<p>feenotype, This was not a prank. Ravi planned this out.
He wasn’t satisfied with taping his roommate the first time. He went back to tape him again.
This time, taping him wasn’t enough. Sounds like Ravi stepped up his game and chose to do something that would hurt his roommate to the core. Do you honestly believe that Ravi didn’t know what he was doing when he decided to take the next step and steam the illegal video on the internet? Taking that next step of putting the illegal video on the internet was like an animal going in for “the kill”. Sounds like he enjoyed tormenting his roommate.</p>
<p>
Fundamentally decent people do not secretly video tape their roommate, without his knowledge, and display it for all the world to see. That Ravi & Wei might have done the same thing regardless of the gender of the victims, in no way elevates their status to non-evil. </p>
<p>I think they deserve to be demonized, and if it helps to teach others who do not seem to understand the difference between a prank and an act of cold callous disregard for other human beings, then the demonizing is for a good cause.</p>
<p>This is a terrible event, but I think too many posters are overgeneralizing from it.</p>
<p>One crime does not equal a national moral crisis.</p>
<p>[UPDATE:</a> Body in Hudson ID’d as missing Rutgers student | mycentraljersey.com | MyCentralJersey.com](<a href=“http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20100930/NEWS/100930045/Investigation-into-Rutgers-sex-tape-continues-no-ID-on-body-in-Hudson]UPDATE:”>http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20100930/NEWS/100930045/Investigation-into-Rutgers-sex-tape-continues-no-ID-on-body-in-Hudson)</p>
<p>setting a bookmark</p>
<p>“Fundamentally decent” people are fundamentally decent all the time.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is exactly what I thought when I heard this story. My heart is broken.</p>
<p>This is bullying, plain and simple. Technology was only the tool, not the cause.</p>
<p>I won’t provide the link because it’s from Gawker, but Brian Moylan, a gay man who’s one of the writers there, had a lengthy column today that said some very perceptive things; here are two excerpts:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Donna, thank you for sharing that – it’s heartbreaking.</p>
<p>nysmile, what is your source for your info?</p>
<p>
But Ravi and Wei took advantage and “outed” him in the most embarrasing way.</p>
<p>
Do you have any evidence to show they’d done it to their straight friends/people before? You seemed to assume too much.</p>
<p>mousegray, I’ve been through hundreds of links today. I"m exactly sure which link you want. I’m going to assume you’re wondering about the roommate going back and setting up a second illegal recording of Tyler. </p>
<p>[Rutgers</a> freshman kills self after classmates use hidden camera to watch his sexual activity: sources](<a href=“http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/09/29/2010-09-29_rutgers_freshmen_busted_for_spying_on_fellow_students_online_sex_session_officia.html]Rutgers”>http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/09/29/2010-09-29_rutgers_freshmen_busted_for_spying_on_fellow_students_online_sex_session_officia.html)
^this link also confirms that the roommate didn’t attempt only one hidden streaming session, but two.</p>
<p>from the link:
"The quiet redhead, a scholarship student and skilled violinist, apparently asked roommate Dharun Ravi, 18, for some privacy on Sept. 19.</p>
<p>“Roommate asked for the room till midnight,” Ravi wrote on Twitter that night. “I went into Molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.”</p>
<p>Authorities say Ravi streamed the action on the Web to friends - an illegal video transmission.</p>
<p>Two days later, in another Twitter post, Ravi indicated he had plans for a sequel.</p>
<p>“Yes, it’s happening again,” he wrote, inviting people to watch between 9:30 p.m. and midnight. The second streaming attempt failed, authorities said.</p>
<p>When Clementi learned of the vile voyeurism, he couldn’t handle it and methodically planned his own death.</p>
<p>Sometime after 8 p.m. on Sept. 22, a friend said, he used his cell phone to change his Facebook status to the chilling farewell message."</p>
<hr>
<p>^This article differs from what I read earlier in the day, but does confirm that this wasn’t a one time plan by
Ravi.</p>
<p>added: <a href=“Prosecutor: Bias charges may come in webcast of sexual encounter - CNN.com”>Prosecutor: Bias charges may come in webcast of sexual encounter - CNN.com;
^another link describing the events</p>
<p>If I was the friend of one of the students who had done this, I think I would feel like the friend of a murderer.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If they do, it means they are not soulless psychopaths. I hope they can find redemption, but I don’t think it will (or should) come easily.</p>
<p>Since the law is unable to mete out appropriate punishment, I wish that everyone who handles applications for college or university transfer admissions, graduate school admissions, or employment, would take note of the names Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, and decline to consider either individual for any educational or employment opportunity being sought.</p>
<p>^^^^^Exactly. They should be shunned.</p>
<p>I agree 100%. They need to feel the consequences of their behavior forever. They shouldn’t be able to enroll in Fly-by-night online university. They should envy a migrant farm worker’s ability to be hired.</p>
<p>Spurster, this is not an isolated event. Four high schoolers have committed suicide in the past two weeks over being bullied for being gay.</p>
<p>This is a crisis.</p>
<p>This made me cry. I will, again, speak to my kids about embracing acceptance and tolerance of ‘different’, no matter what it is.</p>
<p>bad? yes</p>
<p>illegal? yes</p>
<p>only thing that contributed to his suicide? extremely doubtful.</p>
<p>hate crime? definitely not</p>
<p>hate crime–definitely not??!</p>
<p>IMO you are very wrong about that:</p>
<p>Hate Crime Law & Legal Definition:
A hate crime is usually defined by state law as one that involves threats, harassment, or physical harm and is motivated by prejudice against someone’s race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation or physical or mental disability.</p>