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New Jersey student who was secretly taped having sex kills himself

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This is just sick and horrible.

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"... I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."

Oh the irony of this statement if Ravi gets sent to jail

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“And we are sickened that anyone in our society, such as the students allegedly responsible for making the surreptitious video, might consider destroying others’ lives as a sport.”

Agreed. It is terrible, and sick, and I also believe it can be construed as a hate crime. I hope they get the max five years each. No doubt they already question if it was such a 'fun' idea now or not. Sad it took some an extreme act to show them how wrong they are, and my heart goes out to the victim and his family.

One more thing to all the people who complain about the word 'alleged' being used in Japanese crime stories when it's clear who the suspects are; notice that 'alleged' is used here as well. Like I said, they need to use the word until the guilty verdict is read to avoid slander/libel charges.

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It is terrible, and sick, and I also believe it can be construed as a hate crime.

The article states

One of the defendants, Dharun Ravi, was Clementi’s roommate, Mainardi told The Star-Ledger. The other defendant is Molly Wei.

You don't understand "justice" in modern, "liberal" America. Since the alleged perps probably are not "white" they cannot, in the America of today, be charged with hate crimes.

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@TimRussert: I'm afraid your attempts at cynical "spin" will fall flat to most reasonable people's "ears", as this tragic story "is" about invasion of privacy, with the alleged hate crime "being" based on sexual orientation, not "race".

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**A Twitter account belonging to a Ravi was recently deleted, but in a cached version retained through Google he sent a message on Sept 19: “Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.”

Two days later, he wrote on Twitter: “Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it’s happening again.”**** I guess this should be a warning not only to all the gays or lezbianz out there but to straight guyz and galz not to boof in your dorm room with a webcam pointing in your direction. RIP gay uni. student

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BTW Rutgers University should be sued, they should not be putting gay students with regular students, this is just asking for trouble, young kids with video cams?? Big, big NO! NO!

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Sometimes young adults live in denial about their true sexual orientation, denial which doesn't break down until they leave home, go to college, meet like-minded people, etc. Not entirely sure about this case, but it sounds like the young man here was not ready to come out yet, but was outed in the worst possible way.

George Orwell cautioned the free world about Big Brother, and he is certainly alive and well in North Korea and China. But his amorphous cousin is also making his presence known in the age of the Internet and millions of video cameras.

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I see no evidence of a hate crime here.

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I hope the two people involved here get their just deserts.

This despicable roommate did not have the guts to go to the Head of School Housing and say, Hey, I don't want to room with the gay guy. Instead, he acts agreeable, and he and the girl co-conspirator secretly get their "revenge" by secretly filming him doing his thing, and then posting it online to humiliate him.

Some people feel the same anger, hate, or fear of gay people, only now it's pc to mask it- and in this case, look at the result.

R.I.P. Tyler.

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This is a sad case. Whether it was gay sex or straight, if the person does not know that they are being captured on camera and did not give permission, it is an invasion of privacy.

All the more reason why if I had to go back to college and live in a dorm, I would request a private room.

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And it looked so fun in American Pie.

Seriously, kids need to be tough that these kinds of camera games could potentially be one of the worst crimes. It seems so innocent, but as we see, the consequences can be much the same as for rape: fear (of being recognized on internet), chronic depression, and, as in this case, suicide.

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I also don't see a "hate crime". It seems he was surprised that his roommate was gay. Invasion of privacy by posting on the internet yes. But not a hate crime. That's just overblown liberal attitude of oogesa. Suicide is the fault of the person carrying it out. There is no way these 2 could have foresaw that. I feel sorry for the kid being humiliated but when asking the roomie to step out so I can get me rocks off is just asking for trouble. Sounds like he was kinda naive.

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Look it up in real news. The girl is hot, but she is sick too.

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I am transgender and I don't consider video recording/broadcasting that lead to the suicide as a "hate crime". While this was an embarrassing situation, it was the victim's decision to take his own life.

Recording/broadcasting the encounter is wrong. Perhaps criminal charges around invasion of privacy.

If the victim is humiliated because he was outed, there is psychological help out there. He just needed to ask for it. Unfortunately, even at college age, some are not certain of their sexuality.

My heart goes out to the victim's family and friends but I feel that he used a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

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Budomexikano:

" BTW Rutgers University should be sued, they should not be putting gay students with regular students, this is just asking for trouble, young kids with video cams?? "

You mean they should wait til they are in the military, when this is all OK?

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What a horrible situation.....wish it never happened.

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I agree with the invasion of privacy maybe even wiretapping -as in recording someone w/o their consent; however, I don't know that I'd want to attribute someone's taking their own life on someone else in these kinds of cases. I think, ultimately, we are responsible for how we deal with stress. I think the guy and gal here (either a-hles or have st for brains) -probably mostly the guy, were egregiously out of line in invading privacy. I don't agree on what they did can or should be pinned as a hate crime.

I mean, lots of people commit suicide for all kinds of stresses in their lives (most could be traceable to someone or something). And unless someone egged them on at the ledge to commit selfkilling, I can't see it overcoming that threshold.

It seems the roommate was upset for not having access to his room during certain times and wanted to get back at the roommate in a totally asymmetrical fashion. However, in the world of today's youth, privacy is not the same as the one I knew growing up --people divulge secrets for other to see wittingly and unknowingly. It's somewhat naive to think that in a college university campus people, esp. roommates, would keep secrets. That's not what I remember from college. Everyone pretty much knew what everyone else was up to.

