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Facebook justice
Big Friender
In October, Adam Bauer, a student at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, pled no contest to charges of underage drinking. That’ll teach him not to accept Facebook friend requests from pretty girls he doesn’t know.
According to the La Crosse Tribune, Bauer and seven other under-21 students were busted after a police officer posing as an attractive student befriended them on Facebook, then documented photos they had posted on their profiles that depicted them consuming alcohol. According to the paper, two other students, Brianna Niesen and Cassie Stenholt, were charged and fined because someone else had posted photos of them holding beers. La Crosse police officer Al Iverson told the paper that police must adapt to social networking trends to catch lawbreakers, adding that the photos helped “glamorize alcohol consumption and binge drinking.”
Meanwhile, Facebook proved to be a blessing for 19-year-old Rodney Bradford of New York City. Bradford spent two weeks in jail on a mugging charge in October. He was released after his attorneys were able to trace the IP address of a status update posted to his Facebook account at the time of the robbery. The message that won Bradford his freedom, “ON THE PHONE WITH THIS FAT CHICK......WHERER MY IHOP,” was posted in Harlem, 12 miles from the scene of the mugging.
More Articles by Radley Balko
- Bad Boys, Radley Balko, June 27, 2011
- The Crime Rate Puzzle, Radley Balko, June 20, 2011
- Wrongful Convictions, Radley Balko, June 7, 2011
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