Trolls, Flame Wars & CyberStalkers

Friday, November 28, 2008

Case# 41 Still No Justice for the Death Of Megan Meier

I feel strongly about the things I believe in. Sometimes I feel so strong and emotional about how I feel it gets me in trouble, as others that believe in differently make a point of telling me that. Trying to forcefully put me down, especially on the Internet, about how wrong my feelings are. That is fine. I am an adult and can take it. I was brought up to stand up for what I believed in and to fight for it.

When I was young, doing that was very hard to do;, basically due to conflicting opinions of my peers, how they felt and how they tried to convince me to feel as they did. Basically, it was peer pressure and much of it was simply trying to fit in with my peers.

Sound familiar? I think the majority of all adults are faced this when they were teenagers or younger. Make sure they wore the right clothes regardless if they liked them or not. Or listened to a certain type of music so that they could talk to the "clique" of those kids they hoped would be friends, even if the music grated on their nerves. To do drugs or not to do drugs. The majority of people addicted to drugs started in teenage years, just so they would or could fit in with the popular crowd. This sadly, is part of growing up, and what kids must face so many times, to feel the need of being accepted.

Growing up, these kids did not discuss these problems or feelings with their parents, as they thought (or their friends told them) their parents would never understand. Therefore, a great deal of the population of teens dealt with crucial emotional problems, even when their parents tried to help or understand.

I remember this as a child growing up, and now that my kids are grown and gone, they many times tell me of the problems they had that I had no idea about. They now realize that I would have tried to help and understand. But when they were teenagers, they felt (or were convinced) that would not be the case.

I know I am being a long winded here, something I am always guilty of, but the reason I am deals with the Megan Meier case, that she committed suicide and the final results of it. This site (see link) has always done an exceptional job of keeping myself and many readers informed on the Megan Meier MySpace case and the court trials concerning this. See: MySpace Suicide "Murderer" Convicted on 3 Counts

Megan Meier, a typical teenager in so many ways, yet with more overwhelming problems facing her as a young teenager of 13. (such as: concern she was overweight and how she wasteased about this; extra emotional problems such as ADHD; lack of self esteem; depression; the list goes on and on.)

Yet, low and behold, her life was suddenly lifted up by a young 16-year old named Josh Evans via MySpace. He took her to a new high concerning her life and how wonderful she was. Only to shatter it (which was the entire intention of the INVENTION of his face, name, photos of him, his 'caring words' which, and as far as I am concerned, was a "conspiracy") by saying to Megan "The world would be a better placewithout you."

Megan was devastated, and hung herself. The world now knows, there was never such a kid as Josh. Josh was a made-up character, and the one who made it up was a 49 year old woman who created a page for him on MySpace; after her own daughter told her of problems she and Megan were having (typical problems of young teen girls). So, instead of working these things out with her daughter as a mother should do, she decided to destroy Megan. Well, she did a good job. Megan is dead.

This decision of the Court to finally convict her with only 3 misdemeanors is outrageous to me. With the Internet being so vast and growing at lightening speed daily, this type of outcome will be sending messages to others that this is O.K. to behave like this. Especially when it comes to our protecting our children.

If we cannot depend on any Laws governing the Internet or Online Communication to protect us form this type of abuse -- such as cyberstalking or trolling -- then what the hell is going to happen if there is no recourse against this type of behavior concerning children.

If there are not laws to govern this, how long will it take to make and pass protective laws up and put them in place? A petition needs to be started on changing or implementing these laws Federally -- addressed to our lawmakers in Washington, D.C. If it was I would be the first to sign it.

What the outcome of this trial said to me, is in a roundabout way: "it is OK to harass others online." In short: what difference does it matter who gets hurt or dies for that matter? It's a free-for-all online.

How many more LORI DREW'S are there on the Internet that come into our and our children's lives via their keyboards and onto the screens of places like MySpace, chat rooms and forums? (One need only to read THIS SITE to find out)

Things have to change and fast concerning the Internet. Laws need to be tougher and strictly regulated. What happened to Megan Meier could happen to others. And as far as I am concerned, Lori Drew knew exactly what she was doing to Megan. She used a gun and pulled the trigger was transformed by the Internet. Not only that, she knew exactly how to aim the gun and had her target in full view. Excellent sharp shooting from 4 doors down I would say.

