Siri Gives Teen a List of Schools after Saying He'd Shoot One Up

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Megalith

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A 13-year-old Chesterton Middle School student in Valparaiso, Indiana was arrested Thursday after an ill-advised interaction with Apple’s iPhone voice assistant: presumably as a joke, the boy told Siri “I am going to shoot up a school." Siri then replied with an actual list of schools nearby. After he posted “a screenshot of the inquiry and response on social media,” police arrested and charged him with intimidation.

Valparaiso officers determined the boy made no direct threat to a specific person, school or school system and that he had no access to weapons — ultimately stating the picture was posted on social media as a joke. “The threat is not believed to be credible at this time; however, these types of communications are taken very seriously by the Valparaiso Police Department and our community,” police stated in a news release.
 
Yeah I am sure SIRI said here is our list as I notify the local Police department.
 
This is dumb - don't post stuff like that to social media. Period.
Voice platforms (Siri, Google, Alexa, etc) are not very smart. They basically fall back to pattern matching (strstr() for you C programmers out there) when it doesn't understand the sentence. Don't be surprised when voice platforms tell on us at some point in the future.
I know there have been a few suicide related questions asked to the platforms in the past. I don't think they alert anyone. I also don't think voice is ready for dangerous topics yet.
 
Interesting, I live in Valparaiso... lol ;). Damn Chesterton kids... I don't see stuff like this every day...
 
Link said:
Meanwhile, there was a robbery and murder took place a mile away from teen's arrest.
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Gary Indiana is more than 1 mile from Valpo. So I don't think that happen that close. Although have to wonder can a gun fire when that cold? ;) Once the Simply Mac store closed down people didn't feel there was anything left to rob in Valpo.

Axehandler said:
I *WISH* it was -48 windchill here... we hit -60 windchill :(
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So then I shouldn't tell you then that there was a 100+ degree increase in 3 days. :D​
 
They arrested and charged him with intimidation?
Looks like they need backbone.

steakman1971 said:
This is dumb - don't post stuff like that to social media. Period.
Voice platforms (Siri, Google, Alexa, etc) are not very smart. They basically fall back to pattern matching (strstr() for you C programmers out there) when it doesn't understand the sentence. Don't be surprised when voice platforms tell on us at some point in the future.
I know there have been a few suicide related questions asked to the platforms in the past. I don't think they alert anyone. I also don't think voice is ready for dangerous topics yet.
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He is 13 lol.
Good luck educating every child not to do this.
 
I wish they showed a copy of the post he posted.

If he posted it with a caption something like "I can't believe Siri actually provided a list when faced with this query" that should have been perfectly fine.

Without seeing what he actually posted, it is impossible to assess whether or not it should have been taken as a threat (or hoax threat)
 
Nenu said:
They arrested and charged him with intimidation?
Looks like they need backbone..
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No, they HAVE to take this shit seriously. Shootings happen far too often these days for police to shrug it off and pretend its just kids being kids (which it is, in this case). If they ignored it and he actually did shoot up a school the police would be blamed for ignoring it and "letting" it happen. The kid will likely get something akin to slap on the wrist out of this and that's it.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I wish they showed a copy of the post he posted.

If he posted it with a caption something like "I can't believe Siri actually provided a list when faced with this query" that should have been perfectly fine.

Without seeing what he actually posted, it is impossible to assess whether or not it should have been taken as a threat (or hoax threat)
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He posted pictures of his Siri search, along with a picture of guns from the second kid.
 
Exavior said:

Gary Indiana is more than 1 mile from Valpo. So I don't think that happen that close. Although have to wonder can a gun fire when that cold? ;) Once the Simply Mac store closed down people didn't feel there was anything left to rob in Valpo.

So then I shouldn't tell you then that there was a 100+ degree increase in 3 days. :D​
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Well, Gary is another story entirely. Once murder capital of the world... I would almost say North Hammond is almost as bad if not worse.

I think it's been over ten years since there was a shooting in Valparaiso, some guy tried to rob a bank. 3-5 years ago there was a dude with a shotgun that robbed a couple liquor stores.

As far as this kid is concerned... It's pretty stupid parents are even allowing kids to have access to smart phones to begin with. Kids should't have anything more than a dumb flip phone for emergencies and such. As far as what he did, well, you gotta take these kinds of threats seriously. Thirteen or no, if you're talking shit like that and bragging about it the police wakeup call, hopefully, straightens his dumb ass out.
 
