From the New York Times:
It started with a Twitter message on Sept. 19: “Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.”
That night, the authorities say, the Rutgers University student who sent the message used a camera in his dormitory room to stream the roommate’s intimate encounter live on the Internet.
And three days later, the roommate who had been surreptitiously broadcast — Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old freshman and an accomplished violinist — jumped from the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River in an apparent suicide.
The Sept. 22 death, details of which the authorities disclosed on Wednesday, was the latest by a young American that followed the online posting of hurtful material. The news came on the same day that Rutgers kicked off a two-year, campuswide project to teach the importance of civility, with special attention to the use and abuse of new technology.
Those who knew Mr. Clementi — on the Rutgers campus in Piscataway, N.J., at his North Jersey high school and in a community orchestra — were anguished by the circumstances surrounding his death, describing him as an intensely devoted musician who was sweet and shy.
I read about Tyler's suicide yesterday, but I had no heart for posting on the deaths of two young people in the same day. I'm sorry.
My original post with the title above was posted on September 6, 2010. That I'm up to post N0. 5 in the series in one month is horrifying. Other incidents may have passed under my radar. I hope not.
The Middlesex County prosecutor’s office said Mr. Clementi’s roommate, Dharun Ravi, 18, of Plainsboro, N.J., and another classmate, Molly Wei, 18, of Princeton Junction, N.J., had each been charged with two counts of invasion of privacy for using “the camera to view and transmit a live image” of Mr. Clementi. The most serious charges carry a maximum sentence of five years.
Mr. Ravi was charged with two additional counts of invasion of privacy for trying a similar live feed on the Internet on Sept. 21, the day before the suicide. A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, James O’Neill, said the investigation was continuing, but he declined to “speculate on additional charges.”
Those who filmed the video and published it on the internet are not juveniles, and they will suffer consequences, as they should.
And another life of a gifted young man ended far too soon because of the inhumanity of humans, one to the other.
May Tyler Clementi rest in peace and rise in glory.
May God give comfort, consolation, and peace to Tyler's parents and to all who love him.
May God have mercy on us all!
A number of my readers sent me links to the story.
Oh, how awful. I hope the student who streamed the footage to the internet fully appreciates now what an appalling thing that was to do. It's hard to imagine how you could behave more intrusively and cruelly to your college roommate than that.
ReplyDeletePrayers for Tyler.
It is unspeakably barbaric behavior. The two who collaborated on this should be persecuted to the full extent of the law and if I were the school they'd be out the door yesterday with no appeal for behavior unfit for sentient beings.
ReplyDeleteWords of wisdom from Stand Firm, where ericfromnewyork asks that "we spare a thought and a prayer for Tyler’s room mate, who, in this depraved society, thought this was just a prank, and good fun. He will be painted as a callous homophobic bully when he is actually just an amateur reality show producer".
ReplyDelete"Just an amateur reality show producer". Now that is spin.
By contrast, the majority of posters on that thread are, within their parameters of belief, appalled by this incident and focused on the obscenity perpetrated on Tyler Clementi.
Incidentally, Matt Kennedy, in his introduction, writes, "It disgusts me to see, already, political and religious liberals moving in like carrion beasts to exploit this man's death". First we do it with Jesus and now with Tyler. No end to out nerve.
"Just an amateur reality show producer". Now that is spin.
ReplyDeleteLapin, spin of the first order.
I suppose that I am amongst the political and religious liberal carrion who disgust Matt, since I've done five stories exploiting the deaths of young people in a single month.
Twisted thinking of the first order, Matt!
I can't even begin to express my disgust at comments such as Matt's though they don't surprise me and the behaviour of those who perpetrated the hate crime.
ReplyDeletePeople are starting to hear the alarm bells from our gay young. Dan Savage and his husband Terry have begun the "It Gets Better" project aimed at vulnerable gay kids, and there are others springing up out there.
ReplyDeleteIt was excruciatingly hard, but most of us found the courage to get through it. Now, we need to share that courage with those kids who feel so discouraged.
