ALBANY — The act of cyber bullying now comes with a misdemeanor penalty in Albany County.
The Albany County legislature voted in favor of the anti-cyber bullying resolution, with 36 votes in favor out of the 39 elected officials.
At the last meeting, the bill was tabled so its definition could be amended. The act of cyber bullying now includes the act of communicating through electronic means by posting or disseminating embarrassing, false, or sexual information with no legitimate purpose in order to humiliate, torment or harm another person, said Legislator Brian Scavo, D-District 7, who noted that the word “repeatedly” was taken out of the original definition making it a stricter law.
While researching for the bill, he communicated with numerous families who had been affected by cyber bullying.
He plans to talk with the county District Attorney’s cyber crimes unit about the resolution.
Legislator Phil Steck, D-District 15, was one of the legislators last month who wanted to revise the bill by changing the “overly-broad” definition but keep the misdemeanor charge penalty, Steck said
Apparently it’s been around since November, but it’s news to me so I’ll post it.
The first person arrested under Albany County’s new cyberbullying law is a teenager from Cohoes High School.
Marquan Mackey-Meggs, 16, was arrested for 10 counts of harassment and 10 counts of cyberbullying. Under the new law, cyberbullying is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail
The student is accused of creating a Facebook page called “Cohoes Flame,” in which he listed sexual experiences of female, and some male, students who were between the ages of 13 and 16. Detectives obtained IP address records to track down Mackey-Meggs.
Police said the student implicated himself as the person responsible for the writings and posting of the photos. He will be in Cohoes town court on July 7 on an appearance ticket.
Sounds like the guy in this case is a flaming asshole and deserves whats coming to him. Is it a lame law yes, but the whole cyber bullying thing does have some legit claims. Personally I feel prosecuting offenders like the guy above especially when the “bullying” involves minors is justified.
This fucking state is getting out of hand, these pricks making laws musta gotten bullied, beat up and fucked in the ass as kids to pass such a stupid law. Seriously WTF is next, you already have to be 18 yrs old to buy a damn redbull now…holy shit.