I wonder how many could be based next on the pitiful outcome of this trial!

Katie

Labels: conviction, cyberstalkers, harassment, harm, internet abuse, lori drew, megan meier, murder, myspace, suicide

Investigated by yngathrrt @ 9:13 PM

Link To The Evidence| 0 Notes

Friday, November 21, 2008

Case# 38 Lori Drew/ MySpace Suicide Case Hears Testimony

A Missouri woman knew her 13-year-old neighbor was depressed and suicidal when she sent cruel Internet messages to the teenager, her former assistant testified. The girl killed herself after being told the world would be better off without her.

Ashley Grills, 20, told jurors Thursday she helped Lori Drew set up a fake MySpace profile of a 16-year-old boy to lure Megan Meier into an online relationship. Testifying for the prosecution under a grant of immunity, Grills also said she sent the last message from the fictitious "Josh Evans" to Megan in October 2006 on the day the girl hanged herself.

Megan Meier (left)/ Ashley Grills (right)
When she learned of Megan's death, Grills said Drew told her, "`We could have pushed her overboard because she was suicidal and depressed.'"

Testimony was to resume Friday in the case against Drew, who has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing computers without authorization. Each count carries a potential sentence of five years in prison.

Prosecutors say Drew, 49, her then-13-year-old daughter, Sarah, and Grills created the MySpace alias in September 2006 to befriend Megan to find out if she was spreading rumors about Sarah.

The case is believed to be the nation's first cyberbullying trial. Its results could set a legal precedent for dealing with the issue of online harassment.

Defense attorney Dean Steward told jurors that Drew did not violate the Computer Use and Fraud Act — used in the past to address computer hacking — and reminded them that she was not facing charges dealing with the suicide. Steward has repeatedly asked U.S. District Judge George Wu to exclude testimony about Megan's suicide and twice sought a mistrial.

Grills, who helped Drew with her coupon magazine business, testified that she told Drew they might get in trouble for the scheme, but that Drew replied, "It was fine and people do it all the time."

Grills said Drew thought the MySpace account was a funny idea and was present about half of the time when Grills and Sarah sent messages to Megan.

Grills said she remembered at least one time when Drew sat down and typed messages on the computer. She also testified that Drew wanted to print the conversations between "Josh" and Megan, lure the teen to a mall and reveal who the fake boy really was.

To finally end the hoax, Grills said she devised a scenario in which "Josh" would move away so Megan would lose interest in him. When Megan persisted, the tactics changed.

"We decided to be mean to her so she would leave him alone," Grills said.

She testified that she sent the final message to Megan saying the world would be better off without her. Prosecutors did not ask if Drew was in the room when that message was sent, but Grills said she believed the message contributed to her death.

Grills said that a short time after finding out that Megan committed suicide, Drew and her husband ordered her to close the MySpace account.

The case is being prosecuted in Los Angeles because MySpace computer servers are based in the area.

ORIGINAL

THE MEGAN MEIER FOUNDATION

CLICK HERE TO DISCUSS THE MEGAN MEIER CASE

RELATED POSTS:

WEB HOAX LED GIRL TO KILL HERSELF

MYSPACE HOAX VICTIMS' FAMILY SEEKS JUSTICE

PUBLIC OUTCRY ON THE MEGAN MEIER CASE

A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF WHY EOPC RUNS THIS SITE

EOPC ATTACKED ON TV OVER MEGAN MEIER CASE

JUSTICE FOR MEGAN MEIER

SUPPORT FOR OUR STAND ON THE MEGAN MEIER CASE

MEDIA PEES ON MEGAN AND TELLS BLOGGERS ITS RAIN

THE MEGAN MEIER CASE

NO APOLOGY, EVEN IN DEATH, FROM MEGAN'S 'MURDERER'

LORI DREW: PREDATOR OR INTERNET MARTYR?

