Chicago Asian student arrested for questionable creative writing essay

[terry78]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/360827,CST-NWS-essay27.article

It begins.

 

[Ongie]

***redacted***

 

[thedeadite]

unfortunatly, as terry said, this is probably only the beginning. though this case seems especially overblown.

 

[Lightning Strykez!]

Wow. And we thought strip searches at Airports were bad. People can't even write stuff now.

The world is officially coming to an end.

 

[Rambo, John J]

When will they arrest Stephen King or James Herbert? Richard Harris? Mark Frost?

In fact, if people are to be arrested and judged based on their descriptive prose and exerpts of their fiction works then Clive Barker needs to be given the death penalty right now.




Jeez... this type of totalitarian crap really freaks me out.

 

[ck51100]

That is just nuts. A total over reaction. Admittedly what the kid wrote was creepy....perhaps in poor taste considering what was going on in the world these days. Should it have raised a red flag? Sure. But this is one of those moments where someone needed to go talk to you guy and find out what was going on. An arrest on a totally bogus distubing the peace charge is just idiotic. You have to love how society works. One person slips through the cracks and no reckognizes his warning signs....the way to combat that is to use a sledge hammer to kill a fly. Total over reaction in my opinion.

 

[DorkyFresh]

he should've been questioned....not arrested. this kid will have an arrest on his record just for a paper her wrote. the fact that he's asian probably had a lot to do with why he was ARRESTED and not just questioned...

 

[Rambo, John J]

I don't get how one could reasonably suggest that he should even have been questioned. He wrote a bit of sick fiction, big deal. I see worse in the tabloids these days.

Or maybe we should just interrogate everyone who writes or thinks outside of (what is considered to be) the norm?

 

[bulok]

Haha Attica! Attica! Attica!

 

[04nbod]

necrophilia? thats not the worst thing to write about


don't tell the cops i said that

 

[tzarinna]

I thought some **** like this was going to happen.
Next,some rednecks are going to go on a rampage/rant.

 

[PLAS]

it's funny in such an unfunny way

 

[Mee]

I thought some **** like this was going to happen.
Next,some rednecks are going to go on a rampage/rant.

Let's start with Erz and Ronny Shade!

*grabs E-shotgun*

 

[ck51100]

I don't get how one could reasonably suggest that he should even have been questioned. He wrote a bit of sick fiction, big deal. I see worse in the tabloids these days.

Or maybe we should just interrogate everyone who writes or thinks outside of (what is considered to be) the norm?

I didn't mean that he needed to be questioned by the police or anything like that. I just meant that it might raise a red flag and perhaps you may want to watch for signs that this may not be just a writing assignment. By no means am I saying that just b/c you write something does that mean that you will do it. Hell, I've wrote many of things that would get me in trouble if that standard was used when I was in school. But I think it is good though to watch and be alert so that things don't get out of hand.

What was done in this case was a complete over reaction. I am not disputing that. But at the same time to completely ignore what was written is just as irresponsible. You don't bring him in for interrogation, but it might not hurt to sit down with him and say "Hey man, what is going on in your life?"

 

[jaguarr]

The ACLU is going to have a field day with this one. This teacher is horribly out of line for her actions and the police severely overstepped their bounds. All of them are going to get a nice civil suit right up the ass. And they deserve it. With no lube.

jag

 

[Rambo, John J]

I didn't mean that he needed to be questioned by the police or anything like that. I just meant that it might raise a red flag and perhaps you may want to watch for signs that this may not be just a writing assignment. By no means am I saying that just b/c you write something does that mean that you will do it. Hell, I've wrote many of things that would get me in trouble if that standard was used when I was in school. But I think it is good though to watch and be alert so that things don't get out of hand.

What was done in this case was a complete over reaction. I am not disputing that. But at the same time to completely ignore what was written is just as irresponsible. You don't bring him in for interrogation, but it might not hurt to sit down with him and say "Hey man, what is going on in your life?"

I don't know...

I'm not meaning to be an annoying, argumentative ass, but what if that sort of interventionist response had been used on some of today's current writers when they were kids?

I don't mean to belabour the point, but just supposing Clive Barker's parents had read some of his work when he was in his mid-teens and set him down 'for a chat'? (And given the extreme nature of some things that he's written - it's a good bet that he did have some seriously disturbing works at that already young age) He may have decided to not write anymore and wouldn't have produced great works like Imajica, Abarat etc.

Same applies to other horror/ thriller writers. The writer of Se7en, for instance?

I'm not really sure what i'm getting at here. I guess i'm trying to say that it's a bit of a slippery slope once you begin to try and psychoanalyse every single thing that goes on in someones head.

Sometimes, people just have crazy thoughts with no rhyme or reason, and it's not necessarily indicitive of any underlying psychological problems, malignant or otherwise.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

America...**** yeah?

 

[jaguarr]

More like Amerika.

jag

 

[ck51100]

I don't know...

I'm not meaning to be an annoying, argumentative ass, but what if that sort of interventionist response had been used on some of today's current writers when they were kids?

I don't mean to belabour the point, but just supposing Clive Barker's parents had read some of his work when he was in his mid-teens and set him down 'for a chat'? (And given the extreme nature of some things that he's written - it's a good bet that he did have some seriously disturbing works at that already young age) He may have decided to not write anymore and wouldn't have produced great works like Imajica, Abarat etc.

I'm not really sure what i'm getting at here. I guess i'm trying to say that it's a bit of a slippery slope once you begin to try and psychoanalyse every single thing that goes on in someones head.

Sometimes, people just have crazy thoughts with no rhyme or reason, and it's not necessarily indicitive of any underlying psychological problems, malignant or otherwise.

I agree with you....it is a slippery slope. I really don't know how to handle or what I would do in that situation. On one hand I can totally see argument that "it was a creative writing assignment and it was just fiction". But I also can't help but think that to some people writing is their only voice. The only time that they feel free to speak their mind is while writing. What if someone was using their writing to call out for help? To talk about the demons they face or the abuse that they have suffered in life? Do we just ignore that too and assume that it was only a writing assignment? I really wish that I was smart enough to figure these things out, but I am not. I just have to hope that common sense will be used when dealing with cases like this in the future, but judging by past experience I am not holding my breath.

 

[Lightning Strykez!]

More like Amerika.

jag

You forgot 2 more Ks.

 

[jaguarr]

You forgot 2 more Ks.

This happened in Chicago, not Alabama.

jag

 

[chamber-music]

This is Madness

 

[Ongie]

***redacted***

 

[Kyalesyin]

Madness????? THIS IS SPARTA!!!!

(Stupid Patriot Act Repressing Thought in America)

Woah... that might be one of the smartest things I've ever seen on the hype. Careful.

 

[Sun_Down]

Apparently, we need to move the blame from minority to minority to keep things fresh. In the U.S. we've already knocked off Italians, the Irish, blacks, hispanics, the Japanese, Middle-Easterners and now Asians in general. I dare say we're running out of scapegoats. Soon enough, we may have to actually address our problems instead of pinning the blame on the "bad race" of the month.