And pussy grabbing and collaborating with the enemy of the United States, NBD.
They tried that already. It actually worked, too!
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I got the name wrong, but that’s what I was thinking of.
That’s a different category - that would be an “inlfuenzer.”
***NOTE: COVID-19 is, of course, not the flu. But still.
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OK, no, I don’t think dude should have gotten 30 days. There are some serious free speech issues, particularly when you consider that he actually licked a package that he did, in fact, purchase.
But what really irks my ire is…
WTF, WHY THE HELL AREN’T THE PACKAGES SEALED? THAT IS NASTY AND GROSS. I don’t want to think that someone could have sampled my ice cream; I want a freaking safety seal to ensure that no one has touched my ice cream or anything else I buy between the time it was made and I eat it. Seriously, what the heck? A tamper band to seal the lid; it isn’t rocket surgery here, people!
Design your packages so that you can’t open it without it becoming apparent. A little safety seal button; a tamper strip, a tear strip, come one people, work with me here.
Yeah, if he does 30 days then the CEO of Blue Bell should do 30 too because he’s responsible for it too. And all that bullshit about Bluebell having to destroy a cooler’s worth of ice cream? If they would have had safety strips on their packaging everyone would have known that nothing had been tampered with; that’s on Blue Bell.
Blue Bunny and Velvet all manage to seal their Ice Cream. Not hard, people.
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Agree %100. It still boggles my mind that someone can get the same prison sentence for grand theft auto and million dollar wire fraud.
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This was a bottle with a hard plastic screw lid, no safety gimmiks. I considered taking it to customer service.
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This right here.
Obviously this guy failed the “does he come from a good family?”, “does he got his whole life ahead of him?”, and most importantly “is he brown?” tests that US judges seem to be required to administer.
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Back in my day, we just licked windows…
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Aphex Twin is truly the stuff of nightmares.
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People seem to be kind of insane on this thread. A man licked his own ice cream and got sent to jail for it.
If you think there should be a law against people in videos pretending to do things that upset you, write to your elected representatives. But there is no such law; this guy was prosecuted for the… crime?.. of eating stuff before you paid for it, as many shoppers and all restaurant customers do every day.
I was horrified when I saw Robert Englund slash that girl with his finger-knives; I know he was “pretending” and it wasn’t “real,” but I really believe justice would be served if he got the chair for jaywalking or something.
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Hang on, there is a big difference between a movie (promoted as fiction) and creating a product tampering hoax. Actual product tampering is a federal crime while movies just live and die by their box office. In the end, this stunt did real damage and caused real concerns that were reasonable.
Yes, plenty of people do eat a part of something before checkout, however they do not do so in a fashion intended to cause a crisis of consumer confidence or concerns about product safety. While I’m not one for selective application of the law, that particular law generally doesn’t get prosecuted without a business willing to file a complaint. Well, this time? The businesses involved were certainly more than willing to swear out a complaint against this jackass.
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that’s not it works, and we really really don’t want it to.
only in the world of robocop are police supposed to be for profit.
[ edit: what am i talking about. this is spot on in america. for-profit prisons; prisoners who have to buy their own toothpaste, toilet paper, tooth brushes; who have to pay to read books; who’s families are forced to pay for phone cards to call them; for people - mostly black people - who have to pay jail fees to get their voting rights back.
but it’s well known we’re the mirror universe from star trek. so im only disagreeing based on principle; not reality. ]
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i think it’s just an expression of fear. if this were a few months ago people would have an entirely different reaction.
people stick their snot covered hands into bagel bins, eat directly out of bulk bins, shove gallons of milk around to get the latest date, sneeze on to fresh washed produce, drop the complementary napkins or utensils on the floor and put them right back.
none of them are going to jail, even though clearly being worse public health risks.
it’s right to be grossed out by the guy’s ( the kid’s? ) video - that’s the point. and something like community service or diversion classes might be appropriate - but jail time is just plain wrong.
this person for sure isn’t getting any jail time:
but then, she’s a white woman, so even though there are surely laws against tampering with merchandise signs - no problem.
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A surprising amount of defenders here on boing boing. Which proves the point of the prosecution. It’s the influencer’s job to influence, therefore he is trying to get a million other people to do the same thing.
Much like publishing this article. So thanks for that.
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Err I’m pretty sure my response would be the same pre-coronavirus. Idiot influences copycats to lick food and return it to the shelf. Oh yeah I’m really looking forward to this trend escalating…
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I worked in surveillance, and it would probably take about 15 minutes for them to review the video. So, 15 minutes at $13 an hour brings it to a total cost of $4.25 to review whether or not he bought it. Destroying all the ice cream before checking the tape was an idiot move.
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It’s not just how long it took them to review the video. Someone saw this on YouTube, had to figure out when and where it happened, filed a complaint with the local authorities who sent someone to the store to ask about it and then and ONLY then would someone have been able to review the security footage.
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I’m not gonna defend his stupid actions. But I’m also not sure the sentence fits the crime, nor am I convinced that the offender’s ethnicity wasn’t a factor in that sentence. This whole thing is as messy as a melted tub of Blue Bell. Can we be done with “influencers”, please?
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he was jailed - ostensibly - for consuming food before purchase.
a complete double standard unless you really want pre-purchase consumption being a thing people are regularly being jailed for.
we aren’t supposed to use obscure crimes as revenge against behavior or people we don’t like ( while i know police use such justification - failure to signal, failure to comply with a lawful order - as justification for harassing and jailing people of color all the time, it’s not what we - as a society - should want )
if he is being jailed for “incitement to lick ice cream” shouldn’t we also be throwing people who sell the anarchist cookbook in jail?
or how about makers of “pickup-artist” videos? videos of people who use guns in unsafe ways? or people who fly the confederate flag?
those are much more dangerous incitements to harm then this.
if you’re afraid of ice cream lickers: write emails to bluebell. that’s the most logical response.
somehow i feel this is on topic here:
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