LORI DREW: HAPPY; MEGAN MEIER: DEAD

MYSPACE SUICIDE CASE: NOT OVER

MYSPACE SUICIDE CASE - SOME TRUTH AT LAST

LORI DREW - FINALLY INDICTED

Labels: ashley grills, cyberbully, harassment, harm, lori drew, megan meier, myspace, suicide

Investigated by yngathrrt @ 1:30 PM

Link To The Evidence| 0 Notes

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Case# 25 Immediate~MEGAN MEIER~CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Just so that others KNOW, this blog is so important, it belongs in both my blogs. Katie

Fighter of EOPC, did a live broadcast with FOX's syndicated Mike & Juliet Show on 11/30/07, where EOPC was sandbagged, insulted, called names just for using a pseudonym to protect themselves and for bringing some attention to the Internet and public as a whole on the Megan Meiers story that happened in 2006.

I am here to support them.

What is your reaction when a 13 year old commits suicide by hanging herself, all due to what the Internet brings on its super highway and you learn an adult used her as a token of play? Especially at the hands of an adult that knew her & her family well, and that set up the plot (using the fake name "Josh Evans") to make this child feel really special, unique, only to destroy her in the end with so much trauma and stress. An adult who told Megan "the world would be better off without her". An adult who has shown no remorse or taken any responsibility, to the point she told Megan's mother to "give it a rest."

This was such extreme emotional rape that this 13 hung herself as she just felt that she could not face life anymore. Is this plot a murder even though they did not knot the loop, or place this child's head in the noose? Some say not, and it is a controversial subject.

In my eyes, it is just as close to murder as one can get without touching this poor child, pulling a trigger or hiring a hit man.

Let me give you a brief history of this child, as it might fit the description of your own child without you even knowing the trauma that lies deep in child's heart, the way they feel about life and not fitting in, their personal insecurities. Megan, battled attention deficit disorder, bipolar depression and a weight problem for much of her young life; always tried to fit in with others her age, suffered with her own emotions and others not understanding. She had a great deal on her plate for a 13-year old child with all these problems. Anyone that would pay attention to her, make her feel special, compliment her, tell her she was worthy, etc., would obviously mean a great deal to her. It was the attention she needed to make her feel better, and gave her a reason to smile and face the next day with a smile. ALL of this was known to her cyberbully/ attacker. Very well known.

To make a long story short, she had a falling out with the perpetrator's daughter. And this other child's parents that had issues with Megan, stepped in via the Internet creating a FAKE MySpace profile of a boy that supposedly liked Megan, and that eventually led to Megan hanging herself.

Instead of explaining to their own child that this is part of growing up, how to handle this situation and being a REAL PARENT, they set out to destroy Megan. And they did. Took time to set up falsehoods, talking to Megan on the Internet with MYSPACE, instead of being a RESPONSIBLE PARENT to their own child of how to handle teenage years. And to make matters worse, since these adult parents knew Megan, they knew her insecurities, and how to get to her, how to make her suffer. How to destroy her. They might as well have had a gun and shot her. Yet, no gun was needed. And, I think they knew that. I think they knew Megan well enough to expect the outcome of her committing suicide.

"Oh, Mom, you don't understand" Megan said to her mother. The thing is, Megan's mother did want to understand, yet realized that while she talked about the dangers of the Internet, and all the things that could go on with it, especially her young daughter that felt some wonderful feelings with all the attention she was being given, her mom also I think had to be careful of how she choose her words to warn her child.

Telling her to not believe anything she heard on the Internet, also might come across to Megan that her mom, who loved her with her heart and soul, was putting Megan down as Megan might have then thought that her mother did not believe in her or think she was special to have a caring and loving relationship. We do have to pick our words careful when it comes to things like this. Parents are not trained on how to express to their children that they are tokens in a game, or beingused, therefore try to give some leeway to let in what happiness their child is experiencing. Yet, I bet they do not sleep well at night as they are unsure of what consequences might fall as they could not find the right words without hurting their child more. Taken from EOPC in a blog with words from Megan's mom:

"That was always the talk," Tina Meier told Lauer, repeating the conversations she had with her daughter: "'Megan, c'mon, we don't even know this person. Let's not get too excited.' She'd say, 'Oh, Mom, you don't understand.' So I did talk to her daily about that. But children at this age, they don't think that."

