If this girl had filed a civil lawsuit all the reich-wing christian repbulicans would have been whining about “lawsuits” and saying they should have just slugged it out like back in the good-ole-days when they used to “rumble”. Personally I think they should have filed a slander suit but I’m an adult. I’m using this to reinforce to my kids that they should watch their mouths and to let them know that if they’re slandered we will file a lawsuit….no fighting to settle it.

I think it’s dumb to blame myspace and youtube too but the victim may bear some responsibility too; we’d know more about that if the myspace posting was made public (if it can be retreived since she deleted it).

Somebody posted this on another website and I think it’s pretty spot on even though I’m a liberal and don’t care for the nasty comments about liberals by the blogger.

http://jaimieandlisa.strangled.net/cms/

And what “rest of the story” do you need? They were angry, they called her over and beat her. They planned on taping the event so they could make a popular MySpace video. There is no rest of the story.

Also, you may want to get your facts straight on the video. The video you’re seeing online is only a small part. They did all take turns attacking Victoria Lindsay. This video takes place after she had been knocked unconscious and woke up. So before you “wait for the rest of the story”, catch up to the story so far.

And to say that she should have “fought back” against the girls is to imply that this is somehow her fault. Free speech lets us say whatever we want. If what we say is slanderous, than the victim has the right to file civil action; not get together a group of friends to kidnap and beat you into unconsciousness.

Simply put, there is no reason for this girl to have been attacked. People talk “trash” about me online, and I can honestly say that I have never (seriously) considered any sort of physical retribution. These eight teenagers should get at least 5 - 10 years in prison.

The point of my post was to say that it’s stupid to blame MySpace or any technology for this attack. But it’s even dumber to blame the victim.

No I’m not from Florida (a little stereotype there Ed?) but I do know of people who’ve been “bullied and beat up” and people who’ve been “bullied by lies and whisper campaigns”. More often than not words last longer than blows. Haven’t you been paying attention to these stories of teenagers committing suicide because of internet rumors? Even adults sometimes commit suicide when they’re the victim of malicious rumors….doesn’t Joseph McCarthy ring a bell for you?

If you want to engage in mob mentality then go right ahead but I’m going to hold back a bit and think rationally and wait until the rest of the story comes out before I start yelling “crucify them”.

After all it seems awfully strange to me that this girl made damn sure she deleted that myspace page before the cops got to it. And her parents don’t seem to eager to “pile” onto their daughter’s attackers either. And if you really watch the video it was not 6 on 1 it was only 2 girls that hit her and mainly one girl at that. The press keeps talking about the rest of the video but they haven’t shown it to us yet have they? The rest of the kids were on-lookers who were egging the one girl to do the fighting for all of them. My guess is that if this Lindsay girl had fought back (like she’d supposedly been threatening to do online) they’d have all backed off……..just like she backed off when confronted face to face.

There’s more going on here than we’re being told so far. Hopefully some good lessons will come out of this before it’s over. Children need to be taught to think before they speak and how to deal with incredible anger when they feel they’ve been wronged.

People like you amaze me. Are you from Florida too?

1) Not teaching his daughter that slandering and threatening people has ramifications. After all, slander destroys reputations, careers, marriages…so words do matter.

2) kicking her out of the house at the tender age of 16? Where was he when this incident took place?

These girls need to be punished but we also need to see what ms. Lindsay said about her friends that provoked this kind of rage in the first place.