This woman is scum. And I think it’s easy to say that berating and demaning an emotionally fragile teen should be a crime, but the problem is imagining the format and breadth of such a law. It would be begging to be abused by prosecutors, and probably wouldn’t be limited to fraudulent or misleading comments, or to teens, or to people with mental health issues.

This case is perfect for the case-by-case justice of tort law, and indeed such concepts already exist in tort (not sure if available in MO). Tort law could look at the specific consequences, and the specific disgustingness of her acts and dole out an appropriate punsihment without making it any more likely that an outspoken and agitating community member is pursued criminally for writing critical yet somewhat nasty letters to her least favorite nanny-statist politician (or something like that).

Civil suit would probably work, but I don’t see any way to legislate against what this woman did criminally without severely infringing on everyone else’s rights.

Did she kill the girl? No. Did she force the girl to kill herself? No. Did she physically assault or batter the girl? No. All she really did, when you look at it objectively, is make the girl feel bad about herself…which is childish and reprehensible, but not particularly criminal. As much as it sucks, Megan Meier is the one ultimately responsible for killing herself. The community’s just punishing Lori Drew for being an insensitive, rotten person, which is what this case really merits because being an insensitive, rotten person in itself isn’t a crime.

I can’t think of a non-skeezy reason for an adult to pretend to be a minor online for the purpose of decieving actual minors.

There certainly wasn’t one in this case. The lady apparently did all this over some rumor that the girl (who was friends with her daughter) was saying mean things at school about her kid so she decided to “pay the girl back”…basically just high-school level bullshit that only complete losers would get sucked into as an adult. She apparently knew about the girl’s mental issues too, which made it particularly nasty behavior on her part…so she pretty much deserved the derision and shunning from the community (although not the death threats, of course).

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,315823,00.html

So there’s not really a reason to prosecute her under a bunch of horseshit charges that are quite obviously going to be abused to go after law-abiding folks on the Internet in the very near future.

I can’t think of a non-skeezy reason for an adult to pretend to be a minor online for the purpose of decieving actual minors. I could live with that as it would be much less restrictive and still make lawsuits against Lori Drews a little easier.

But the proposed laws are much worse.

CC

Is this nation fucked up, or is this nation fucked up?

I’m rich bitch!!

(Balko I’m gonna need a list of all your visitors)

#6 Windypundit
Yeah, wouldn’t want to keep cops from inflicting emotional distress on people…

Yeah, that would be just as ridiculous as expecting cops to obey the same laws as everyone else.

(6) Without good cause engages in any other act with the purpose to frighten, intimidate, or cause emotional distress to another person, cause such person to be frightened, intimidated, or emotionally distressed, and such person’s response to the act is one of a person of average sensibilities considering the age of such person.

…doesn’t that describe a lot of what cops do? It would be pretty cool if you could use when some self-important cops gets in your face about something.

Oh, wait,

3. This section shall not apply to activities of federal, state, county, or municipal law enforcement officers conducting investigations of violation of federal, state, county, or municipal law.

Yeah, wouldn’t want to keep cops from inflicting emotional distress on people…

If I lived there, I would be so fucked. Sometimes people (primarily republicans and democrats) mistake my fervent good nature for rabid sadistic meanness.

As for the feds, I think they just see this as an opening to push speech regulation on the Internet.

While it is sad that this teenager took her own life, it is also true that she was taking anti-depression medications (which INCREASE the risk of suicide in teens) yet this angle is given no press. Go figure! I guess it’s the drug of American society to always have to find someone to blame OTHER than the “victim.”