College students attempting to catch a 22 YO "predator" charged with kidnapping and assault

y_p_w

y_p_w

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And yeah it was something they apparently did hoping they could post it to social media. Apparently a 22 year old active service member in town for a funeral and looking for companionship. Found someone on Tinder claiming to be 18. The police also say that there was no indication of asking for anything other than companionship, and in any case the age of consent in Massachusetts is 16. But apparently once he got there, they claimed that he knew that the woman was 17 and that he was thus a predator.

https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-law-about-sex

Assumption police allege the man, a 22-year-old active-duty military member who had been in Worcester for a funeral, came to campus to meet Brainard after speaking to her on Tinder.​
​
While Brainard and the others allegedly got a group of students to physically confront the man after alleging he intended to meet an underage girl for sex, police say Brainard’s Tinder account listed her as 18, and that no evidence suggests the man was a predator.​
​
The videos show the man sitting next to Brainard on a couch watching baseball as students surround him and make accusations including that he’s meeting a 17-year-old for sex.​
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The man gets up and begins to walk away; as he does so, a student puts his hand on him for several seconds.​
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The man turns around briefly and walks toward the door of the building, before being followed by more than a dozen students.​
 
UCMJ for service members is 18 years old so he will still get punished under UCMJ if found guilty.

That said, the students are lucky another school shooting didn't happen from their own actions.

Funny story, a guy in my unit got caught with a 14 year old. His defense was "I thought she was 16".......
 
Pew said:
UCMJ for service members is 18 years old so he will still get punished under UCMJ if found guilty.

That said, the students are lucky another school shooting didn't happen from their own actions.

Funny story, a guy in my unit got caught with a 14 year old. His defense was "I thought she was 16".......
Click to expand...

The Tinder profile noted 18.
 
y_p_w said:
Looked it up, and it's 16.

https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/united-states-military-age-of-consent.html
Click to expand...

Ah, okay. I've always believed it was 18.

y_p_w said:
The Tinder profile noted 18.
Click to expand...

I just noticed the first article; I only read the second one earlier. The article states she's 18 anyways so not only did she lie about being 17, there was no evidence that soldier knew she was 17 before meeting her. Plus MA and UCMJ age of consent is 16 so the kids did a really stupid thing. They got their publicity though.
 
So, the kids intentionally lied to get attention on social media.

Has society had enough of this social media crap yet? Are we at the point where we stop pretending that social media is a net positive for society?

--Edit--

Lets take this a step further. The serviceman was armed, and being mobbed by multiple assailants, very, and I mean VERY quickly could justify using deadly force to escape.

Smarten up kids, one(more) of you is going to end up in a box pulling stunts like this for recognition.
 
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dnewton3 said:
When good intentions go bad.

Best to leave law enforcement activities to law enforcement personnel. (Yes; I'm biased.)
Click to expand...

I'm not sure the intentions of the college students were all that good. When I read an article on this event, a few days ago, I got the impression that their intentions, were to make a video that they could post on TikTok. The students knew they were being deceptive, in the "bait" that they posted. So, yea, no good intentions were involved.
 
Assumption is a good and not inexpensive education which these knuckleheads put at great risk as most if not all companies do some level of background check on candidates that may include a 'reputational' check. I used to do my own when I was recruiting, not so much as to find stupidity, we all did some, but to get a sense of judgement.

This will be a tough one to 'splain away.

At least they learned one thing; how to properly dress for an arraignment.
 
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wings&wheels said:
Assumption is a good and not inexpensive education which these knuckleheads put at great risk as most if not all companies do some level of background check on candidates that may include a 'reputational' check. I used to do my own when I was recruiting, not so much as to find stupidity, we all did some, but to get a sense of judgement.

This will be a tough one to 'splain away.

At least they learned one thing; how to properly dress for an arraignment.
Click to expand...

Some of them were clearly dressed for winter. I've done that before where I was wearing all sorts of stuff and it just got unbearable when I went indoors where it was heated. Wondering why they can't at least take off the winter coat when indoors.
 
I'm actually shocked that he didn't kill them in self defense.
The mob mentality is stupid.
Military people generally know how to defend themselves.
In this case, it would have been justified.
I swear that college is where people go to get dumber.
 
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