Derangel said:
No, they HAVE to take this shit seriously. Shootings happen far too often these days for police to shrug it off and pretend its just kids being kids (which it is, in this case). If they ignored it and he actually did shoot up a school the police would be blamed for ignoring it and "letting" it happen. The kid will likely get something akin to slap on the wrist out of this and that's it.
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I'm not suggesting otherwise but perhaps a couple of minutes sensible chat would have resolved it without giving him a record.
They didnt just arrest him they charged him as well.
Seems over the top giving him a record at age 13 when there was no ill intent and no harm done.
 
Nenu said:
I'm not suggesting otherwise but perhaps a couple of minutes sensible chat would have resolved it without giving him a record.
They didnt just arrest him they charged him as well.
Seems over the top giving him a record at age 13 when there was no ill intent and no harm done.
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When he turns 18 he can have his juvenile records sealed, for free. He might even qualify to have them completely destroyed.
 
Exavior said:

Gary Indiana is more than 1 mile from Valpo. So I don't think that happen that close. Although have to wonder can a gun fire when that cold? ;) Once the Simply Mac store closed down people didn't feel there was anything left to rob in Valpo.



So then I shouldn't tell you then that there was a 100+ degree increase in 3 days. :D​
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same here - it's 40 today
 
Derangel said:
When he turns 18 he can have his juvenile records sealed, for free. He might even qualify to have them completely destroyed.
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Funny thing about that, if he ever applies for a gun permit in Indiana. That incident will still be on their (the state government's) radar. If he omits it, he will have to take a drive to Indianapolis and appeal in person. How do I know this? I did some dumb shit in my life and those records were "expunged, deleted, sealed". However, the state government has a long memory. It was worth the drive for me, a good wakeup call and a nice trip down memory lane to reassess my own dumb ass. Hope this kid learns too.
 
Legendary Gamer said:
Well, Gary is another story entirely. Once murder capital of the world... I would almost say North Hammond is almost as bad if not worse.

I think it's been over ten years since there was a shooting in Valparaiso, some guy tried to rob a bank. 3-5 years ago there was a dude with a shotgun that robbed a couple liquor stores.

As far as this kid is concerned... It's pretty stupid parents are even allowing kids to have access to smart phones to begin with. Kids should't have anything more than a dumb flip phone for emergencies and such. As far as what he did, well, you gotta take these kinds of threats seriously. Thirteen or no, if you're talking shit like that and bragging about it the police wakeup call, hopefully, straightens his dumb ass out.
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I was just trying to reference a place that people not from the area would know. I pretty much just make it a habit to avoid northern Lake county as much as I can assuming all is equally dangerous.

Yeah, I can't think of many shootings in Valpo. Robberies every now and then but none that involved shooting. When Simply Mac got robbed twice within a week last year the people had guns but no shots were fired.
 
Exavior said:
I was just trying to reference a place that people not from the area would know. I pretty much just make it a habit to avoid northern Lake county as much as I can assuming all is equally dangerous.

Yeah, I can't think of many shootings in Valpo. Robberies every now and then but none that involved shooting. When Simply Mac got robbed twice within a week last year the people had guns but no shots were fired.
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Yeah... I, too, stay away from north lake county if I can help it. I worked there for a number of years and I'm always packing when I go there. Have to go to Gary a couple times a year for a warehouse we have up there. You want to be out of the area well before 4-5pm. Made the mistake of leaving a bit later in the day 6/7 once. Not good...

I remember the Simply Mac store. People steal Apple products and they may be valuable... but the underlying tech is garbage other than a hardware/software ascetic. I will stick with my custom PC, Android and 600 buck laptop that has a GTX1050 instead of overpriced Apple crap any day.

I just talked to my girlfriend (lives in Chesterton). After the arrest of that kid, the police picked up three other kids that were making threats as well.
 
Derangel said:
When he turns 18 he can have his juvenile records sealed, for free. He might even qualify to have them completely destroyed.
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And if he works at something like, a nuclear facility, they’ll still dig those sealed records up. Dont know about “destroyed” but sealed doesn’t really mean sealed in all cases.

I agree though, it has to be taken serious. And the police taking it serious is one of the best ways to help kids that age grow the fuck up real quick and do less of the “dumb kids being dumb kids” stuff. Or at least getting caught doing it.
 
