Video: MySpace Hoax, Parents of Teen Suicide Victim, Megan Meier, Speak Out
Ron and Tina Meier appeared on the Today Show, to discuss their 13-year-old daughter, Megan, who committed suicide in the aftermath of a failed MySpace romance, which was later revealed to be a hoax. They say they have not received an apology from the family whom they hold responsible for perpetuating the hoax that lead to their daughter’s death. As they point out:
The family’s story is, Tina Meier told Lauer, a cautionary tale about the trouble that lies in wait for kids on the Internet, a tale made more painful because they had monitored their daughter’s Internet use closely and had talked to her about “Josh” and the events that ended so tragically.
“It was monitored highly,” Tina Meier said of her daughter’s MySpace account. “We had the password. She couldn’t sign on without us. We had to be in the room” when she was online.
They have not filed a civil suit against the people who invented Josh, but are not ruling that out.
And they also want to warn other parents and children to beware of people online who claim to be their friends.
“Continue to monitor your children,” Tina Meier told Lauer. “Take an extra step. Ask the question. Look at their computers, know what they’re doing. To kids, don’t trust anybody online that you do not know is your true friend.”
The article continues. Here is the video of the interview.
Privacy Groups to FTC: MySpace and Facebook Ads Violate Privacy
Privacy groups are voicing concerns.
Two consumer advocacy groups have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether new advertising initiatives announced last week by social networking sites MySpace and Facebook adequately protect consumer privacy.
In a Nov. 12 letter to FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras, the Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group claimed that the “ambitious new targeted advertising schemes” launched by MySpace.com and Facebook Inc. “make clear the advertising industry’s intentions to move full-speed ahead without regard to ensuring consumers are protected.”
Jeffrey Chester, founder and executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said that by launching the advertising plans, MySpace and Facebook are “thumbing their noses at the FTC and consumer privacy rights” by allowing marketers to customize advertisements based on data provided by users in their profiles on the social networking sites.
“MySpace and Facebook are like the digital data equivalent of Fort Knox for Madison Avenue marketers,” he said. “It is a kind of one-stop data shop for marketers. They know your interests, your politics and what movies you like. It is a much more rich array of content that marketers simply should not have automatic access to.”
Chester said that consumers must be offered a complete opt-out option, and that the social networks must fully disclose how they intend to use their personal information.
Vancouver Taser Death Video Continues to Fuel Worldwide Outrage and Condemnation
In the aftermath of the release of the graphic, horrifying video of Robert Dziekanski’s death by RCMP Taser at Vancouver Airport, the worldwide uproar and outrage continues. As Reuters notes.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were widely condemned on Friday for using stun guns on an unarmed Polish man who collapsed and died in an incident that was shown around the world in a graphic 10-minute video.
The footage of Robert Dziekanski howling in agony after he was hit by 50,000-volt Taser blasts at Vancouver International Airport is another blow to Canada’s famed Mounties, who have been shaken by a number of recent scandals.
The Globe and Mail, Canada’s most influential newspaper, ran a savage editorial on what it called “the summary execution of an innocent man” whose only crime was being confused.
“The Taser death video that was being broadcast around the world yesterday is a source of shame and disgrace for Canada and for its national police force,” the newspaper said.
Dziekanski, who flew to Canada to live with his mother in the Pacific province of British Columbia, mistakenly waited for her in the baggage area rather than passing through the customs section to enter the main part of Vancouver’s airport.
After several hours he became frustrated and threw a small table at a window. He was standing still when police arrived and fired at him almost immediately.
The Toronto Star said the quick use of a weapon designed only to be fired as last resort raised very troubling questions. The right-of-center National Post, usually a strong backer of law enforcement bodies, also condemned the Mounties.
“The appearance of poor practice here is so strong that the RCMP may face a tough decision whether to defend their members’ actions or to deny that they are, in fact, routine operating procedure,” it said.
Canadian news Web sites were flooded with hundreds of comments, most of them condemning the police.
The Globe and Mail had this to say:
The taser death video that was being broadcast around the world yesterday is a source of shame and disgrace for Canada and for its national police force.
The RCMP can seek to justify police actions all they like. They can argue that the four officers who tasered a Polish man at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14 were just following procedures.
They can argue that we don’t know for sure his cause of death, and that tasers are safe. They can argue that the video is only one piece of evidence and that people should wait for the results of an inquest before forming their judgments. They can say all of that, but the killing of Robert Dziekanski will be seen only one way: as the summary execution of an innocent man for the crime of being disoriented, for not understanding, for being a stranger.
