US Politics Mega-thread - Page 2720

Teen Boy Will Be Charged As Adult For Having Naked Pics of a Minor: Himself

A North Carolina 17-year-old caught in a sexting scandal faces charges of sexually exploiting a minor that could land him in jail for up to 10 years, since the law considers him an adult. But one of the minors he supposedly exploited is himself­—which raises an obvious question: how can a teen be old enough to face adult felony charges, but not old enough to keep a nude picture of himself on his phone?

Unfortunately, that’s the Kafka-esque nightmare in which Fayetteville-area high schooler Cormega Copening finds himself after exchanging private nude photos with his girlfriend—with whom he is legally allowed to have sex, but not to sext.

I wrote about Copening’s story on Tuesday. Since then, I’ve learned new information that makes the local sheriff’s office’s actions seem even more ludicrous.

But first, to recap: Copening and his girlfriend—now identified as Brianna Denson—are like other teenagers in that they have more than a passing interest in sex. Indeed, when they were 16, they exchanged racy sexy photos via text message. Denson sent pictures to Copening, and Copening sent pictures to Denson. It appears that no one else saw the pictures until local authorities searched Copening’s phone and discovered them.

Why did they search his phone? It’s not clear, but local news reports claimed that it had nothing to do with the sexts themselves. The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment. According to fayobserver.com, there is no record of a search warrant being issued for Copening’s phone.

Both teens were charged with sexual exploitation. Denson pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was given 12 months of probation.

Copening, however, is still facing two counts of second-degree sexual exploitation and three counts of third-degree exploitation. As Ricochet’s Tom Meyer points out, the third-degree charges—which constitute a majority of the total charges—actually stem from the pictures Copening had of himself. The implication is clear: Copening does not own himself, from the standpoint of the law, and is not free to keep sexually-provocative pictures, even if they depict his own body.

But consider this: North Carolina is one of two states in the country (the other is progressive New York) that considers 16 to be the age of adulthood for criminal purposes. This mean, of course, that Copening can be tried as an adult for exploiting a minor—himself.

I discovered this when I asked Fayetteville Observer Executive Editor Mike Adams about his publication’s decision to release the names of the teens (something countless other local news reports did as well). He explained to me that it’s the company’s policy to publish the names of adults charged with felony crimes, which includes Copening and Denson, in this case. But The Observer didn’t fully comprehend that Copening and Denson were also the victims—and, by some bizarre quirk of the law, minors in a different sense—until after its original reporting on the issue had already been published.

“I don’t think sexting was considered when this sexual exploitation law was put on the books,” Adams told me.

Indeed. Maybe the legislature should revisit the issue. In the meantime, there is still no excuse for local cops to pursue charges against Copening. They have already humiliated him and damaged (perhaps irreversibly) his high school football career over mildly worrisome behavior that should not even constitute a crime. Cumberland County should exercise some discretion—perhaps some maturity as well—and let this matter go.

The Observer's Paul Woolverton also covered the insanity of North Caorlina's sexual exploitation law as applied in this case. Read his excellent story here.

On January 06 2016 06:42 Seuss wrote:


I am not a political analyst, but if I was in the establishment I'd probably freak out if that was the plan.

If we're hoping for a McCain-style surge we're toast because it's already happening and it's Cruz. The mechanism which powered McCain's surge was Giuliani's fall and poor ground grame. Cruz is in the same position in relation to Trump, and like McCain will likely win Iowa and South Carolina if Trump's numbers start dropping. We could see Cruz run the table on Super Tuesday in that case, and that should scare the establishment shitless.

Otherwise as long as Trump and Cruz are duking it out there's a chance an establishment candidate can emerge, but there's also a chance we end up with a brokered convention and that's almost as bad as anything else that can happen. The only saving grace there is that Cruz is probably too power hungry to be Trump's VP.

The chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court ordered the state's probate judges on Wednesday not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, despite a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court last year legalizing gay marriage.

Chief Justice Roy Moore said the U.S. Supreme Court decision is at odds with earlier opinions by the state's highest court, resulting in “confusion and uncertainty” among probate judges.

While the Alabama Supreme Court weighs the issue, probate judges “have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary” to the state's law banning same-sex marriage, Moore said.

On January 07 2016 04:20 Sadist wrote:
I'm all for more background checks for firearms and I consider myself liberal but the mother Jones article was good at taking a deeper dive into the stats. Gang shootings or incidents where people are hit by strays are awful an need to be addressed but to group those in with sandyhook and San Bernardino is dishonest and only makes people distrust stats more.

I wonder if the people in power who made up/cite the stat see it more of a means to an end and feel they can morally justify using the flawed image that the stat conjures. I think as a liberal we need to be better than this. Using scare tactics and misleading stats is what I associate with the right wing . We need to do better dammit ; (