And then the boy, (remember, this was not a boy, but a parent, an adult) turned on Megan, leading a campaign of vilification and online name-calling that ended when Megan took her own life.

If this does not bring tears to eyes, then we might need to check our tear ducts. SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE that a child's mind can be played with by someone using a false personna that spent time with her, told her how wonderful she was, built the confidence as a person she felt she could depend on, make her smile and feel special, thought her life was changing; yet once this was all purposely done, sprang upon her that she was nothing, so much that this poor child felt she can no longer live and takes her own life.

Megan Meier hanged herself Oct. 16, 2006.

For over a year, the law did nothing. Lawmakers used the excuse that "no law fit." That's simply not true.

On Friday, November 30, 2007 Fox TV's Mike & Juliet show had Fighter on via phone, NEVER mentioning that EOPC is a victim's services site. A site that helps those adults conned, coerced, and traumatized by predators online. They treated Fighter as a representative punching bag of a "CYBER MOB" (their term) of bloggers, never mentioned her site (despite producers promising they would!) or the great work EOPC does for victims.

Fighter was also villanized along with other bloggers for posting ALREADY AVAILABLE INFORMATION about the perpetrator of Megan's cyberbullying. Things already posted by the New York Times. Mike, one of the hosts, chided Fighter for linking to Rotten Neighbor, despite Fighter telling him repeatedly she had never advocated violence or viligilante justice against the perpetrators and again, was linking to already publicly available information.

As fellow blogger Danny Vice says:

The media has earned it's reputation as the "drive by media" for a reason. It thoughtlessly reveals the names of anyone it deems newsworthy on almost every subject, in it's relentless bid to get the 'exclusive rights' to a story or simply gain market share.
...

The Vice could go back and list thousands of stories where the media wasted no time in delivering the names and occupations of individuals that were later exonerated of any wrong-doing. The vice is aware of no instance where the same media outlet apologized to the family who was wrongly accused. The media simply cut the story and jumps on the next "name" that emerged as a compelling story.

Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry", a great song from the 80's, certainly nails it on the head rather well I think. The hypocrisy here is so well documented over decades of story telling, that simply opening tomorrow's newspaper easily confirms the silliness of it.

The Vice has concluded that naming Lori Drew was legitimate news. She is a primary subject of the story, is not a rape victim, and is not a minor. Identifying her breaks no new ground, nor does it deviate from what news outlets do on a daily basis.

The Vice also reminds readers that her name and her role in the Megan Meier tragedy were documented as public record. A public record that Lori filed on her own accord. This is a critically important fact in this case.

News outlets, bloggers and the general public were handed Lori's name and Lori's own self admissions when she herself filed that police report and sought to elevate the severity of the situation that had developed between her and the Meier family.

Had Lori Drew simply acknowledged what she did was wrong, and apologized - the police report that identified her may have never been filed, and the entire situation may have well been kept at the lowest profile.

The real story here may not even be about Megan Meier. It may simply be another example of why the Golden Rule has endured the many years it's been repeated. Do unto others, as you'd have them do unto you.

CLICK HERE FOR DANNY VICE'S GREAT BLOG

Dr. Keith Ablow proved he is merely a media sensationalist as well by questioning the fact that Fighter herself was using a pseudonym (because EOPC outs predators (potentially DANGEROUS pathologicals) and the persons running the site wish to protect their own families while assisting victims) implying Fighter had 'psychological problems' to which the audience foolishly applauded.

Fighter was positioned instead as a 'raving lunatic' and a 'cyberbully' who wasn't allowing the law to 'take its course' without getting a fair shake for the work EOPC does.

Dr. Ablow and the hosts never even bothered to question the sociopathic tendencies of the adult that drove Megan to her death or the righteous indignation of bloggers who are angry that the law has done NOTHING in over a year until this came to light. Nor was the sick blog called 'Megan Had It Coming' called out.