Well, everything depends upon the needs of the military. If they don’t have enough slots to fill, you might be SOL. I’m not sure if this was still the case, but I had heard that in the Air Force, you could successfully finish undergraduate pilot training (which definitely isn’t easy), and half of the class would get assigned drones. After all that work. Flying drones is a very difficult, soul sucking job, and not like flying at all. The needs of the military always come first.
To me the real hero here is Thomas Brennan, the one who came forward and exposed the FB page (ex-marine and Purple Heart recipient.) We need more like him. I do worry for him though.
Not really sure how the Marines adjudicate these sorts of things, but am thinking it is through the Military Court of Justice. I do know that the underlying investigation will be by the Naval Investigative Service, so in the end there will be significant input from “their own.” And while the public party line coming from the top is “this is unacceptable and appalling,” I am wondering what is giving these guys the audacity to continue posting? Let’s see how seriously this is taken at the end of the day.
Marines United 2.0 has been taken down. http://americanmilitarynews.com/2017/03/exclusive-marine-just-got-marines-united-2-0-shut-pics/?utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=alt&utm_source=skyfighters I’m sure there will be some new version up soon–if it’s not already up. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/10/marines-keep-sharing-women-s-nude-photos-in-secret-groups-after-getting-busted.html?via=desktop&source=facebook
They can play whack a mole with these online groups or they can dishonorably discharge everyone who was active in the group.
The first one was a Facebook group.I highly doubt everyone in it used a fake FB profile to join it.
While there’s apparently little room for nuance in this discussion, I would suggest that the people posting pictures w/o consent might’ve committed a crime and will probably have that follow them around. Comments and viewing? It would be entirely overkill to have a dishonorable discharge follow them around for life unless you really believe what they did–looking at pictures* and commenting–is really felony worthy.
*probably good assumption: the females pictures were at least 18.
Yes, it is a crime in many states. In New Jersey, sharing explicit images without permission is punishable by three to five years in prison and a fine of up to $30,000. Under California’s law, it is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. Believe federal legislation is underway addressing this issue.
I read last evening that some of the women have retained lawyers with the intent of filing civil law suits.
I think the laws are behind the times on this issue.
Read my links on the previous page: The marines do not have the resources or know-how to identify and punish these people and the FBI is not involved. Whack-a-mole is right, and it appears the vast majority of the scumbags who are posting this stuff may get away with it.
Sharing (I’m assuming you mean posting) images is quite different than viewing them, as far as the law goes, I would think. If we were all to be fined and arrested for viewing pictures without permission, we’d all be in jail…as pictures are in the news every day without people’s permission.
But I think at this point, the people who are continuing to build the sites, and going through great effort to continue this should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Is it really that difficult to find who is doing this? I thought it was impossible to erase your digital fingerprints…
@busdriver11 - yes those laws would only apply to those who actually posted pics without consent.
Seems so far they have identified at least 2 of the marines. The marine who initially posted the Google Drive link on the original page was one of them. The Marine Corps contacted his employer and he was fired. Have no idea if they are pursuing him otherwise but would think it would be reported if they were. The other was one of the marines who continued to post pics after the initial group was shut down – he was “discharged from active duty.” Not sure what that means or how serious it is.
@HarvestMoon1, Discharged from active duty means he is no longer on active duty. Not sure if he left in good standing or was kicked out for bad behavior.
Since the person left active duty, not sure the Marines could punish him.
Yes, very. Especially if you don’t have resources and expertise, as the Marine Corps doesn’t. Unless the FBI gets involved (and there’s no sign yet of that happening), few will be apprehended.
What might be technically possible, isn’t always legally possible. In general, the government can’t conscript tech companies to find out who’s doing this. Nor can they get a warrant that is overly broad. If the images or videos are stored on a server overseas, then foreign laws and MLATs might come into play.
Is NCIS able to access the Facebook site to review the list of members and catalog of photos and posts made by the members? This has been a problem in the Marines for the past four years and nobody did anything about it.
I guess the Marines did have the capability to find out who was involved.
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/articles/ncis-identifies-hundreds-of-marines-from-facebook-group
Wow, some of the comments on that article, and others I’ve seen, are disgusting. What the heck is wrong with these men?!
What will they do with that info now, is the question. Glad to see Gloria Allred is representing two women, I hope she will get things done…