Modern response: Arrest first, think about the merit of the arrest later. Oh, and if possible use a paramilitary police unit for the arrest.

Fuck you authoritarian fuckheads.
 
Jagger100 said:
Modern response: Arrest first, think about the merit of the arrest later. Oh, and if possible use a paramilitary police unit for the arrest.

Fuck you authoritarian fuckheads.
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And the alternative is to ignore when stuff like this happens and then when some kid actually shoots up their school all of sudden parents, the media, politicians, jackasses on the internet, are all screaming about the police ignoring threats and allowing the shooting to happen. Then police lose jobs, chiefs need to resign, and people push for even more worthless "solutions". There are no good options in these situations but the best option is for police to treat all of these cases as real, potential, threats.
 
Jagger100 said:
Modern response: Arrest first, think about the merit of the arrest later. Oh, and if possible use a paramilitary police unit for the arrest.

Fuck you authoritarian fuckheads.
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Pretty much every school shooting or similar incident of a kid going nuts and doing something(fire, bombs, etc.) has ALWAYS had people after the fact pointing out that the kid was a weirdo, the kid made threats before, the kid joked about it all the time, the kid kept posting to facebook, the kid was prescribed psych meds, the kid stopped taking his psych meds, the kid had the cops show up at the house 50 times, the kid got suspended from school weekly, it just goes on and on.

Most 13 year olds are capable of having an understanding of just how serious this crap is. No one wants the one little crazy shit to slip through the cracks who is not only incapable of grasping it, but insane enough to go through with it.
 
Taldren said:
*Unless, of course, it is tweets about shooting up a specific Catholic school belonging to someone that dared #SmirkingWhileWhite. Then it's just fine and magically not against twitter's rules.
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Which is also completely unacceptable but unfortunately the overall ideology at twitter seems to support that crap as long as it's directed a certain way.
 
Merc1138 said:
Pretty much every school shooting or similar incident of a kid going nuts and doing something(fire, bombs, etc.) has ALWAYS had people after the fact pointing out that the kid was a weirdo, the kid made threats before, the kid joked about it all the time, the kid kept posting to facebook, the kid was prescribed psych meds, the kid stopped taking his psych meds, the kid had the cops show up at the house 50 times, the kid got suspended from school weekly, it just goes on and on.

Most 13 year olds are capable of having an understanding of just how serious this crap is. No one wants the one little crazy shit to slip through the cracks who is not only incapable of grasping it, but insane enough to go through with it.
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There is a big difference between knee jerk reactions on a first indication and ignoring repeated warnings.
 
This is shit and there is no reason that kid should have been arrested other than a knee jerk reaction by idiot politicians. Unless arrested means interviewed by a psychologist to confirm there was no credible threat. Fine... caution yadda yadda yadda. But to just flat out arresting someone showing how Siri is arguably broken? No I don't think so.

We should also tag known child sex offenders phones to see if they are looking at kiddy porn or chatting with kids in kids games and such. Because that shit is real. (Is a dad and found one of his kids being inappropriately questioned in a game before.)

I just don't see what the kid did in this instance as a crime.
 
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kju1 said:
There is a big difference between knee jerk reactions on a first indication and ignoring repeated warnings.
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And none of the kid's history was actually in the news, was it? How do you know he wasn't already problematic with a history of BS? You don't.
 
Merc1138 said:
And none of the kid's history was actually in the news, was it? How do you know he wasn't already problematic with a history of BS? You don't.
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Which means there wasnt any or the news wouldve been all over that like flies on shit. They just LOVE those kind of stories...
 
kju1 said:
Which means there wasnt any or the news wouldve been all over that like flies on shit. They just LOVE those kind of stories...
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Wrong. Unless the kid actually caused an incident like a shooting, those sort of records are almost never revealed.
 
kju1 said:
And you know this how?

This is a bullshit move and you know it.
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Because generally unless there's a public record like an arrest, anything else would be considered protected due to the person being a minor. The information that generally comes out after the fact is usually when the kid is either dead or people have leaked it while he's sitting in jail after having killed someone. Most of the time, you don't even get names when kids are involved in a lot of incidents.

edit: Have you ever even watched or read the news? "because the offender is a minor their name has not been released to the public" is pretty common, and usually when a child is a victim names get redacted without even making that statement.
 
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