Not too long ago, the most important things discussed on Facebook and Twitter related to people’s relationships and what was for lunch. Then we moved into job-loss and non-fatal-plane-crash territory. Now, a couple of stories with links to the criminal justice system have cropped up.
Let’s start with the tale of Facebook and a 9mm Beretta. Not too long ago, a man named Gary Waters led police on a little chase while riding a stolen motorcycle. Waters’s arresting officer, Vaughan Ettienne, said the ex-convict also had a loaded gun and a bag of ammunition in his possession.
Only, as Jim Dwyer reported, defense attorneys claimed the gun had been planted, and brought up one of Ettienne’s Facebook status updates to throw the officer’s testimony into doubt. Ettienne had once stated, “Vaughan is watching ‘Training Day’ to brush up on proper police procedure.”
Waters was convicted of resisting arrest, but not of weapons possession.
As for the Twitter anecdote, David Prager, a cofounder and vice president of special projects at Revision3, informed his followers last night, “ok, maybe I should lock my door – I swear a random dude just walked into my bathroom and I can’t believe I haven’t freaked out.”
Then, instead of either calling the police or performing a shotgun-assisted face-ectomy, Prager spent at least the next half-hour tweeting updates (“ok – he’s still in the bathroom and Im now thinking a combo of hobo and drunk and sleepwalking dude – he seems late 20s – hmmm what next ?”).
A hat tip goes to Nicholas Carlson here. And in case you’re wondering, Prager eventually pestered the intruder into leaving his apartment.
