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Florida teens who recorded drowning man will not be charged in his death

Shredderi

Member
Pretty sure we have a law for this here in Finland. Someone else already asked this, but I too wonder what series of events leads to one ending up like this?
 
Wrongful death. Not saying they'd win but they could argue the kids' negligence resulted in Dunn's death.

I mean, sure, they could try, but without evidence that their negligence led to Dunn being in a dangerous situation in the first place, or actively making it worse, I dont see how that holds up in court, no matter how fucked the situation is. Suing for apathy seems like a bad precedent.
 

Hydrus

Member
It's stuff like this that makes me hate the internet and smartphones and all the countless morons who are now growing up with it. For the rest of mankind, humans will be born into this world thinking that everything that happens or exist is for the "lulz and memez" and must be shown off on their social media for internet fame and glory. Fuck this new world.
 

Dali

Member
Unless they were the cause of why the guy was in the water; they weren't negligent more than you and I were thousands of miles away.
They were negligent because they didn't even call for help. Like I said arguments can be made but there's no guarantee they'd win. Maybe the judge would side with the Dunn family just off the strength of what the kids did being so fucked up and them not facing any sort of punishment otherwise
 
You know, I'm not particularly a fan of Good Samaritan laws in general, but these kids certainly went above and beyond the call of duty to be complete pieces of human garbage. Making it a crime to not attempt to call emergency services when you have the ability seems like a possible alternative?

I wonder what kind of civil case you could make in these circumstances.


Just curious, why are you against good samaritan laws?
 
They were negligent because they didn't even call for help. Like I said arguments can be made but there's no guarantee they'd win. Maybe the judge would side with the Dunn family just off the strength of what the kids did being so fucked up and them not facing any sort of punishment otherwise

There's a reason we have the term 'bystander effect'. Essentially this is what they were doing. You just can't sue people for not assisting.
 

U2NUMB

Member
Just horrible story all around... I am curious and maybe I just missed it in all that I have read but was he known to be not a good swimmer? He seemed to be in very good shape..

Just curious as to any theories as to why he may have had an issue in the water. The pond looked calm.. no animals involved right?

RIP and those little shits who did nothing.. I sure hope Karma is a thing you pieces of shit.
 
That's a moral question, not a legal one. People post on here about committing suicide. If they did it, would you want to be held liable for not helping?
laws are based at least tangentially on morals there really is no difference. In fact these kind of laws exist in many countries and I would assume states as well. They generally only apply to cases of gross negligence since it's hard to argue before court what is a proper reaction, especially for those untrained, to people in distress.
 

DeviantBoi

Member
I'd make sure that this video stays with them for the rest of their lives.

I'd email it to whatever university they're applying to or whatever employer has hired them.
 

teepo

Member
i mean, isn't it a bad idea to save a drowning man without proper training and equipment? without one of those lifegaurd tubes, you'll end up with two dead instead of one, maybe more.

though recording it? fucking monsters
 

Dali

Member
Just curious, why are you against good samaritan laws?
What if you see someone you really hate keel over clentching their chest or choking? Like this person is a real huge piece of shit. It could be divine intervention pulling the shit stain to hell. I shouldn't be required by law to interfere with the good Lord's work.
 
That's bullshit. Many places have laws like this and judging if it's reasonable to charge someone for withholding aid is the exact job of a judge in a case like this.

Unless one of these kids was a trained lifeguard or something, I'm not sure if "withholding aid" is even a thing here.
Not even calling for help or anything rhough, thats proper fucked.
 
You absolutely can sue, doesn't mean that you'll win but you can sue anyone for anything.

In civil court the burden of proof is a whole lot less than criminal court with a lot of civil cases being won because of the judge simply picking the good guy over the bad guy so to speak when any halfway decent evidence is presented.

Yeah, I think the family could 100% sure for damages and probably win something.

Also in question is what the boys did with that video. Did they post it online. Are they the ones that sent it to the victims sister? I feel like you could definitely make a case in civil court for causing the family emotional distress, etc.

If you haven't broken any laws I'm pretty sure you can't be sued successfully

Lol. Tell that to OJ Simpson
 

kmfdmpig

Member
Saw this last night and it was both infuriating and incredibly sad. I know that bad stories often dominate headlines and twist our perception of the world, but it's hard enough to feel positive at all about living in the US and then these little monsters go and lower my thoughts on that even further.
I hope the parents recognize that they have created absolute wretches who have no place in a civilized world.

