi's suicide is not technically at issue in the trial. Obviously, many gay activists have sought to connect the dots in a way which is probably not accurate.
     
  7. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Good point. Obviously I meant "well-written," but treating the two phrases as interchangeable here might have been in inadvertent poor taste.
     
  8. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Anyone that wants to voice an opinion on suicide should have to kill themself first. [/Baron]
     
  9. jaydaum

    jaydaum Member

    Quick Question:
    Curious what you think about the line describing defendant Dharun Ravi:

    "Although he is only nineteen, he has a peculiarly large-featured, fully adult face, and vaguely resembles Sacha Baron Cohen."

    I'm always hesitant to describe people via a celebrity or star. I think it can be lazy writing and more trouble than it is worth. Does the reader know Cohen? Hate his comedy? Would Cohen be thrilled that a criminal was said to look like him? I know it is a little thing...
     
  10. Rusty Shackleford

    Rusty Shackleford Active Member

    Interesting story. Changed my opinion of Ravi, thanks mostly to learning some facts. I was one of those people who thought Ravi had broadcast a sexual encounter to a wide group of people, outing his roomate. Had that been the case, Ravi deserves to spend a good long time in jail IMO.

    However, the facts being what they are, I think Ravi is more of a general d-bag whose attempt to humiliate someone 'lower' than him went horribly wrong. That being the case, I think community service and having his name ruined for being a known d-bag is probably punishment enough.
     
  11. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Fixed.

    (Read that thread again. I'm not the one who made the original post that anyone who wants anything must go through the procedure first.)
     
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