Facebook seems to have contributed to countless broken love affairs, divorces, and insane levels of jealousy. People pry into your friend lists and updates until they sometimes reach conclusions far beyond reality. How lovely, then, that a mere status update appears to have saved a Harlem man from jail.
According to The New York Times, Rodney Bradford decided to update his status with a call from the soul. "Where's my pancakes?" is the Times' translation of a status update it says was written in "indecipherable street slang." The fact that Bradford did this at 11:49 a.m. on October 17, using his father's computer, meant that he would not have to suffer pancakes of a more distasteful nature in the local penitentiary.
(Credit:
CC Slushpup/Flickr)
Bradford, you see, was arrested the next day for robbery. However, after he was booked, his lawyer was intelligent enough to update the district attorney with news of Bradford's Facebooking.
A subpoena was swiftly flung the way of the Zuckerbergville crew so that they might reveal whether the timing and location of the update were correct. They were, meaning Bradford could update his criminal status to "cleared."
There are some, however, who are not entirely convinced the charges should have been dropped. Joseph Pollini, a teacher at the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice told the Times: "With a username and password, anyone can input data in a Facebook page."
He also offered a dire warning of the infinite dastardliness of people Bradford's age: "Some of the brightest people on the Internet are teenagers. They know the Internet better than a lot of people. Why? Because they use it all the time."
Oh, why is it so hard to give young people the benefit of the doubt--especially on Facebook?
We all, at one time or another, fail to think straight when under pressure. However, when we decide the time has come to rob a bank, arrow-like mental functionality is imperative for our tool belt.
I mention this only because of the tale of Garry Lee Damon. Damon is currently being subjected to the police's careful hospitality on suspicion of having robbed a Citibank in Santa Clara, Calif.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the police looked at surveillance photos of the robber and wondered who he might be.
I am told this is a telescope linked to a GPS satellite. Oh, we're all being followed now.
(Credit: CC 37Hz/Flickr)They showed the photos to a parole officer, who seemed to feel he might recognize the man in question. For he allegedly bore a remarkable resemblance to one of his parolees.
The parole officer decided to perform a swift technological check of Damon's whereabouts at the time in question.
You see, Damon was wearing a GPS. And the information from the GPS allegedly suggested that he was, indeed, in the aforementioned Citibank at the inappropriate time. Which prompted the police to consider this more than a coincidence.
I know it cannot be easy knowing that one has a tail at every moment in one's life. Ask any squirrel just how skittish it makes them.
However, I cannot help wondering whether one should perhaps steer clear of the potential of committing crimes when one's whereabouts, thanks to modern technology, are not exactly a secret.
Facebook may have 300 million members, but a news story this week makes one particular member stand out from the crowd.
Jonathan G. Parker, 19, of Fort Loudoun, Pa., is alleged to have burgled a house of two diamond rings. However, according to the Journal of West Virginia, Parker is alleged to have done something of a highly modern nature during this burglary.
For the victim, examining her computer after the burglary, noticed that her computer was logged into someone else's Facebook account. This might seem strange in itself. However, the person who logged on (perhaps to update his status to "feeling lucky today"?) also seems not to have logged off. That led intrepid sleuths to the figure of Parker, whose Facebook page it is indeed alleged, was the one that lay open.
Parker has been charged with one count of having an impressive and excessive ego. I'm sorry, that's not quite right. He has been charged with one count of felony daytime burglary.
It would be churlish to suggest that our obsession with networking socially will get us into trouble. However, after a Florida case in which a man allegedly stole a laptop in order to check his Facebook page, shouldn't we really consider whether the Facebook habit might be leading some to difficult and damaging behavior?
Edited 1.20pmPST to include quotes from Indiana BMV's Deputy Communications Director
Sometimes he was Eric Nicholson. Sometimes he was Vernon Eugene Lyons.
However, according to authorities in Indiana, his real name was George Helms and he assumed at least 10 different names in that state alone.
According to CBS2 Chicago, Helms walked into the Hobart, Ind., license branch to obtain an 11th ID. No one seems really sure why he would want an 11th license.
What Helms appears not to have known is that Indiana has invested in new facial recognition software.
Helms allegedly had all the correct paperwork and then posed for his photograph. However, in the evening after his application was approved, the photograph passed through the new facial recognition system, which spotted an allegedly remarkable similarity with 10 other licenses, according to the report.
In an email, the bureau's Graig Lubsen told CNET that normal procedure is that: "The next morning, our investigators will examine all of the potential facial recognition conflicts and determine if an investigation should proceed."
He added: "In Mr. Helms case, we had already distributed BMV 'Wanted' posters of Helms and a variety of other people to all 140 license branches and the employee recognized Helms from the poster."
The Bureau of Motor Vehicles claims that Helms got four licenses between July 2000 and October 2001. And eight more October 2008 to February 2009, according to the report.
