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Crime Facebook Social Networks The Courts Your Rights Online

Facebook Lands Drunk Driving Teen In Jail 443

Hugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that 18-year-old Jacob Cox-Brown has been arrested after telling his Facebook network that he had hit a car while driving drunk, posting the message: 'Drivin drunk ... classsic ;) but to whoever's vehicle i hit i am sorry. :P' Two of Cox-Brown's friends saw the message and sent it along to two separate local police officers and after receiving the tip, police went to Cox-Brown's house and were able to match a vehicle there to one that had hit two others in the early hours of the morning. Police then charged the teen with two counts of failing to perform the duties of a driver. 'Astoria Police have an active social media presence,' says a press release from Astoria Police. 'It was a private Facebook message to one of our officers that got this case moving, though. When you post ... on Facebook, you have to figure that it is not going to stay private long.'"
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Facebook Lands Drunk Driving Teen In Jail

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  • by FunkyLich ( 2533348 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @06:24AM (#42486561)

    This is the price you pay for being immature.
    You know you have done something wrong (1.drive drunk 2.smash a car and the incident is the effect of a cause that is you alone, in wrongdoing). You look around, make sure noone sees you and when this turns out to be positive, you keep your fucking mouth shut. QED.

    • by Dr_Barnowl ( 709838 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @06:53AM (#42486683)

      Or if you're a real man, you leave your number under his windshield wiper, fess up (to the hit, not the drinking) and pay for the damage.

      Then you stop being a murderous punk-ass little bitch who'd drink and then handle a giant steel lethal weapon.

      • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 05, 2013 @07:02AM (#42486729)

        How does being "a real man" entitle you to "ignore" the far more serious crime of drunk driving?

        • by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @07:48AM (#42486923) Homepage

          That'd be the "Then you stop..." part.

          It's called learning from mistakes. If nobody's hurt and you paid for the damages then there's no point in getting a criminal record if you've learned your lesson and aren't going to do it again.

          • by gsslay ( 807818 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @08:51AM (#42487237)

            It's called learning from mistakes.

            Drunk driving is not a "mistake". You chose to get drunk. You chose to drive. You know it's wrong. You know it's dangerous. You know you may kill someone. You choose to do it anyway. That's not a "mistake", that's wilful culpable recklessness.

            there's no point in getting a criminal record if you've learned your lesson and aren't going to do it again.

            "if" being the keyword. How do we know you've learned your lesson? Only you know for sure, and you're a dangerous idiot, so who's going to believe a word you say? The point of getting a criminal record is that if you've a habit of not learning your lesson, then someone ought to be keeping track of just how much more of a lesson you need, before it gets through your thick skull.

            • by cheekyjohnson ( 1873388 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @08:57AM (#42487267)

              You know it's wrong.

              What if they don't think it's wrong?

              What if they overestimated their ability to drive while under the influence? Would that not be classified as a "mistake"?

              • What if they overestimated their ability to drive while under the influence? Would that not be classified as a "mistake"?

                You have to be careful, some 'mistakes' can land you in jail for life. "Ignorance of the law is no excuse" and all that.

          • by Guppy06 ( 410832 )

            if you've learned your lesson and aren't going to do it again.

            And you get to decide for yourself whether you've "learned your lesson," based on your own standards?

            I'd rather you try to convince a judge a of that. After all, we're talking about the same personal standards that led you to think to try it to begin with.

    • by beelsebob ( 529313 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @07:03AM (#42486737)

      The news is even inaccurate... Facebook didn't land him in jail, being a moron and driving drunk, then not stopping at the scene of an accident did.

      • by jamesh ( 87723 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @07:36AM (#42486853)

        The news is even inaccurate... Facebook didn't land him in jail, being a moron and driving drunk, then not stopping at the scene of an accident did.

        Doing those things and then getting caught landed him in jail. Without blabbing on facebook he might not have been caught. As far as headlines go it's vaguely accurate.

        • by isorox ( 205688 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @07:51AM (#42486943) Homepage Journal

          The news is even inaccurate... Facebook didn't land him in jail, being a moron and driving drunk, then not stopping at the scene of an accident did.

          Doing those things and then getting caught landed him in jail. Without blabbing on facebook he might not have been caught. As far as headlines go it's vaguely accurate.

          Electricity landed him in jail. Without electricity facebook wouldn't exist, thus he wouldn't be able to brag about it and therefore get caught

          His parents landed him in jail. Without them he would never be born and could not have crashed the car in the first place.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by BeanThere ( 28381 )

      You look around, make sure noone sees you and when this turns out to be positive, you keep your fucking mouth shut

      And that makes you better, how exactly? Sounds you're as much of a dipshit as the guy in the article.

  • eCrimes division (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wild_quinine ( 998562 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @06:30AM (#42486581)
    That you can be arrested for admitting to crimes on Facebook is only news these days for the people getting arrested.

    Treating this story as news in this day and age smacks of the "Same old crime.... but on a COMPUTER!!!" syndrome that we've been criticising for a decade or more.

  • Skating, smoking weed & playing video games is evil and dangerous, but
    smoking cigarettes, owning guns & drinking and driving is cool, safe and "classic".
    Freaking idiots!

