Jury of Peers (27 page)
The Internet was the conduit that it was designed to be, the carrier that Meek had envisioned–the geometric progression was rapid. Online forums took up the topic instantly, and the public debate began in earnest.
* * *
General
Meek Trial (UnModerated)
Re: Really Real?
Pages: 4
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Author
Topic: Really Real? (Read 43 Times)
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Fenwyk: Posted: 09:33
anyone seeing this? It was just up on youtube but now it's TOS. is this for real?
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asukamon: Posted: 09:34
Absolutely real. the guy's all over the news it's real. Seth Meek I guess he's come kind of banker or something that flipped out
Sent from my iPad
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asukamon: Posted: 09:34
actually he's a computer guy in D.C. and the link is dead at YouTube so I'll find it somewhere else and post it up
Sent from my iPad
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Fenwyk: Posted: 09:38
K this is crazy. The guy's really doing this. Course, those guys that _____ed his family up deserve it but wow man this is really bizarre.
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verryberry39: Posted: 09:39
So let me get this straight. You’re saying that a white guy that kidnaps two black kids and beats them up is in the right?
That's
the completely crazy part.
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Fenwyk: Posted: 09:40
they killed his whole family aren't you watching tv? And one's white, one's black. What better reason is there for him to do this? i'm totally down with this, they deserve it period and I hope they die a horrible death like they should if only our system could be like this! i'm not a racist, I'm just smarter than you
here’s an active link, hurry they go down fast:
http://200.393.392.111/tam/temp//files/21/58/28/f215828/public/Meektube.php
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verryberry39: Posted: 09:42
No, you're insane. This is why we HAVE a legal system and I'm reporting you right now for posting a link that is against the Terms of Service.
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Fenwyk:
Posted: 09:43
Bwahahaha report me in an
unmoderated
forum who's stupid? Go SM!
http://200.393.392.111/tam/temp//files/21/58/28/f215828/public/Meektube.php
http://200.393.392.111/tam/temp//files/21/58/28/f215828/public/Meektube.php
http://200.393.392.111/tam/temp//files/21/58/28/f215828/public/Meektube.php
http://200.393.392.111/tam/temp//files/21/58/28/f215828/public/Meektube.php
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asukamon:
Posted: 09:45
there's more coming up on CNN and fox now it's hitting the net hard, check. My question is how is he not getting this pinged back on him? Cant they trace him if he's online? the above link is dead already btw but there are lots of others coming up
Sent from my iPad
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gek0tec:
Posted: 09:34
yes and no. cops like the net because everything is recorded somewhere –– the feds especially are good at this kind of stuff, but you guys evidently don't know what this guy does for a living google him, he' works for a company in the city, computer security. Esoteric
NSA!
Bam. So to answer your question…… I bet he's got a few days of being untraceable before they burn him maybe less. Probably less.
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chic_over_95 Posted: 09:50
I can see why he's doing it I think. If someone murdered my mom and little brother I don't know what I'd do, but he has to be crazy right? I mean like it made him crazy?
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verryberry39: Posted: 09:51
He seems like a killer to me.
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Fenwyk: Posted: 09:51
OMG shut up STFU pleaz! We can only HOPE he's a killer the world will be a better place without these two ****ups you probably think HE's racist too
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asukamon: Posted: 09:53
check it out: http://www.juryofpeers.us
there's a site now, just a front page like he did it real fast, but its there and he's going to let everyone vote!
Sent from my iPad
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vclear9:
Posted: 09:54
This is real? The BBC has it mainpaged,
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asukamon: Posted: 09:54
seems pretty real vclear Where are you?
Sent from my iPad
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vclear9: Posted: 09:55
I'm in Notting Hill. It's on the tele here too out of London and it's on SiriusXM via BBC which means shortwave too. It's definitely real and there are at least ten live links to the broadcasts right now through Yahoo and Google alone. They're going up faster than they come down. This is moving.
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chic_over_95 (mobile via BlackBerry®) Posted: 09:55
my business teacher is saying that this isn't officially illegal until someone can prove that it's real so far he says it could all be a hoax
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vclear9: Posted: 09:56
I don't think it's a hoax love. He has a journalist there to vouch and the identities of the two young men have been confirmed according to World News. The Onion has it on their front page too, and thus far they haven't been able to find anything.
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asukamon: Posted: 09:59
round two is coming on check it out
Sent from my iPad
Chapter Forty–Seven
Telluric
The temperature in the room had risen past eighty–five in short order, and combined with the smells of sweat and urine, the conditions had crept back up to miserable long before anyone had entered a plea. Seth pushed open the overhead door and a rush of cool air flooded in to help clear the stench.
“You went to law school Mr. Ramadeep… how’d I do?” Seth asked as he cleaned up his notes and shut them in his laptop.
“I think it got the point across.”
Seth set his things in a neat row on the stairs and un–cuffed Ray’s ankles, freeing them from the chair, and then re–cuffed them loosely. “I’d imagine that you had to use the restroom. Right?”
