I still hate people

[moonwise]

I've been following the story about the Rutgers student who committed suicide after his roommate streamed video of him having sex with another male to the Internet. It makes me very sad and angry, because I simply cannot fathom what would possess someone to do such a thing. Okay, maybe you don't like your roommate, but 1. that does not excuse anything 2. you are not alone in that experience 3. you can get a new roommate if you are really that offended by his sexual preference. What infuriates me is the possibility that the two students who recorded the encounter thought that perhaps what they were doing was funny.

Fucking barrel of laughs, you two. Congratulations, you killed someone.

Comments

[pantswarrior]

The really messed up thing? The guy that did it apparently didn't hate his roommate. At least according to a few people who knew him, he had told them that school was going well so far, and his roommate was pretty nice. So I'm thinking that "did it for the lulz" is exactly right here. :P

[arafel.livejournal.com]

If those two really did do it for the lulz... my god.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's almost the worst part.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

I bet the roommate and his accomplice think it's a lot less funny now that they're looking at jail time too.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Jail is hilarious, didn't you know!

I wonder if what they did could be considered manslaughter...? Probably not, but it should be.

[sarcasticval.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine that it'd be considered manslaughter. What they did was heinous, but I think there's a lack of directness from the "prank" to the final outcome. Running someone over with your car and killing them isn't the same as treating someone horribly, leading them to make the decision to end their own life. As awful as things were for the student in question, and my heart goes out to him because I've so been there, in the end it was ultimately his decision to do what he did.

That said, I do believe accountability is in order. I know that you can get time for recording someone having sex without their knowledge/consent, and it becomes an even greater offense once you broadcast under the same circumstances. We'll see what happens.

[skurtchasor.livejournal.com]

3. You can get a new roommate if you are really that offended by his sexual preference.

I seriously doubt it works that way in general. A university that honors such a request could potentially be construed as discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

True. What I'm thinking is that if things were really not working out between the two, there is usually an escape hatch. Apparently the deceased was trying to get moved and had already approached the RA.

[skurtchasor.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty much in agreement with you. Just doing my usual thing and playing devil's advocate.

[sideburnpower.livejournal.com]

I lack words.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Ditto, except unprintable ones.

[wynndfae.livejournal.com]

I first read about this yesterday and was infinitely appalled. I still am. I think about the Rutgers students living above us and wonder how they feel about this. They're in their final year so I doubt they knew the victim, but they seem like okay kids who would take offense to this. Or maybe they're glad they're leaving after this year. :/

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Considering the Rutgers response to the Westboro Baptist Church (http://www.dailytargum.com/news/hundreds-counter-westboro-baptist-church-protest-1.2040953), I'd say that those two students are not representative of the student body at large. It's still very embarrassing to have such a heinous act associated with my university, though.

[utenatai.livejournal.com]

I haven't been keeping up on the details of this, but it's frankly not clear to me that this was done out of hate rather than stupidity. And it doesn't surprise me that this sort of thing is happening on campus at all - wasn't there some teenage movie where a bunch of kids webcast some nerdy kid losing it in his pants while he was trying to get it on with a hot girl in her bedroom? I can see where in the realm of college pranks video taping your roommate is right up there with fucking on their bed.

Obviously it's not okay, obviously what they did is illegal, even, and obviously the consequences in this case were tragic. But I'm sorry to say, I doubt broadcasting your roommate having sex over the internet is even an outlier on the scale of stupid things that college students do to each other.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

I would guess that the roommate who did the taping was annoyed that he was being kicked out of his room - from the Twitter feeds, the tone seems to be "hur hur, watch this." It doesn't sound like a hate crime, you're right, but it's still shitty.