Texas teen jailed after League of Legends argument

18 is not a kid, and this kind of behavior shouldn't be tolerated by LoL or society. Tasteless jokes belong in private conversations with sympathetic ppl.

Sending someone to prison over a threatening joke is excessive though, he should simply be put under watch and assigned community service and scheduled evaluation.

I've seen documentaries about Sending kids to Juvy or other correctionals for like mostly the smallest things, mostly in Texas and Indiana. This isn't a surprise but i would hope that someone gets out of this idiocracy of Justice on Minors

Kid looks like an idiot, and his comment was pathetic, but nothing worth a jail sentence.

8 years for making a tasteless joke. This country is so retarded. I need to move to Canada before this country goes straight into the pooper.

See this is an example of common sense getting thrown out the window.

Usually I don't feel bad for people saying insensitive shit right after a serious event, especially if it can be taken as a threat. But seriously, who in their right mind would not be able to tell that the statement he made was sarcastic? Everything from the original comment leading up to it, the absolute absurdity of eating their hearts out, and of course, followed by "lol" or "j/k"

If you think that was a genuine threat I think you're a bit paranoid.

America, the land where you have the freedom to do as you are told.

This is pretty crazy. What was that kid thinking!? I don't know how I feel about any of this at all. Although I definitely don't think he should go to jail for 9 years thats for sure.

...and yet kids get away with antisemitic remarks, bullying, and racial insults on XBL.

This is the thought police in action. No sarcasm allowed on the net! Terrorism has been used and abused by the gov't to expand their powers to monitor US citizens and the rest of the world. This case is an example of how "terrorism" is used to criminalize all sorts of NON-terrorist behavior and beliefs. Rule through fear has become the MO of the US gov't and sadly it works on a good chunk of Americans. Usually, the old, uneducated, and the already fearful.

That was a shockingly insensitive statement for the teen to make, but it's obvious that it was intended as a joke, albeit in exceptionally bad taste. It may be reasonable for the police to investigate the comment, but it's absurd for the teen to spend years in prison over a statement.

Sorry but, joke or no joke. If my son said he was gonna shoot up a school because he was pissed off over a game, I would beat the fucking piss out of him and then go on to break his PC in front of him so he can't play games anymore until he gets up 700$ of his own money to get a new computer.

sorry but. The dude was acting like a massive little bitch over a game. Not every single human being is the same and shares the same genetic structure and mind set as this guy, so it would make sense for certain people like...lets say....someone with kids for example, not liking this dummy's poor joke and being a little offended by it.

lets not forgot its been a wonderful year in the US when it comes to School Shootings....you know, the thing everyone on here was bitching about and saying some people need to have their fully automatic guns taken away, even though they never fired a gun before in their life, let alone held one.

Its an exception not a rule and he still has to go to court where he will almost certainly win and then he may turn around and sue these massive pricks for emotional damages and court expenses and chuckle as he bankrupts these people

Heh the stupidity of whats happening to this kid is unbelievable. If were to be held accountable for every sarcastic, dim witted, or rage train comment we make on the internet,

Almost all of us are going to be serving a lot of time behind bars, myself included.

Amazing how numerous people consider what this 19 year old said was a "Joke", unless you have inside knowledge on what this person was thinking how could such a statement be considered written with humorous intentions? Before the how do you know comments come out know that I have no clue what the individuals intentions were by making the statement however, there is a bigger picture here which it seems many people are either refusing to acknowledge or are not thinking about. Playing or not statements which can be deemed a "Threat" have to be taken seriously especially in the day and age we live in, what would the comments be had this person not been reported and he actually followed through with what he stated? While I will not completely blame the parents, it seems they do not understand the serious nature of what their son has stated and want it to be treated as a boys will be boys situation however, for better or worse those days are over people. Hopefully the 19 year old does not spend the entire time (especially if he did not mean any harm) however, hopefully he has learned a valuable lesson and maybe this will make others think in the future of what they are saying/writing before making the statement.

What ever happened to common sense, of course he wasn't being serious.

I don't know about anyone else here, but I've been threatened with various violent/sexual/insane acts in my years over the internet, and I haven't batted an eye at any of it. There is a great line between trash-talking and empty threats, and actually planning a violent act.

@xMat7x I think someone had already pointed out to you that the line I used was quoted from the South Park movie. But regardless, I can hate on Canada because I lived there for long enough to know that it's a fucked up country. I moved away and renounced my citizenship and I'm happier for it. But you go on and enjoy yourself, until some Canadian bitch calls the cops on you for something innocent. This story is not the first time I hear of some Canadian douchebag overreacting to something they don't understand and causing trouble.

America and its "freedom of speech" !!

Don't you just love it !

This is fucking ridiculous. America is so obsessed with imprisoning it's own citizens, not to mention citizens of other countries. Something like a quarter of the entire world's prison population is in the States

Everything about this story sounds absolutely stupid. From his comments, to someone from another country being offended, to googling his address, to the punishment itself.

Granted what he said was in bad taste, it was said jokingly. I agree he should be punished for being that stupid, but 8 years in jail is a bit extreme to drive that point across.

how the hell can you use google to find a stranger's adresses

I have no idea. His explanation was extremely convoluted. Something about syncing my PSN name to my system to check when I originally purchased it. I felt borderline violated and creeped out that he took it that far. He said such insane BS I was shocked...I've since seen his name pop up here and there starting fanboy arguments with people for no reason LOL some people forget they're games.