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To be fair... I've made jokes like that, if you're saying it to somebody who knows you're joking then there's nothing threatening about it at all. They neither
by corin_ 11y ago
To be fair... I've made jokes like that, if you're saying it to somebody who knows you're joking then there's nothing threatening about it at all. They neither threatened the person with murder (I presume he was unaware) nor, as far as we know, made any plans to do it. Let's hate them for better reasons, that clearly exist, than making jokes about murder.
(Also, IANAL but pretty sure under those circumstances there wouldn't be anything to successfully prosecute, nothing to do with them being government-appointed millionaires.)
- moron4hire 11y agoTo be fair, I don't think making jokes about killing someone is ever appropriate.
- nicklaf 11y agoAgreed. It's the kind of thing where you can't ever completely write it off as a joke. Even if only for the sake of the person who made the joke: if anything terrible and mysterious were to happen to Tetrick, having previously joked about killing him unnecessarily makes him a suspect.
- moron4hire 11y agoWow, didn't think we'd be expressing a particularly controversial opinion. Learn something new about HN every day.
- nicklaf 11y agoVery strange indeed.
- pessimizer 11y agoDo either of you have any evidence or statistics that joking about killing someone is in any way associated positively with actually killing that person? If not, I don't know what your points are other than that you find humor of that type distasteful. If you don't have any such evidence, then all I can guess is that you're arguing that we should fixate on innuendo as opposed to evidence, or avoid speech that could inspire other people to fixate on innuendo rather than evidence. Has anybody who joked about bombs in the line to get on a plane ever bombed one?
- nicklaf 11y agoThat's not the greatest analogy. Obviously I don't suspect somebody standing in line and who doesn't fit the profile of a terrorist, just because they joke about doing something for which they have no obvious motive. In this case we have business associates--who have already been trying to eliminate what they see as an existential threat--making a joke in private. At the very least, it's rather distasteful that this is funny to them, especially when you realize that stuff like this actually does happen.
- fshaun 11y agoBut inappropriate != illegal. The union of what each person considers socially inappropriate is a rather large set... both undesirable and impossible to legally enforce. As other comments say, there are better things to be upset at here.
- moron4hire 11y agoI'm upset at the defense "I joke about killing people, too".
- benologist 11y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXQkXXBqj_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXQkXXBqj_U
- notjoedimaggio 11y agoYou may want to grow thicker skin. People joke about all kinds of inappropriate things in private. It's often a bonding experience. If I were to tell you something that I don't necessarily mean, but would harm my reputation if it were to get out, it's a form of a secret. If you reciprocate, often we would feel closer. There are a lot of reasons to get upset in this world, and a lot of things to get upset at. If this is something sensitive to you for personal reasons, I get it. Otherwise, you should probably just accept that people aren't going to always conform to your view of perfection. I joke all the time with my family and friends that I'll kill them if they ever repeat something I say in confidence. It's tongue in cheek, an obvious over-exaggeration, and often used for humor.
- FLUX-YOU 11y agoIf you made that joke, you probably weren't also conspiring to do economic harm to a competing business. That puts the comment in a different light despite the speaker's intentions IMO, even if it ultimately amounts to nothing relevant to the prosecution. IANAL
- Natsu 11y agoIn most places, to bring conspiracy charges, there has to be an "overt act" in furtherance of the conspiracy. So they'd have to do something to further a murder plot in order to be charged with that in those places. Conspiracy: http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=432 http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=432 Overt Acts: http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=517 http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=517
- plonh 11y agoReread parent post. It says "conspiring to do economic harm", which they did.
- Natsu 11y agoThat doesn't normally buy you a murder conspiracy unless there were overt acts that furthered a murder plot and you need a felony in there somewhere. There's no law against "economic harm" as such, but there are certain ways to compete unlawfully. Rather, the article says there's a rule against disparaging other products. That sounds more like policy, rather than law, which is not usually a felony. It also merely says they're 'investigating', so there's nothing for us to even look at until we see whether or not they actually bring charges against anyone.
- FLUX-YOU 11y agoDoes it change the perspective of anything else they've done, e.g. They could be viewed as more willing to do non-murder crimes? It of course shows they definitely don't like the guy, but that's obvious when they were trying to take out his company or whatever.