Ray nodded, realizing that had he wanted to do so, he could have driven Meek's head down into the pavement while he was working on his ankles. Had he wanted to. He turned it over in his mind, wondering at the absurdity of it all.
“Alright, this is how it works. You’ll have both hands, but your feet will stay like that. Door stays open, and you have two minutes. One minute for a shy bladder, one for doing your business. Got it?”
Ray had already decided that the cuffs were not necessary so far as keeping him here–he wouldn’t have left this story for anything, but he did appreciate the fact that when all was said and done, he wouldn’t be sitting in a puddle.
Meek helped him up the stairs and then followed, leaving the door open both so that he could keep tabs on his guests downstairs and provide enough ventilation to make it inhabitable once again.
Ray did what he needed to do and hopped back out of the tiny restroom that still read,
Employees Only.
“Can I ask you something?” he asked as he balanced against the doorframe.
“Sure,” Meek said. He was sitting cross–legged with his laptop, typing away.
“Won’t they… I dunno, trace all of this or something?”
“They’re trying,” Meek looked up, and for the first time Ray had a glimpse of what he might once have been like. Collar open, tie askew – almost happy. “They started when we came on, and they’ve been working on it ever since.”
“Is that why we’re going so fast?”
“No.” Seth typed for a minute, and then said, “We’re moving fast because it won’t take long before those two can’t talk. Pretty soon
all
they’ll be thinking about is how bad it hurts to sit that way. Personally, I don’t give a shit, but they have to be able to talk. It’ll take more than a week for the FBI to actually get a hard traceroute on this location, probably two or three days if my former employers get involved and they will. Won’t matter by then. Mostly we’re rushing because by tomorrow morning those guys are going to be pretty comatose.”
Ray watched Seth go back to his laptop and then ventured, “What if you laid them down? Just tied them up and taped them to the floor or something?”
The typing stopped.
“Let’s go.” Meek rose, leaving his laptop, and gestured for Ray to follow him down the stairs. It was unclear whether he was inspired or angry, and this was disconcerting. The heat rose by five degrees per stair, and by the time he was again sitting and cuffed into his chair, the sweat was running into his eyes.
“Gentlemen,” Seth began. "It’s been suggested to me that perhaps you would be more comfortable if I were to give you the opportunity to lie down and stretch out on the floor. It is entirely possible, if you behave yourselves during the next portion of the broadcast, that I will entertain this suggestion. For now, I’m going back upstairs to get things in order for ten o’clock.” And with that morsel of hope thus dangled, he once again disappeared up the stairs.
Ray watched him go, marveling at how it had been played. Meek had gone out of his way to mention ‘law school’ in front of the prisoners, and then extended to Ray the freedoms that the kids lacked. He’d nudged Ray into the role of confidant, in hopes that they might talk. It didn’t take long.
“You a lawyer?” Saul said several minutes later.
“I started.”
Saul twisted his shoulders, wincing. "How’s come you didn’t go all the way?”
“I didn’t like what it did to me.”
“What’d it do?”
“It made me defend people who were guilty.”
Bolo said, “So the fuck what, ain’t that what you do?”
“You have to win cases to make money though.”
Saul understood, he’d seen it before. "You gotta win for peeps you know is all fucked up to make any scratch. So you quit?”
“Yeah.”
“Lawyers is all lil’ bitches anyways,” Bolo added for the record.
“Mr. Ray seems alright to me,” Saul said. Ray was innocent enough to take it as a compliment, Saul thought of it as an opening move. His follow up was even better, but not unexpected. “What should we do Mr. Ray? If you was our lawyer, what would you tell us?”
“Cooperate.”
Bolo scoffed. “Fuck that bitch. That guy ain’t gonna do shit no matter what we do.”
“He’s missing the point,” Ray said to Saul who was not missing it.
“Hey motherfucker, don’t talk at me like I’m some kinda retard.”
“You asked, I’m telling you. It doesn’t matter what he’ll do for you, it’s what
they’ll
do for you.”
“
They
who?” Bolo said.
Saul said, “Peeps out there.
That’s
the jury man. All of ‘em.”
“So that’s my advice. Treat it like it’s real, cooperate.”
Seth’s footfalls could be heard across the floor above them, and soon he appeared on the stairs. He lingered there for a moment jotting notes, and then descended. The lights came on without preamble, and once again the cameras came to life.
A glance at his laptop off to the side showed 1,522 viewers. This morning it had been 90. It wasn’t much, but it was about what he’d expected from the media and law enforcement. Even if they wanted to keep things close to the vest, editors had to send the thing around a little–likewise with the cops. Politics. Word was getting around.
“It is 10:02am. The preliminary hearing is used to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute an accused person. If such evidence exists,” Seth read from his notes, “then the case is bound over for grand–jury review.” He drained the last bit of warm soda from this morning’s can, and tossed it away. “The question then is, does such evidence exist?”