The video, which was shot by Victoria resident Paul Pritchard, is almost impossible to watch for its tragic inevitability. It’s like watching a snuff film. But apart from police, there is some humanity in it. A woman in the video responds in a way the situation called for. She seems to understand that this is a person in distress. She approaches Mr. Dziekanski gently, opening a hand to him. She attempts to communicate with him. A man’s voice is also heard on the video trying to calm Mr. Dziekanski, saying, “There’s nothing wrong … It’s okay.” These two citizens were responding as human beings, offering help to someone in need.
The editorial continues, in its stark and much-needed condemnation. The Toronto Star has this to say:
Police officers are supposed to use Tasers as a weapon of last resort, after less drastic measures have failed to control an aggressive suspect and the only alternative is drawing their guns.
Yet it took RCMP officers only 30 seconds to employ one of the high-voltage stun guns against an agitated traveller at Vancouver International Airport last month, even though a bystander’s video released this week shows he did not appear to pose an immediate danger to anyone. Just minutes later, after police administered a second Taser jolt and restrained him, Robert Dziekanski was dead.
The haste with which officers resorted to using a Taser against a man who apparently was not actively confronting or threatening them raises extremely troubling questions. Even before the conclusion of several investigations that have already been launched into this incident, police forces across Canada should remind officers that Tasers should not be wielded casually. The weapons have the potential to save lives by giving police a viable alternative to using their guns. But where discussion, physical restraint, batons or other less extreme measures may defuse a situation without compromising the safety of officers or the public, they should always be tried first.
Paul Pritchard, who shot the video, appeared this morning on CBS. Visit the Web site to watch. Here is an excerpt of the transcript.
Pritchard told Storm it was the Mounties themselves who first made him realize the video, which they’d confiscated, might be worth retrieving, and publicizing.
He says he was motivated by “the fact that the police actually took it from me and didn’t give it back, and, you know, broke a verbal agreement, promising to give it back, and they took it away. (That) led me to believe that maybe there’s something important on that footage that I needed to get out to the public.”
Pritchard says that, when the incident began, Dziekanski “was acting a little bit strange. He was banging on glass. He was actually trying to get back into the secured area.
“I woke up, and started watching. And as soon as he got back through the glass doors, that’s when I started rolling with the film.
The Mounties took half-an-hour just to show up, Pritchard said, and “When police arrived, he stopped everything. He put up his hands. He gave up. When the police came, he thought it was over. The Mounties did not see him at this point break anything.”
Why did they taser him?
“I have no idea,” Pritchard responded. “It was the first step they took.”
They tasered Dziekanski at least twice, Pritchard said, adding that after the first time, “There’s audio of the man saying, ‘Hit him again, hit him again’ when he’s on the ground.
“He was on the ground. There were three officers on him, then the officer says, ‘Hit him again, hit him again.’
On Fox News, Neil Cavuto interviewed Tom Smith, the chairman and co-founder of Taser International who defended the weapon and its use. Visit the Web site for the full transcript. Similarly, Toronto’s police chief supports the continued use of Tasers. In contrast, Newfoundland has suspended Taser use. As far away as New Zealand, Taser use is being reevaluated.
This Vancouver television report on the worldwide reaction, includes interviews with Robert Dziekanski’s relatives in Poland.
We can only hope that a full investigation will proceed in Canada and that, worldwide, the use of Tasers will be reconsidered and reevaluated, lest there be more tragic deaths like that of Robert Dziekanski.
Vancouver Airport Taser Death Video Reveals Robert Dziekanski’s Last, Painful Moments
The full video has been released and, at last, the tragic taser death of Robert Dziekanski, which Privacy Maven has written about previously, is receiving international attention and outrage.
Police shocked a Polish immigrant with a Taser about 30 seconds after approaching him at Vancouver International Airport last month, a video released Wednesday shows.
Moments later, three or four officers pinned Robert Dziekanski, 40, to the ground as he screamed and moaned in pain.
“The audio’s sickening,” said Paul Pritchard, 25, a Victoria teacher who was in the airport after a flight from China, and recorded Dziekanski’s death. “His scream is brutal.
“You hear a man die, obviously.”
One officer placed his knees against Dziekanski’s back and neck until he went limp. He later died.
Pritchard arranged to have the footage released to the public in Vancouver on Wednesday.
Vancouver lawyer Walter Kosteckyj, who is acting for the dead man’s mother, said he was appalled by the treatment of Dziekanski, who appeared disoriented but had become agitated after about 10 hours at the airport. He said Zofia Cisowski had seen portions of the video, but not all of it.
“She had a son in distress, he was looking for help, he was frightened, and he didn’t get that help,” Kosteckyj said after releasing the video to the media.
“I was surprised when I saw it. That’s not the right word. I was absolutely shocked. I expected to see some discussion, some attempt to control the situation and then things going sideways.
