MySpace, Web, Social Networking
Police Officer Forced to Resign Over Old MySpace Pics
This February, Abigail Keller -- a 27-year-old, full-time reserve officer on Altoona, Iowa's police force -- resigned over controversy surrounding questionable pictures posted to her MySpace account. Keller was in her fifth month of reserve duty, the Des Moines Register reported today, when a local businessman showed print-outs of the page to a city officer. Police Chief John Gray, testifying at Keller's recent hearing for unemployment benefits, said: "In one photograph, she is displaying her naked buttocks or mooning the person who is taking the picture. In another, she is performing simulated sex acts on both males and females." In response, Keller said that the mooning picture was taken down before she was hired, and that the "simulated sex acts" constituted her making "kissy faces" and sticking her tongue out with a group of girls at a bar.
Arguing that she thought her profile was not publicly viewable, Keller did wind up receiving the unemployment benefits. Gray believed the most troubling aspect of the photos to be Keller's being shown in her uniform, testifying that "she was associating her conduct with the police department."
Again and again, Facebook and MySpace have proven that public servants need to be extra careful about what they post. But, at the same time, it appears Keller was just being a 27-year-old gal. She isn't calling the police chief a serial masturbator, or seriously breaking moral and ethical code. She just made a bad call. [From: Des Moines Register]
Facebook Crime and Punishment
Blackmail
Sending any personal info or incriminating pictures to someone on Facebook is a huge mistake for many reasons. One of the worst possible outcomes is getting blackmailed for money, sex, or, well, anything these sickos dream up. Really, whether they're using a fake profile or not, it's a horrible idea. Read up on the story of an 18-year-old who blackmailed 31 male classmates after he posed as a girl and asked for nude pictures. That's lesson enough.
Impostors
Sure, it can be harmless to impersonate a celeb online or create a fake profile for a movie character. But seriously, there's a definite line you shouldn't cross when pretending to be someone else and it can lead to dire consequences for you. Maybe it's not as extreme as the Moroccan man who was jailed for 43 days after creating a fake Facebook profile of a prince, but you never know. Just steer clear of it.
Self-Incrimination
Do we really have to explain this? Just look up the shoplifter who posed with her stolen merchandise, the many photos of drunk underage teens, and, most recently, the album featuring a couple who killed and ate an endangered iguana in the Bahamas.
Suicide
Social networking sites has been blamed for a lot of things, fairly and unfairly, but in our opinion, the worst offense has been their indirect involvement in suicides. Obviously, there are a lot of factors responsible in each case, but there does seem to be links between social networking and a rash of suicides, and obviously tehre's the case tragic of Megan Meier, who killed herself after a classmate's mom impersonated a teen boy and harassed her over Myspace.
Murder
We've reported on numerous incidents of people getting in trouble because of their online behavior. Now, people are becoming victims because of what they're doing on the Web too. In England, a man was convicted of murdering his estranged wife after she changed her relationship status to "single." So, be careful of who can see your profile and what you're doing, no matter how harmless it seems.
Nigerian Scammers
Oh, you thought this only happened via poorly worded emails, right? WRONG. Once people got wise to their old ways, these con men are turning to social networking sites for new targets. This time, they're hacking into people's accounts and impersonating them to ask for money, usually with some weird sob story. You can check out a transcript of one of these conversations here.
Cooperation
Even if the law isn't on a case, a victim, his friends, or empathetic strangers might be. Since it's easy to get word out for anything online, people are using blogs, forums, and social networking sites to help track down criminals. In one such case, a vehicle thief was tracked down by a bunch of anonymous car enthusiasts after the victim posted his story on a forum. In the end, they identified the guy through his Facebook profile.
Self-Incrimination
Do we really have to explain this? Just look up the shoplifter who posed with her stolen merchandise, the many photos of drunk underage teens, and, most recently, the album featuring a couple who killed and ate an endangered iguana in the Bahamas.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
eve said 8:35PM on 7-06-2009
My question is simple. How many men on myspace or any other social networking site have at least one inappropriate picture on their profile? I am willing to bet plenty. It seems in todays liberal minded porn age it's okay to view butts in your private time however it is not okay for a woman to show the "goods" if she works for you? If this was a picture of her in full frontal nudity I'd conceed the fact if porn became unacceptable in our society but there are planty of men mooning the camera online yet we never hear about a guy getting fired for a picture now do we? This stupid double standard has got to stop. Either you ban porn and we have a prudish society or we chose to have a liberal society with legal porn and no fear of "inappropriate" pictures sacking you. Take your pick!
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dc3dale said 11:50AM on 7-07-2009
Earth to Eve, Even if you worked at Mickey D's... your butt better not be "Public". He would just have to find other ways to connect with guys. Signed, The Real World
susan said 9:39PM on 7-06-2009
It would be interesting to know whether the result would have been different if the officer had been male. Mooning somebody, sticking out your tongue -- hardly pornographic.
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amstelvic said 9:49PM on 7-06-2009
Give us a break, what she does on her own time is her business, as long as it's not illeagal, stop wasting taxpayers money. She's been trained, knows her job, otherwise she wouldn't be there. Besides all that who really gives a damn....