As the investigation has continued, it has spread to Illinois, where authorities believe Helms secured at least 15 other IDs.
He has been charged with seven counts of forgery and is currently in jail.
The world weaves odd, strangely patterned webs.
Last September, a 14-year-old boy told police in Groningen, Holland, that he had been knocked off his bike and robbed of some money and his cell phone.
What evidence did he have of his alleged assailants? Very little.
Six months later, the Associated Press reports, he was pootling around on Google Street View when he saw an image of himself--and of two males behind him, who, he seemed to remember, were just in the place where he was allegedly robbed.
So he called the police again.
Paul Heidanus, a spokesman for the Groningen police, told the AP that the police had to make a formal request to Google in order to obtain the unblurred photo from Street View.
"The photo could provide an important contribution to solving a crime," he said.
The police subsequently arrested twin brothers, one of whom was allegedly recognized by Groningen's robbery squad.
But here's what I would love to know: what was the 14-year-old alleged victim doing on Google Street View six months after the alleged event? Why pick that moment to return to the scene of the alleged crime?
And, secondly, what was the kind and sensitive Street View driver doing at the time of the alleged incident? Did the driver really just miss it?
Johnathon Hock, 20, was indicted Monday and charged with two counts of sexual assault and one charge of voyeurism.
According to an earlier report by the Associated Press, the charges stem from an incident on February 26, when Hock allegedly sexually assaulted a woman whom he had been dating for two weeks.
Phoenix police said in their probable cause statement, reported on June 3 by KPHO TV, that Hock "set up a computer with a Webcam and sexually assaulted a woman he knew as she was passed out from drinking alcohol."
Analyzing the reports is a sobering and troubling exercise.
The Associated Press reported that Christopher Stone, co-owner and administrator of a site called StickyDrama.com, which follows certain Internet celebrities, recorded the livestreaming and immediately contacted the police as he knew that what was being broadcast was criminal.
The AP also reported that Steven Fruchter, the CEO of Stickam.com, the site that carried the livestream, said the site ended the broadcast as soon as it was notified of what was happening.
"When the violation was immediately found, the alleged perpetrator was banned and we have an open line of communication with the authorities to provide any data they require," the AP quoted him as saying.
However, the same AP report said that Phoenix police Detective James Holmes said police only learned of the alleged assault from the 20-year-old alleged victim.
KPHO TV said that she had told the police that she only learned of the livestream after she received texts from her friends. She then logged on to the site, where she said she found photos of the alleged incident.
Police told KPHO TV that they obtained the video, which was five minutes long, and heard Hock boast of how the alleged victim was passed out, which left him able to have sex with her without her knowledge.
StickyDrama.com reported a conversation with a Phoenix journalist who said that Hock was indicted on Monday. The site also posted a YouTube video in which a woman declares that Hock should not go to jail over what was, according to her, a "misunderstanding."
East Valley Tribune.com, a local Phoenix newspaper, said: "A viewer in Lafayette, La., called the Arizona Department of Public Safety to report the rape." It also quoted Parry Aftab, executive director of WiredSafety.org, an internet safety, help, and education resource, as saying: "It's the first livestream of an actual rape that I'm aware of."
However, perhaps what is beyond disturbing is that East Valley Tribune.com's June 3 report declared that images of the alleged victim could still be seen that day.
Amid all this distasteful confusion, one can only wonder about the alleged victim and the high supposition that copies of the livestream will always exist somewhere online.
And there is nothing she will ever be able to do about it.
I once used to live in an apartment in London that had previously been something of a bordello.
It was a very nice apartment. However, it was extremely disconcerting to receive late-night calls from strange men wondering if Hermosa was available.
But this was but a mere twinge when compared with the discomfort of a woman from Norwalk, Conn., who also allegedly began to receive phone calls of a somewhat perplexingly sexual nature.
She described these communications to CBS 2 this way: "Men calling, looking for a good time. And I said, 'You got the wrong number.' I hung up the phone, got another call, another call."
She claims that a few men even came to her door. Finally, a man told her about a Craigslist ad that featured her name, address, and phone number. It was a "Sex Partner Wanted" ad.
Her first thought was, she said, that it must be a certain pharmacist.
This anonymous lady had, allegedly, walked into a CVS Pharmacy in Norwalk to pick up some medicine. Her visit appears to have ended with her telling the pharmacist that she would file a complaint for bad service. "He was acting strange, had this peculiar look on his face," she told CBS 2.
The sexually interested parties allegedly began calling to arrange sexually interesting parties the very next day. So the alleged victim put two and two together in a firmly deductive way and suggested to police that perhaps the pharmacist had used the CVS records for nefarious purposes.