We need to expose bullying and negligence whenever it plays a role in these losses.
Especially we need to hit back hard at the ideologies and religious dogmas that promote and reward bullying.
Counterlight, I have in mind an upcoming post with links to groups which are organizing to fight against bullying and negligence and to offer help to those who may be thinking of suicide.
ReplyDeleteGod, as Mary stood at the foot of the cross, we stand before with broken hearts. Hear us, as out of the depths we cry to you for your child, Tyler Clementi. Meet our confusion and anger with peace and consolation. Help us acknowledge the mystery that our lives are hid with Christ in you; and gather our horror for the death of your child, Tyler, into the compass of your wisdom and strength; that through the night we may seek and do what is right, and when the dawn comes, trust ourselves to your justice and new life. Amen. (morphed from EOW2)
ReplyDeleteAs a Rutgers grad who lives in the area (and is dating a grad stduent there) I can tell you there is a lot of pain and anger here. There have been vigils all day, and with the strange exception of the campus newspaper, everyone is extremely supportive of the Clementi family and astonished at the behavior of Ravi and Wei.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, thank you. I tried to end the post with a prayer or words of hope, but I came up dry. Your prayer is just what I wanted.
ReplyDeleteAllie, I'm glad to hear about the support for the Clementi family in the Rutgers community. What's the problem with the newspaper?
If this story wasn't horrible enough, the comments at Stand Firm that attempt to blame liberals for naming a hate crime for what it is make me want to punch a wall. And the comments at T19, which attempt to blame Tyler's suicide on everything from liberal permissiveness to postmodernism, make me throw up in my mouth a little. What a nice fantasy world it must be to live in a world where no actual homophobia exists.
ReplyDeleteThese folks are shameless.
These folks are shameless.
ReplyDeleteGeorgiesmom, exactly. I sympathize with you in your anger. The folks at T19 and SF are sealed in their own little insulated world where reality can't enter. A hate crime is a hate crime. What kind of people would do such a thing? I'll pray for the two students who committed the atrocity to get heart transplants, hearts of flesh for their hearts of stone.
And why would Matt think that I take exploitative pleasure from posting these stories, which are so wrenching for me? Bearing witness is painful, and I never believed that I'd be posting five of these stories in one month and three in just one week.
I hope there's a memorial concert for Tyler . . . and I hope every gay professional concert violinist comes (out) forward for it.
ReplyDeleteAs for his roommate, and the other student? Other 18 year-olds are doing stupid, intrusive (and probably illegal) acts.
But the sentiment "I saw him making out with a dude. Yay." ("Yay" as in "Good, I get to mock him!") is taught by our culture . . . and @sshats like StandFirm will have to ANSWER for it (if not in this life, then the next!)
Holy G-d.
ReplyDeleteThis is the worst. I believe I have the power, a white, straight, fifty-something man, to carry my suburban chuch's banner in Atlanta's Pride parade next month.
We must stop this madness.
I will help.
JCF, the perpetrators have been charged. Their actions are illegal. There's no "probably".
ReplyDeleteJohn D, five suicides in a month; three in a week. I can't take it in.
IT, thank you - that is exactly what I was thinking.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just the conservative blogs.
ReplyDeleteI sent a post in to a liberal blog, responding to a conservative poster and was told that telling him "the deaths of four young people in three weeks by their own hand is the fruit of your 'traditional' teaching" was offensive and we don't want to scare people away from "The Conversation."
My God! "The Conversation" has become as much a liberal idol as "The Bible" has become a conservative one.
I also think they can be redeemed.
ReplyDeleteIT, I agree with all my heart. We must not write these two young people. off.
Mark, I don't know the context of the conversation, so I won't comment further.
Wise. I'm passionate, so I may have been offensive.
ReplyDeleteStill, I don't know why we're worried about "offensive" as opposed to "deadly."
Of course, you and I have different views of homophobes and their ability to change after all this time and maintaining their views in the current environment.
Mark, I changed.
ReplyDelete