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Classy. Throwing gun ownership in with driving drunk. Asshat.
      • by ArsenneLupin ( 766289 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @07:57AM (#42486981)
        Alcool doesn't wreck cars, peopl do.
  • Idiot x2 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by BumpyCarrot ( 775949 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @06:42AM (#42486637)
    Idiotic for driving drunk. Even more so for admitting to doing something illegal, stupid and dangerous to self, and admitting it to people who apparently have an interest in the subject's well-being.
    • It does surprised me how much drunk driving is seen as "okay" in the US. Obviously it's not actually "okay" but people seem to be a lot more casual about it.

      • It's because the punishment is pretty light. If the punishment was no more driving, ever, then it'd be different, I think.

        Plus the lack of public trans in so many areas is part of the issue, although it's usually just the excuse.

      • by jamesh ( 87723 )

        It does surprised me how much drunk driving is seen as "okay" in the US. Obviously it's not actually "okay" but people seem to be a lot more casual about it.

        I guess it's still viewed as "okay" in Australia too in some circles, but the people i know who've been done for drink driving are very quiet about it.

      • Try parts of Europe. For example in Austria outside the main cities it is pretty ubiquitous.
      • by lgw ( 121541 )

        It's not a US vs Europe thing at all. It's an urban vs rural thing. The lower the population density where you live, the safer drunk driving is. I see this lack of understanding a lot on /. - appropriate behavior changes with population density. In some places where people don't much care about drunk driving, failing to stop and help someone who's car had broken down would make you a pariah.

  • ...to do a crime and get away is simple: Don't tell the world about it afterwards - at least not until the statute of limitations have run out.

    Granted, the easier solution for a blabbermouth would be not doing the crime in the first place - something I think is an even better idea for everybody when the crime is drunk driving.

  • by teslar ( 706653 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @07:16AM (#42486787)

    is never a good idea.

    I'm reminded of the Belgian who had a video of himself doing 300km/h on the motorway [youtube.com] posted to youtube.

    He was driving an Aston Marting Vantage Carbon Black edition of which only three were sold in Belgium. Didn't take the police long to figure out which one it was.

    • by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @07:59AM (#42486995) Homepage

      Now THAT is stupid.

      If you live in Belgium you can drive to Germany in no time ... and there's no speed limits in Germany.

      • by gnasher719 ( 869701 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @08:38AM (#42487173)

        If you live in Belgium you can drive to Germany in no time ... and there's no speed limits in Germany.

        Actually, there is. Even on motorways with no explicit speed limit, the speed limit is "whatever speed is safe". 300km/h would only be safe on a motorway with no other traffic whatsoever, with special training to enable you to drive at that speed safely, and enough clear view ahead so you can slow down to a reasonable speed safely within your view.

        • by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @08:52AM (#42487243) Homepage

          The Autobahns are full of police cars...but I never saw anybody pulled over for going too fast

          Tailgating? Not indicating when you pull out? Hogging the left lane? Doing anything except driving and paying attention to the road? They'll come down on you like a ton of bricks. Speeding? Not so much. Not unless you're weaving in and out of other cars to do it or generally acting like an asshole and bothering other drivers.

          If it's not congested then most Germans drive around 180-200kmh (110-125mph) on the Autobahns.

          I've done 250kmh (150mph) in a taxi...which should put most American's idea of "speed" into perspective.

          Yes, it's kinda cool/weird to be able to blow past police cars at any speed without worrying...

          • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 05, 2013 @10:21AM (#42487689)

            If you blow by the polizei going 250kmh on the autobahn (or federal highway) and there's a speed limit, which the highest it will be if there is one is 130kmh, you are fooling yourself if you don't think you'll get pulled over. While the autobahn (or federal highway, except through towns/cities) as a motorway has no set speed limit, the maximum recommended speed is 130kmh. If you get in an accident going over that speed you are always partially at fault, no matter what actually caused the accident. If you are driving over the speed rating of your tires and it's found out, you're going to be fined. While there are plenty of places on the autobahn with no speed limit (I've hit 250 in my car, damn rev limiter), more and more there are large sections which are limited, with many of those having a variable limit depending on congestion level. Finally, one of the big reasons the polizei don't pull over speeders is because they have cameras to catch and bill them, with the fine correlating to actual speed limit and how much over you were going.

      • by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @09:19AM (#42487393) Journal

        If you live in Belgium you can drive to Germany in no time .

        Well, no, but it will take *less* time at 300 km/h.

    • Well that is stupid. Espesially when you consider there are places very close where he can do that legally.
  • by ArsenneLupin ( 766289 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @07:41AM (#42486897)
    He was basically being ratted out by his own "friends". If you brag about something illegal, be sure you can trust the people you brag too. Has been like that for ages, nothing new with Facebook.
  • Good (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Arancaytar ( 966377 ) <arancaytar.ilyaran@gmail.com> on Saturday January 05, 2013 @07:43AM (#42486903) Homepage

    1. Tell people about a crime you committed.
    2. Get caught.

    Glad that still works.

  • by redback ( 15527 ) on Saturday January 05, 2013 @08:23AM (#42487099)

    1. If something is private DON'T POST IT TO FACEBOOK

I'd rather just believe that it's done by little elves running around.

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