After months of investigation, police have charged Jonathan Medina, 38, now a former CVS pharmacist, with harassment and computer crimes. He is, allegedly, on the run after leaving the state of Connecticut. Police believe he may now be in Washington state.
The use of Craigslist for deception of this kind seems to be becoming more prevalent. This month, Margery Tannenbaum, from Hauppauge, N.Y., was arrested for aggravated harassment after she allegedly placed an ad to lure men and then redirected the calls to her neighbor's house.
Her motive is alleged also to have been revenge after an argument between her daughter and the neighbor's. Both girls are 9 years old.
One might be forgiven for wondering whether Craigslist, which this week decided to eliminate its erotic-services section and police a new adult-services section more closely, has become a hall of mirrors for the more twisted aspects of the human psyche.
In the wake of the murder of Craigslist-advertising masseuse Julissa Brisman, and the arrest of Philip Markoff, Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster of Craigslist gave interviews Friday to Martin Bashir of ABC's Nightline.
Their attitude was both defiant and a little uncomfortable.
Bashir asked Newmark whether he was a law-abiding citizen of America, to which the Craigslist founder said he was "very consistent" about that.
As the interviewer read out a few Craigslist ads and asked him if he thought they were ads for prostitution, Newmark replied: "Probably." He said that if there are ads of a criminal nature on the site, he wants help to get rid of them immediately.
Asked if Craigslist facilitates prostitution, Newmark said: "I wouldn't put it that way, no." Which did seem a little like the answer of a politician.
But when asked about whether, in the light of crime associated with Craigslist, he intended to make any changes to the site, perhaps closing down the Erotic Services section, Newmark leaned heavily on Craigslist's roots.
"The decisions we make on our site are consistently based on feedback from the entirety of the community," he said.
However, he did seem to leave the smallest of crack open for a change of heart: "That feedback changes over time."
Bashir then wondered whether the idea of donating proceeds from the Erotic Services section to charity might seem a little strange.
"Do you think," he asked Buckmaster, "that charities will welcome donations from adverts where people promise to beat each others' backsides till they bleed?"
Buckmaster replied, somewhat nervously: "We'll be making public the donations that are available to charities and they can contact us if they want to take advantage of that."
In this fascinating interview sequence, one could easily conclude that Craigslist wishes that the few in society would just stop behaving in a way that can affect so many so that Craiglist can just carry on with its business.
Unfortunately, the few in society aren't so easily persuaded.
There are days when the mind is sluggish and the body votes for the Recalcitrant Party.
So I am grateful to Technically Incorrect reader John Wesley, who chose to point the parts of my eyes that might function today to a Web site called the Blotter.
Whoever is behind this criminally committed blog took it upon themselves, for reasons unbeknown to me, to scour Google Street View for crimes, misdemeanors, and simply strange, strange occurrences.
My first instinct was that these were entirely concocted images, made to amuse rather than amaze. Oh, me of little faith.
I have tried to locate as many of the addresses as are readable from the site. And while Google may have removed some of the more obviously egregious ones (I could not find the man appearing to climb toward a second-floor apartment in San Francisco, for example), some are still there.
The sword-wielding samurai from Pittsburgh, for example.
And the ladies of the day in Paris. How can I possibly assume these are ladies of the day? Well, they're standing by the curb in what looks like the middle of the afternoon and one is wearing, oh, please check it out for yourselves and decide.
The Blotter seems to have captured children smoking in Bristol, England, and even a couple of cases of apparent assault, drug dealing, and general lewd happenings--although one could question whether a Frenchman carrying an inflatable doll down the streets of Paris could really be classified as lewd.
More like a day in the life, really.
Welcome to "Reality TV meets Tech In A Nasty Head-On Collision Week."
After the hard-shoe conspiracy shuffle danced by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak this week, I now bring you Kenley Collins, a finalist in season 5 of "Project Runway."
Kenley was arrested early Tuesday morning after allegedly assaulting her ex-fiance with, among other things, a laptop.
You will all collectively breathe again when I tell you that the laptop was not, apparently, her first weapon of choice. No, that was the cat.
She allegedly threw poor Tiddles (yes, name made up by me) in her ex's face. He covered himself with a blanket. So what would pierce the blanket's hardy defenses? Yes, the trusty laptop.
This is not Kenley's cat. But can you imagine throwing either of these little cuties?
(Credit: CC Amb Haims)This, allegedly, was tossed shortly after she had closed the bedroom door on his head. It was followed by apples and water.
Ms. Collins, who was not one of the most popular contestants on the show, was arraigned for "assault, menacing, harassment and criminal possession of a weapon." Was the weapon the cat? Or the laptop?
Please believe me, I have tried to find out what brand of laptop it was and whether it has received appropriate care since the incident. I have failed.
May I ask if any of you has ever been assaulted by a laptop-tossing lover?