* * *
Television screens across the country broke away from an airport weather delay update as FOX News took a chance and brought up their three–quarter screen BREAKING NEWS graphic. The smaller News Alert images were used for all incoming stories, but this was the one was generally used to signal something like a high–speed chase or a celebrity in peril… something flashy.
“Breaking news,” this hour’s anchor began. He went to full screen, and sat up a bit straighter as if graphic had been cramping him down in the corner. “In a stunning turn of events that FOX News began covering early this week, Seth Meek, the son of former Chairman of the President’s Intelligence Oversight Board, Whitaker Meek, has evidently located and
kidnapped
the two men whom he believes are responsible for the grisly deaths of his family. He is reportedly in hiding, communicating with the outside world via covert live Internet broadcasts.” Again the anchor was forced into the corner as Seth’s live feed expanded unto the screen. He continued to voice over Seth’s comments which were barely audible, “We take you now to Meek’s live Internet feed as these events unfold…” It was delayed by seven seconds, just long enough to prevent any unfortunate accidents.
Seth’s volume increased and suddenly he was on thousands of televisions.
“… that there is sufficient evidence to bind this case over to a grand jury. Therefore, I…” he glanced to the side and peered at a laptop.
16,990 viewers. 17,534, 18,002. The counter was leapfrogging forward. Someone just got interested.
He listened to his rack of computers humming away, and then thought of those that he was using outside of this room. This was going to take some serious juice, but it was all in place. “Excuse me… therefore I will direct this case to the grand jury.”
“We’re going to take a moment to pause and summarize, seeing that we now have a substantially increased viewer base. Please, however, feel free to remind your major news services that they have both access to, and copies of my first two broadcasts which explain all that has happened in full. Additionally, I will continue to release each of these broadcasts to YouTube and others, where they will be available to the general public until they are removed.”
In fact, the first films were already being queued up in newsrooms in Atlanta and New York. Pundits were being hailed.
The slight figure on the screen, bruised but nonchalant, summarized without pause, explaining his identity and intent while the news directors at FOX silently begged Meek to show the hostages again. And as if on queue, the pair came into view, sweating, duct taped, miserable looking human beings.
“Both defendants have heard the charges leveled against them…” Seth reviewed these and the pleas entered in response. "And it has been determined that there is in fact sufficient evidence to turn this over to a grand jury.”
Seth sat back in his chair and exhaled. "Which is, after all, what this is about. The grand jury in American law is usually made up of twenty–three members. In a capital case, that is, one where the death penalty is sought, they are supposed to be questioned regarding their feelings on the death sentence. They’re to be
death qualified.
" He was looking at the camera now, not reading from any notes, simply talking. A normal looking
anyguy
in a suit and tie sharing the screen with two dismal looking kids bound to chairs.
“Besides, there’s no way to question the world is there?” he let this hang. “The grand jury in this case will be comprised of anyone who wishes to participate and has an Internet connection. That makes almost three billion of you.”
CNN picked up the live coverage and MSNBC was just moments behind.
46,333.
“I believe that this will represent a
true
cross–section. Not one that is manipulated, or pigeonholed, or negotiated, or bought. A jury that is truly of the people. All of them. The voting system that you can see on the website will soon become active for your first act as a grand jury, and you’ll see how it works.”
78,009. Not counting the email forwards, the copies, the downloads, or any number of unknowns.
“Furthermore, this is not the kind of incident that is limited to the United States, and therefore, despite the fact that it would most certainly fall under the jurisdiction of United States Law, the voting is not limited to citizens of the United States. Even now the BBC World Service has a copy of each previous broadcast, and the means by which to distribute it to their viewers and listeners around the world. This court is in the United States, but it is one of my creation and therefore I deem it open to anyone who wishes to take part.”
Meek looked over at Ray off camera and wondered for an instant what was going through his mind. Was he coming off as a lunatic? A vigilante? A sadist? Probably a little bit of each, he decided. But also, he believed that people would see him for who he was… once they found out, once they knew. They’d have to see.
“So then, you, the grand jury, are tasked with the unenviable duty of determining whether or not there is sufficient evidence against these two gentlemen to issue an indictment. At the conclusion of this broadcast, I will enter into evidence a video tape of the murders which, I believe, clearly shows the defendants at the scene and participating in the killing... and the raping.”
FOX and CNN added the feed to satellite radio stations.
209,712 viewing the live feed.
“However, before I let go of the video, I need to say some things for the record. One. This is my family. They aren’t figments, they aren’t Hollywood footage. They were real people. My family. The tape is raw, the way it was when I found it on the cell phone that came here with these two, and it's.… real. Once I let go of it, I can’t get it back. They will be seen at their worst, and it will be the memory that remains long after their smiles are forgotten. My family will hate me for this. I hate myself for not stopping it. I hate myself. This wasn’t just another killing to me, and I don’t want it remembered that way. I don't want them to just disappear from everyone's view as another number. A stat. To be reduced to a
did you see that
conversation at work tomorrow.” Seth realized that he had tears on his face, but pressed on, “I don’t want it to fade away. I want it change the way our world works. I want their lives to count.”