I mean gee, poor guy. But why jump over this? I know it's mortifying and terrible and it sucks, but man, you don't jump. You overcome.

RIP young dude.

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Was it actually recorded or broadcast live? Big difference if nobody out there actually captured it or not. The biggest problem here is broadcasting via the internet which once unleashed can wreak havoc on P2P sites. If not recordings were made then it comes down to further humilitation by word of mouth, but with no evidence backing up any claim. This happens all the time in school with classmates saying he did who and she did what....

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I think that for the purposes of the law "recording" is merely the act of capturing the images on camera. No-one needs to have saved a copy, but only turned on the webcam.

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I mean, listen, people blackmail and or make money off of surreptitious recordings of sexual situations of others. You hear or read about it often, esp. when in a young couple, where one becomes famous and the other is left to dry on the vine. The jilted ones are known to sell their ex's sex tapes -if they threaten blackmail you can get them on that, but otherwise, I don't recall too many cases where people get sentenced to hard time for leaking unwanted sex tapes.

Now, I know this is somewhat different in that the person recording was not in the scene -but it still has similarities: leaked, embarrassing, unwanted, private, etc.

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I don't recall too many cases where people get sentenced to hard time for leaking unwanted sex tapes.

Perhaps the legislation is not up-to-date. I've read stories about people developing severe mental problems after sex/nude videos of them were leaked on internet. They know it will stay there forever, and get paranoid someone will recognize them. And now, for the first time, I read about an actual suicide. Punishing such leaking is a sure way to reduce the problem.

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Dear WilliB, I am sure the do not ask and do not tell policy in the US military would not be able to save a young homosexual, if all the rest of his army buddies found out on youtube etc... they would be dead meat too.

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cwhite:

" Was it actually recorded or broadcast live? "

Broadcast live, according to the article. But of course people can capture anything.

ElBudo:

" I am sure the do not ask and do not tell policy in the US military would not be able to save a young homosexual, if all the rest of his army buddies found out on youtube etc... they would be dead meat too. "

But... don´t ask don´t tell is going to get lifted. Hasn´t Obama just assured everyone that it is A-OK to mix? So what problem are you talking about.

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Honestly I am one who gets tired of all this crap about "hate crimes" (and trust me I know what hate crime is my mothers side of the family endured it for hundreds of years and some still do on occasion).

So taking this fact into account I have to ask. If these two idiots had seen him with a girl the first time would they have proceeded to the next level, though I have no inside knowledge my gut tells me they would have shut off the cam and left it alone.

In any case whether filming someone with consent or not, posting it on the web or showing it to others without their permission is a clear violation of their trust and in today's age of fast uploads and the impossibility of ever retrieving every copy made, I think it is now time that we seriously think of instituting legal regulations making positing such type of thing as illegal.

I cannot repeat this often enough to friends and my children:

Once something is out on the web it can never be retrieved or stopped so be very careful what you post and write it may come back one day and bite you on the __ (fill in the blank)

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So taking this fact into account I have to ask. If these two idiots had seen him with a girl the first time would they have proceeded to the next level, though I have no inside knowledge my gut tells me they would have shut off the cam and left it alone.

A) You really, really do not know that. The roomate could have been an equal opportunity jackass who would have broadcast it anyway.

B) It is perfectly possible that the roomate was a homophobe who did this because he dislikes homosexuals. But, hate crimes have to be more than this. They can't just be "thought crimes." Killing a man because you hate his skin color or his sexual orientation isn't really any worse than killing him because you hate the way he talks. It's the method of the crime that is important; a "hate crime" has to manifest some sort of terroristic threat to the wider minority commmunity; eg. cutting a swastika into a Jewish gravestone sends a message to all the Jews in the area: "we don't want you here and were comming to get you." Same with shouting anti-gay slurs durring an assault. I don't think this incident qualifies.

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The above comments seem to trivialize the fact that this sensitive young man took his own life after being violated in this personal, cruel way. A crime was committed. It was not a hate crime, but it was something far more twisted. After the criminal justice system is through with them, the two perpetrators will have to live with what they've done, and the impact of their actions on a fellow human being; a peer. Anyone with a webcam and some wire can pull a stunt like this, but why be so malicious?

That said, one person in a N.J. gay rights organization made the obviously poorly vetted statement that this was a hate crime, and all you care enough to comment on are your uninformed opinions about hate crimes legislation! Get a heart, people.

And for what it's worth, here is my own opinion: Hate crimes legislation is a waste of time and implies special rights. I'm gay, and I want equality, not special protection. Every violent crime is a hate crime. This wasn't a violent crime, it was a crime against the human soul.

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@tedbenares:

I agree with what you have stated and I think some got the impression that I was stating that this was a hate crime but I clearly said that I am tired of hearing that always being brought.

I only wonder had he been having a heterosexual relationship if these 2 would have just left it alone!

As for what happened to this poor soul, this is not the first time something like this has happened to both heterosexuals and Homosexuals, over the years I have read of many cases where young men and women have taken their own lives after someone they trusted posted sexual photos and videos of them online, and all I am saying is that isn't it about time to have a more uniform system of law to at least try and stop this sort of thing!

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Was his privacy invaded BECAUSE he is homosexual? I think that the answer is yes. The guy is not guilty of murder, but the news talks about what the charges are and I can't think of a much worse outcome, so I hope they get the maximum punishment. They probably will.

I dislike roommates in general. Sharing living space with a psychopath assigned randomly is the worst.

Someone is going to track this guy down in a few years. The internet never forgets, and that cuts both ways.

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