Decius wrote:

Mike the Usurper wrote:
The reason the internet makes a difference is because the "exchanges" happened via the California servers, and therefore the incident was in California, not here. That is why is was not pressed here, and is a pile of crap. If the same happened via phone and the switchboard is in St Louis, it becomes a St Louis incident? No. The fact that it happened over the internet means the crime is wherever the servers are? Again, no.

In my view, the jurisdictional issues are easy as both parties are in Missouri. I don't think the fact that servers in California were involved should make it an interstate problem. The same thing could happen interstate over the internet, so there is an inescapable federal policy problem here, but in most cases this sort of thing is going to happen locally and local authorities ought to be empowered to handle it.

Did the local prosecutors fail to press charges because they thought that they would fail on a jurisdictional challenge, or did they press and get rebuked by the court system? Is there a specific precedent in play? Was it a federal or local court that made the determination?

If it was a federal court, there is nothing that you can do, but there might be a case of a federal law that clarifies that what happens between people in Missouri stays in Missouri.

If it was a state court than perhaps a state law would do.

If they failed to prosecute with no legal rationalization than maybe the problem is with the Mayor?

The state never filed anything. It was toss the hands up in the air and say, "well hell, we don't know what to do" and then put the hands down and sit on them. From what was released at the local office, their comments were (paraphrased) "well this is horrible, but it's not a crime."

Frankly, I could not be more appalled at the response from Jack Banas' office (he's the county prosecutor).

As a second point, this is exactly why I despise "originalist" and "strict constructionist" judges. When Madison wrote the Constitution, we didn't have telephones, cars, radio, the internet or most of the countries currently on the planet. What they did was write in broad strokes that are open to some interpretation, but not so broad as to go all over creation with it. It is meant to be interpreted. There are any number of instances where a law was written for a specific point and applied in a different manner as things changed. Those bozos (and calling them that is really an insult to clowns everywhere), and the local prosecutor, don't have the mental muscle to see the route, or the flexibility to achieve it, and so they don't even try.

This is why you don't want mental deficients in decision making positions. Harrison Bergeron lives.

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