Police Open a Criminal Investigation into Jamey Rodemer's Suicide
New York State does not have a bullying law. If it did, perhaps Jamey Rodemeyer would be alive today. Instead, another teen has been emotionally bludgeoned on social networking sites and has chosen to end his acute suffering by killing himself. His parents have been deprived of a son and our culture will never experience this beautiful, gentle soul, except through the words of his friends and family. What was the justification for taking his own life? No reason seems adequate to those who do not stand in the suicide's shoes. But for him, it was the only way out from under the abuse that had gone on for a year. For his tormentors, their punishment fit his crime. He was gay and had outed himself.
ABC News/Health reported extensively, quoting from local news sources that interviewed Jamey's parents and identifying some of Jamey's website accounts that police will be investigating, one of which is Formspring a social networking site that allows anonymous posts. According to local reports, under that protective cover, teenage posters felt free to slur Jamey's sexuality and question the value of his life.
"JAMIE IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND {sic} UGLY. HE MUST DIE!"
Another unidentified poster intoned silently in print, "I wouldn't care if you died. No one would. So just do it. :) It would make everyone WAY more happier!" (ABC News/Health, Susan Donaldson James)
For Jamey who lived upstate New York in Amherst, near Buffalo, the bullying had started in middle school and continued into his freshman year at Williamsville North High school. According to journalist Susan James Donaldson, the Amherst Police Department's Special Victims Unit will decide whether to charge three students who most likely were involved. Buffalo news quoted Police Chief John C. Askey. "We've heard that there were some specific students, an identifiable group of students, that had specifically targeted Jamey or had been picking on him for a period of time."
The problem is determining the criminal charge because there is a vacuum where the law is concerned. However, police are considering harassment, cyber-harassment and hate crimes. But without the full force of the law, Jamey's suicide and the cruelty he endured may go unpunished. Additionally, if the harassing teens are under 16, they would be tried in juvenile court, which Jamey's idol, Lady Gaga, would most likely be against based upon her tweets, "Bullying must be made illegal. It is a hate crime."
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