“What you will see is how quickly things came about. People should judge for themselves.”
Kosteckyj was angry that security guards at the airport were uninterested, and that police made no attempt to defuse the situation before using the Taser.
An American policing expert who saw the video said that the police should have been able to restrain the Polish visitor using their hands.
“I don’t even think batons or mace would have been necessary given that there were four officers on the scene,” said Michael Lyman, a criminal justice professor at Columbia College in Missouri.
The article continues. Here is the full video, which has just been released. As has been noted in these news reports, it is quite disturbing.
Mr. Kosteckyj said it’s too soon to comment on legal action, although he has been talking to witnesses to prepare for a planned coroner’s inquest. He said people have called him from as far away as Texas to offer their comments on what they saw.
“I was expecting to see a confrontation, a discussion and things go sideways, then the tasering. That’s not what you see,” he said.
“The biggest thing that surprises me is there were four professional police officers there, and that the four officers showed up on the scene, [and] none of them seemed to take the time, not one of them, to go and talk to the crowd of people, the witnesses that were there and get some background on what was going on,” he said.
He urged people to watch the video and draw their own conclusions.
A spokesman for the integrated homicide investigation team, which is investigating the incident, urged the public to await the coroner’s inquest and consider the video in the context of evidence that will include officers explaining their conduct.
But Corporal Dale Carr, a spokesman for the police team investigating the incident, conceded that may be a futile request. “People are going to form their opinions. They are going to make their conclusions and I, unfortunately, don’t expect I can control that.”
Asked about the absence of attempts to defuse the situation with conversation, Cpl. Carr said, “That’s part of what we are trying to get to the bottom of, what was going through these officers’ minds, what did they choose, and why they chose the intervention they did.”
Mathew Ingram comments on Paul Pritchard’s efforts to bring this story to worldwide attention it has needed.
The term “citizen journalism” sounds like an elaborate concept, involving groups of citizens who sign up for some sort of advanced program and then go forth and report on news events — with a “Digital Press” card in their fedora perhaps. In reality, however, it’s average people with cellphone cameras and digital videocams, taking footage of events that occur around them. A great example is the video clip of Robert Dziekanski being Tasered by the RCMP at the Vancouver airport, which you can see for yourself on globeandmail.com, or at dozens of other websites and on television.
Paul Pritchard happened to be in the airport waiting for a flight, and was watching as Mr. Dziekanski became more and more agitated at being separated from his mother, who apparently was unaware that he had arrived and was still being kept behind the security doors (it was his first plane flight and he didn’t speak English). His video is disturbing not so much for the images of Mr. Dziekanski writhing in pain — although those parts of the video are difficult to watch — but for the almost complete lack of attempts to calm the victim before he is Tasered not once but twice.
Megan Meier: MySpace, Manipulation, Betrayal and Suicide
Megan Meier was one of untold numbers of underaged teenagers who have joined MySpace. The tragedy of her suicide, and the stunning sequence of events that brought it about, force us to confront the potential dangers that minors face when venturing online. Megan Meier’s suicide has been reported in a detailed article, published in the St. Charles Journal. Here is an excerpt:
“Megan had a lifelong struggle with weight and self-esteem,” Tina says. “And now she finally had a boy who she thought really thought she was pretty.”
It did seem odd, Tina says, that Josh never asked for Megan’s phone number. And when Megan asked for his, she says, Josh said he didn’t have a cell and his mother did not yet have a landline.
And then on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2006, Megan received a puzzling and disturbing message from Josh. Tina recalls that it said: “I don’t know if I want to be friends with you anymore because I’ve heard that you are not very nice to your friends.”
Frantic, Megan shot back: “What are you talking about?”
SHADOWY CYBERSPACE
Tina Meier was wary of the cyber-world of MySpace and its 70 million users. People are not always who they say they are.
Tina knew firsthand. Megan and the girl down the block, the former friend, once had created a fake MySpace account, using the photo of a good-looking girl as a way to talk to boys online, Tina says. When Tina found out, she ended Megan’s access.
MySpace has rules. A lot of them. There are nine pages of terms and conditions. The long list of prohibited content includes sexual material. And users must be at least 14.
“Are you joking?” Tina asks. “There are fifth-grade girls who have MySpace accounts.”
As for sexual content, Tina says, most parents have no clue how much there is. And Megan wasn’t 14 when she opened her account. To join, you are asked your age but there is no check. The accounts are free.
As Megan’s 14th birthday approached, she pleaded for her mom to give her another chance on MySpace, and Tina relented.
She told Megan she would be all over this account, monitoring it. Megan didn’t always make good choices because of her ADD, Tina says. And this time, Megan’s page would be set to private and only Mom and Dad would have the password.
You can read the entire article here.