I agree that legally it should not be required to help someone in that situation. Unless you're Michael Phelps doing so would be quite risky. Calling 911, throwing a log or something, or at least not taunting the person and recording it would be reasonable, however.
 

Bigfoot

Member
What I would like to know is how the sister got the video. Did the boys decide to continue taunting the family by sending it to her or did they put it online and someone found it?
 
What if you see someone you really hate keel over clentching their chest or choking? Like this person is a real huge piece of shit. It could be divine intervention pulling the shit stain to hell. I shouldn't be required by law to interfere with the good Lord's work.


Please be sarcasm!
 
Unless one of these kids was a trained lifeguard or something, I'm not sure if "withholding aid" is even a thing here.
Not even calling for help or anything rhough, thats proper fucked.
not calling for aid is also withholding it. The video shows they were clearly aware of the situations the man was in and capable of providing the minimum of help that is required in other parts of the world.
 

____

Member
The most they could have done is call 911 which they absolutely should have instead of recording and uploading for lulz.

People suggesting they should have jumped in to help aren't being realistic.
 
I cant imagine how tough it is for the investigators to not be able to pin charges on these pieces of shit. And they get their identities hidden too. This is as if nothing happened except one guy died.

RIP to the victim.
 
Civil court doesn't require a law be broken.

OK you're correct -

So to be sued you either have to have caused harm, broken the law or broken a contract.

You'd have to go on "caused harm" here I suppose. But they haven't really caused any harm. The harm would have happened had they not been there. They just haven't actively tried to prevent harm bur I don't think that's good enough because if it was then it would open up people to suits all over the place when they could have acted and didn't.

/armchair lawyer not even from the same country
 

Massicot

Member
What if you see someone you really hate keel over clentching their chest or choking? Like this person is a real huge piece of shit. It could be divine intervention pulling the shit stain to hell. I shouldn't be required by law to interfere with the good Lord's work.

Edit: I'm going to assume this is sarcasm.
 

Palmer_v1

Member
I sorta get not going into the water to try and save the guy, because there are a lot of stories out there where that just leads to multiple deaths.

Not calling 911 for help of any kind is horrible though.

I hope their lives go full on horror movie now. Some I know what you didn't do last summer stuff.

OK you're correct -

So to be sued you either have to have caused harm, broken the law or broken a contract.

You'd have to go on "caused harm" here I suppose. But they haven't really caused any harm. The harm would have happened had they not been there. They just haven't actively tried to prevent harm bur I don't think that's good enough because if it was then it would open up people to suits all over the place when they could have acted and didn't.

/armchair lawyer not even from the same country

I think you could argue that they caused emotional harm to the victim's family, as there was a gap of time where they did not know the fate of the victim. They also wasted how much of law enforcement's time on a missing person's case?
 

hirokazu

Member
They were negligent because they didn't even call for help. Like I said arguments can be made but there's no guarantee they'd win. Maybe the judge would side with the Dunn family just off the strength of what the kids did being so fucked up and them not facing any sort of punishment otherwise
Good judges would err on the side of caution on what effect their judgments will have on future cases. You don’t want to be overreaching in this or you could soon find people liable for all manner of ridiculous things. As shitty as this situation is, making people liable for not rendering aid is a bad idea unless you’ve got a really good piece of legislation that limits it to cases like this.
 

Hycran

Banned
what the fuck

This shit is textbook. We talk about this in first year law school in Canada and I'll never forget the look on my classmates faces when my teacher told us that he could pull up a chair and enjoy nice long drags on a cigarette while he watched a baby drown and not get charged with anything.

Morally it is questionable but legally you should never be forced to do anything as it foists you into a situation where you have a duty of care that you might breach by being negligent in a rescue effort. As for a law that says you need to call for help, even that is dubious as the threshold as to when a call should be made wouldn't be clear.
 
In Switzerland (and other countries) we have the concept of "duty to rescue" (I had to look it up. I had no idea how to translate "non-assistance à personne en danger")...

I never thought 4chan-like behavior would exist in real life...

edit: beaten.
 

Shredderi

Member
The family would propably win in civil court if they can get the system to take their case. Plenty of countries have a law that says you have to help people who are in immediate danger, so it's not a very good point to bring up repeatedly (that there seemingly doesn't exist laws like that in general).
 
I'd make sure that this video stays with them for the rest of their lives.

I'd email it to whatever university they're applying to or whatever employer has hired them.

I'm not sure these kids ever had much of a future to take away. Clearly something is seriously wrong in their lives to teach them inaction and a lack of empathy.
 
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