A teenage girl has been criminally charged with encouraging her “friend” to commit suicide:
Teen Charged with Allegedly Urging a Friend to Kill Himself
Seeing the photos of the two friends, I assumed (before reading the article), that the boy egged on the girl to kill herself. Actually, it was the other way around, and the girl allegedly urged the boy to commit suicide (seemingly by carbon monoxide poisoning). As the article notes, she was an honor student, as if that would normally qualify her for good behavior awards. She was charged with involuntary manslaughter and faces significant time behind bars if convicted after not only egging him on to “do it” but also for sickeningly decrying on her social media accounts that his suicide was such a terrible tragedy. No doubt, if the story is accurate, that she’s an awful person with a lack of empathy but a dollop of solipsism that mark her as a potential sociopath.
But should her behavior be illegal and punishable by law? Many people do heinous things to others including lying, cheating, teasing, belittling, etc. but they don’t get arrested. Should make we illegal all this boorish behavior? Should someone be held culpable for someone’s suicide when suicide itself is, by definition, a solitary act? What about when someone commits suicide after a romance unravels? Or after a friend betrays a friend’s secrets to others? It is reminiscent of revenge porn, where a boorish and tacky act is increasingly outlawed by criminal law (when this type of behavior would previously have fallen under civil law). If we are going to be held responsible for every single word we say or publish, then we are all going to be held to a very high standard for our own words, all the time. And if we hold young people, who are not the most rational or filtered before communicating, then almost everyone growing up today will be guilty of some kind of “thought-to-speech crime.” What we need is not more laws criminalizing behavior (even if it is repugnant) that results in individuals (or his/her families) running to the state to solve every problem and issue they face, but an emphasis on developing and maintaining a resolute stance when faced with a nasty jerk. When you commit suicide, you allow the bastard who egged you on to feel victory. Don’t succumb and let the bastard win, fight back and persevere while standing on your own as a resolute individual. Don’t get mad, don’t get sad, get even.
mccarthyism.com 