As a regular user of Facebook I tend to notice stories like this, maybe its just some sort of keyword recognition that sets off my radar or maybe its just my unquenchable interest in the modern communications environment. But any one interested in the interface between the online and “real” worlds has to take note of a social networking platform being used to establish one’s innocence from a criminal accusation.
Pancakes Facebook serves up a plate of innocence A teen accused of an armed hold-up has a status update and pancakes to thank for his freedom.
Image from Rodney Bradford's Facebook page.
A 19-year old man in search of some pancakes has Facebook to thank for criminal charges being dropped against him.
Rodney Bradford was arrested on October 18 as a suspect in a gun-point mugging in New York, but a Facebook entry he made the previous day asking for pancakes became his alibi, The New York Times reported.
Bradford’s lawyer told a Brooklyn assistant district attorney involved in the case about the Facebook entry, which read “Where’s my pancakes”.
Because the timing of the post coincided with the time the crime was committed and Facebook verified the Harlem address where the status update was made, the charges were dropped.
I like pancakes too, usually with lime juice (lemon juice is OK at a pinch) and sugar but I don’t feel the need to announce my menu choices on Facebook . Many people have an incessant desire to share with the world the mundane and banal aspects of their existence on Facebook or worse still post endless “tweets” about it. Well the story of Rodney Bradford and his desire for pancakes saving him from jail certainly does offer an argument in favour of putting yourself “out there ” on-line but I still have my reservations .
Cheers Comrades
Filed under: Blogging, Cute, Justice, Law, Media Matters, Popular Culture, United States, internet, social networking sites, the Law | Tagged: Facebook, techno toys, the war on Twitter
Beh, he’s just a criminal mastermind. Let someone else access his facebook account and do it for him.
I didn’t do it eithar. At that time I was ’storking’ at the stork watch website (in other words I was reading it) and the psycho over there would be able to use his spying & stalking equipment to prove it.