Rutgers Freshman commits suicide b/c roomate streamed sexual encounter online...

Did I miss something, or is there not the possibility that he killed himself over something besides being videotaped having sex? I mean these things both happened within a several day span, but couldn't something else have happened to him, maybe finding out he got AIDS from his boyfriend, or maybe losing out on a violin position that he really wanted, that drove him to finally do the deed? There's no indication in the "suicide note" or any communications to anyone else that the cause of him jumping off the GW bridge was that he was videotaped.

Also, I think this thread has missed a major factor in the death of the gay guy. If his environment was not as homophobic as it was, he wouldn't have been so deeply ashamed of his orientation that he would commit suicide over it (although as mentioned before, it's possible he killed himself over something else). Everyone who has made Clementi feel ashamed of being who he is shares responsibility for his suicide, not just the two kids. The two kids in their pictures at least look like two stupid teenagers who thought it would be funny to do this and were unable to foresee the act's effect on Clementi.

 

Really......?
Because he's gay means he has aids?

 

That is where I'm not so sure. What if he figured his roommate was gay after living with him for a little bit, set out to prove it, and then spread it to people with intent to hurt the roommate by out-ing him? If his roommate was straight and he knew he had a girl over, then would he have done it? Not so sure. I'm not sure what his intentions were...but one could argue that he found out about the roommate and sought to ruin the roommate by doing this. But, it appears to be leaning more toward...this is so funny my roommate is gay and I'm watching him on webcam with his lover. If he purposely set out to out the roommate and ruin him, then I would consider it a hate crime...even if it didn't qualify as a hate crime under the law.

 

I think he said MAYBE... and was just listing out POSSIBILITIES.. and you know it might be possible since the CDC just released that one out of 5 gay men is HIV positive

 

We laugh at 'Darwin Award' winners all the time.
People die at the unfortunate deaths of people all the time.
We are not the most sensative of people.

Rocket River

 

I kind of alluded to this in that. . . What if his boyfriend broke up with him over it. <Its possible>

Many a Teenager are crushed by loosing their 1st love.

Rocket River

 

According to one of the articles, the roommate found out he was gay prior to it. Assuming that is true, he knew what he was filming in advance. It just furthers my belief that he was also a homosexual.

 

Well, if he wasn't...then he is now.

No straight person watches two dudes go at it while thinking it is funny. That's not right. Eww.

 

My buddy had some thing like that happened at his dorm. Everyone had a laugh. Circumstances were different though. The couple being filmed were friends of the prankster/d******d, and it wasn't broadcasted or stored for the world to see or stored as blackmail. It wasn't like they were keeping it a secret.

Very subtle differences between what juicy is saying and what really happened that crosses the line between a jackass prank and cruel bullying. Someone mentioned 4chan as some force of karma, but they've been known to do similarly destructive things.

I think there's a tendency in dorms to one-up things you see or hear that goes along with testing the boundaries of freedom. What's sad is that if the victim was considered a weirdo for his shyness, his inability to conform, or whatever garbage his roommate is b****ing about, then the freshmen around his hall didn't do much to know him better.

It's not some failure of this particular generation. People of all ages can be cruel dicks. It's almost evolution. The ones who are different are easy to recognize with a snap judgement and your attitude can change even if you don't recognize it. If you've never faced that type of cruelty in school, then it's harder to recognize or notice. The stakes are higher in an information age that doesn't forget. Maybe at some point, everyone will have skeletons on the web, and we'll all be less judgmental about each other.

Even our instant outrage is a natural result of searching for some sense of justice. It's also natural to not tread across our comfort zones. For that kid who felt isolated enough to think his life was worth ending, maybe all that was needed was for a person to stand up. It shouldn't take a suicide just to reach out to someone that's different.

 

Wow, this is just sad, what an awful thing to do.

 

Apparently no else at that dorm did anything. I am pretty sure a lot of people showing concern after his suicide might have laughed at him. People do all kinds of mean things in dorms and people don't give a second thought about it. On this board we have so many mayzar jokes.

 

Again, there's a slight difference between making fun of someone who starts a thread on the internet about unknowingly making out with a tranny and making fun of a guy who we secretly record having relations in the privacy of his own room.

HUGE difference, actually.

 

That's true.

I think many people on this thread fail to distinguish between what these kids did (yes, it was wrong and "cruel" in a way) and the reaction by the guy. I feel very sorry for him, but the other kids could not really reasonably expect the guy to kill himself.

I am pretty sure I have made fun of a lot of people and some people have made fun of me, it still doesn't mean that I would be responsible if they killed themselves because of it or vice versa.

5 years would seem very excessive to me. Some punishment or suspension, yes, but it's not like they killed him...he made that decision. So I think they should only be punished to the extent of their wrongdoing and what could reasonably be expected as a consequence of that.

 

No way this is the same thing as murder.

 

Great post and I completely agree. The problem that we have now as opposed to when I was living in the dorms is the ease of spreading around things like this. What might now just be a joke spread around the dorm can just as quickly be spread world wide where family, friends outside of college and all sorts of other people can hear about it.

 

Perhaps not, and I agree with you that these kids shouldn't be held directly accountable for Clement's death, but things like this should make us think twice about how we treat each other even online.

 

I've been thinking about this case, and it keeps striking me as extrememly odd how the culprit Ravi had to go out of his way to tape a gay sex act and stream it to an audience.

that means an audience of people just sat there watching gay sex on camera.

and then planned to do it again.

this says something about the audience of people involved. who would continue to watch a video like this? Even if it wasn't in the guise of a practical joke, how fast would watching a video of two dudes getting it on get unbearable to watch, unless they enjoyed watching it?

very creepy and voyeuristic on the cameraman's part, he needs some serious psychological evaluation as well as throwing the proverbial book at him.

 

Question: What part does the audience play in this?

Reminds of the Movie UNTRACEABLE.


We are a nation obsessed with the private lives of others.
In Fact, the concept of PRIVACY has been under attack for some years.
When ever someone argued against some infraction
you are told. . .
"IF YOU NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG . . .THEN YOU WOULDN'T CARE . . . "

Well, I guess that is not true . . .
something people want to keep private
but
then again . . some folx argue that the Right to Privacy is not in the constitution
so . . you have no Right to Privacy

Rocket River
. . .

 

I think most people understand the controversy around "gay" anything in this country. Once the guy found out his roommate was gay, he should have stopped what he was doing completely. He should have had an idea or, more likely did know, that his roommate wasn't "out" as gay just by living with him and he was entering dangerous territory after the initial prank.

The fact that he pursued it after the initial viewing is where this guy didn't use his brain. I think it is reasonable for one to see that pursuing the "prank" at that point might have some undesirable consequences...even possible end-of-life consequences. This wasn't some harmless joking around at this point. But, the perp's homo-erotic tendencies kicked in and he had to get in another viewing. It's hard to believe he could still be thinking this was harmless fun after what he had discovered. Yet, he decided to pursue it over any kind of fallout which may happen.

So, your comments should be qualified based on the subject matter and sensitivity of the subject.

 

I think its more like people gathering to watch 2girls1cup or other such creepy acts. To them its just the gag factor, the comedic factor rather than some deep down psychological issues.