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The Clementi Case
For those of you who don’t know, this case started years ago, in 2010. A student at Rutgers University, Ravi, used his webcam to film and then stream his roommate Clementi in the room kissing another male. Upon discovering the video’s leakage, Clementi committed suicide. Ravi has been sentenced to 30 days in jail and three years probation, charged with invasion of privacy and bias intimidation, which is apparently some kind of hate crime.
I have an issue with this. Yes, it’s morally wrong, and it’s highly unfortunate that a gay kid committed suicide. But invasion of privacy? It was his room too. I feel like a person should have the right to set up surveillance in his or her room and subsequently distribute the video to whomever they choose. And hate crime? More like public interest. Ravi didn’t stream the video because he hates gays. He probably thought it was crazy, insane and oh my gosh-worthy. It’s not he arranged for men to come beat Clementi up. Since when is airing someone’s dirty laundry a hate crime? And what if Ravi, rather than set up a web cam, had peeked in the window and then told people. Would that have him in jail?
Based on the story, Clementi asked Ravi of he could be alone in the room with a guest. So, when Ravi set up the webcam, it’s possible that he didn’t even know Clementi was gay. Still a hate crime? And if Clementi hadn’t killed himself, would there even be an issue here? If Ravi had filmed Clementi banging a girl, would there be an issue? If Ravi was the gay one, and Clementi were straight, and he filmed him kissing a woman, would it be a heterosexual hate crime??
Everything is just a bigger deal because the guy was gay and killed himself. Everyone’s calling it bullying. Like no! There were no previous cases of harassment on Ravi’s part, and really, it can’t even be proved that he had malicious intent in leaking the video, and that’s what bullying is; malice. If Clementi wasn’t gay and hadn’t committed suicide, Ravi probably wouldn’t be charged with invasion of privacy. The whole issue of sexuality (and race) make people look at things with a lot more scrutiny.
I just don’t like this situation…