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gd said 12:25PM on 7-07-2009
1) Her fellow officers, male & female whose uniform was disgraced by the imature person
2) the public who expect better judgement from a person paid to make judgements and who expect professionals to act like professionals
3) the public who does not wish the common weal to support some one who is not smart enough to see if the site was accesible or not
assistsd said 8:02PM on 7-07-2009
If you put your ass out on public display, you're public property, as much liable as if you did it live in public.
And the second point is Stupid is Stupid. There is no gender bias for stupidity.
bccmconsulting said 10:48PM on 7-06-2009
Whatever. Well known fact for lord knows how long those kinds of pictures eventually come back to haunt you. Her argument being she thought the photos were not publically viewable? Well, you are an officer and you kept the pictures posted online. Your fault. You should have taken them down completely.
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startingnow2004 said 10:14PM on 7-06-2009
male/female, innappropriate for a police officer ... pure and simple ... if you get involved in law enforcement, you have a higher standard of behavior, one would hope and pray, I don't want males or females exhibiting anything other than walking the line behavior ... sorry, cops should adhere to a higher standard, they "ain't" clerks, they are supposed to be those I place trust in on all levels
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teewyatt26 said 12:11AM on 7-08-2009
WOW! Some of you I swear must have grown up in a place called Never Ever Land!! Lighten up folks! I'm a now retire Police Officer who retired after 15 yrs only because I started my own successful business outside of law enforcement. I'm a male by the way and I honestly do not know of any of my past fellow Officer's male or female who would have been shamed by her behavior. Actually we would have found it comical. With all of the death, crime , poverty etc., that those in law enforcement experience throughout a career or on a weekly basis.....to fault someone who knows how to leave work at work where it belongs and not take it home, I appaud. If that was her way of unwinding before heading back in and dealing with societies woes and helping those in need so be it! To label that porn or anything remotely close to porn is absurd to say the least. Probably why most of the many house parties I attended hosted by myself or my fellow Officer's only involved those in public service or those near and dear to someone who was a public servant. Many times we're the only one's who understand one another and share the same sense of humor about things most people will never experience or understand. People who work in the field of law enforcement are human too people. We weren't born into law enforcement, its a profession we chose and one I would be willing to put my next pay check against anyone who believes that out of uniform those in law enforcement probably have more fun than most people will ever imagine without breaking the law on their our time. She should never have been fired for having fun on her own time!
harlybikrdad said 10:16PM on 7-06-2009
If I was that 27 year old lady--I'd sue the police and city!
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marmadukemamasan said 10:42AM on 7-07-2009
If you "was" that lady, you'd lose.
straule said 6:03AM on 7-08-2009
And you'd loose.
lori said 10:17PM on 7-06-2009
that constitutes "just being a 27 year old girl"?? i'm 24 and ive never stuck out my tongue to pretend i'm licking my male friend or my female ones....???
we need to stop giving her an age excuse and call it like it is, she is an overly sexual young lady that's simply embarassing the squad. nice job abigail. time to grow up.
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michaelnehigh said 10:49PM on 7-06-2009
Prude
kerricooper23 said 11:08PM on 7-06-2009
are you seriously 24 and never pretended to lick someone or stuck your tongue ?? let me tell you a secret it is not being overly sexual it is called...FUN.. try it . i dare you even at the ripe old age of 33 i still enjoy it and i most certainly am not overly sexual.. you need to grow up and if this embarrasses the squad then they too have issues. unless she was naked topless or licking their crotch give me a break of all the things going on this something to fire someone for i realy don't think so what about the men in the squad that think a badge means they can screw anything they can stop.. that is who should be fired.. the business man printing out the photos was more than likely a jilted man
abstractdr3ams said 7:16PM on 7-07-2009
Wow, just because you do not share her or others sense of humor or sexuality does not make them wrong or immature. Try to remember after a certain age it isn't the mind that grows old, it is the body. You need a lesson on how to be tolerant. Your post screams "stuck up". Let he without sin cast the first stone right? Maybe if you had a better personality people would want to be around you more. Yuck.
mel said 6:09PM on 7-14-2009
where did it ever say she was licking her male or female friends..and omg it's f***ing myspace.. I had put up a painting I had found in and old hospital of a naked woman and it got deleted by myspace. So really if what she was doing in anyway distasteful. Myspace or Facebook would have deleted it. She was having fun and some people just got jealous. Poor girl. I would just move on to bigger and better things.
Paul said 4:02AM on 7-07-2009
Ooooh, not somebody who isn't a total prude about their sexuality! Hell, if we allow men and women to make silly poses and gestures vaguely related to sex, next thing you know the rivers will run dry, gas prices will soar, and baby jesus won't be returning to lead away the faithful.
Everyone needs to seriously lighten up. People have sex and take risque photos. Posting the aforementioned on a personal internet profile is the business of nobody else. Work =/= personal life. America's level of oppression/embarrassment about sex is already ridiculous to both the more enlightened regions of the globe as well as those of us who don't have the same mindset about our icky parts people did in 1917. I think YOU need to grow up.
Kyler said 10:24AM on 7-07-2009
Arguing on the Internet is like running in the special olympics. Even if you win, you are still a retard.
jaguara777 said 10:20PM on 7-06-2009
the article never mentioned "cute" you darn pervert
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