This is the last thing I am going to say about this runaway bride bullshit (unless someone says something so indefensible I can’t control myself), which has, in my opinion, sucked entirely too muchtime out of my life and everyone elses. Thanks cable news.
Calls to prosecute Jennifer Wilbank, the runaway bride, can only be attributed to a petty desire for revenge. While Ms. Wilbank did technically break the law in New Mexico, it was only for an hour, and the authorities who have the right to prosecute, that being the New Mexico area DA and the Feds, have all declined to do anything in the matter. There is no reason to to prosecute in GA because she committed no crime there. She did not file a false report, she did not call their 911.
As such, claims like this are simply specious:
“She should be charged because she lied about her kidnappers- how many Mexican men might have been pulled over and questioned.”
None were. Period. By that logic, every gun owner in America should be charged with murder. After all, how many people COULD BE shot with those weapons?
The notion that Ms. Willbanks owes society anything more than an apology offends me. She doesn’t owe anything for the search for her. This isn’t like Susan Smith, who alerted the authorities that her children were kidnapped when she had murdered them, and thus, the authorities wasted thousands of man hours searching for them.
No one in the United States is obligated by law to tell their parents, friends, and fiance where they are all the time. That resources were wasted looking for her is a shame, but not a crime. That is why we pay taxes to pay the police- to police the state, not for a police state.
You have all the right to be mad at her for whatever silly reasons you can muster, although your anger would be better placed at CNN and the other idiots in cable television who have now wasted a week of airtime discussing this absurd non-issue. Your right for misplaced anger is firmly in place, but you have no right to use the justice system as a vehicle for petty revenge and payback because you were hoodwinked into giving a shit about something that was none of your damned business.
Now lay off this damned woman, who clearly needs space, sympathy, and therapy, and grow the hell up.
Steven
Exactly. That’s why you get the big bucks.
ppgaz
Hear, hear.
KC
And John says it again.
Justin Faulkner
Just another distraction from real issues…100% agreement here.
scs2005
Well I agree that she should be charged with a only lite crime, misdemeanor etc. However. as I have heard recently on TV, she not only told the kidnapping story to NM, she also repeated the same kidnapping story to Georgia police.
I think she and the G.A. police had a three way call with her fiance. Or the police had broken into her fiance’s line while she and he talked. I’m not sure exactly how that worked, but either way, she spoke knowingly and directly to G.A. police and lied to them.
And yes, she shouldn’t be responsible for the cost of the search that went on before her legal lie. But she did lie, period, and she should be held responsible for that lie. After all, the police shouldn’t have to mess around with fake crime stories, and this behaviour should be frowned upon and punished accordingly.
bago
A bride in Georgia gets cold feet and lies about where she is for a day or two.
Why the fuck should I care again?
John Cole
Bago- IF you can’t get the basic facts of this case right, particularly when they are listed right in the post, why should I ever listen to anything you say?
She didn’t lie to anyone for two days. She lied for AN HOUR. IN ARIZONA.
Sheesh.
ppgaz
scs2005, you overlooked one of John’s key points: NOTHING HAPPENED. the police did not “mess around” with her story, they essentially did nothing, since they are not stupid enough to fall for it and launch a manhunt on the basis of an uncorroborated story like that. The only result of her story was that the cable “news” outlets got a little more time to screech before the truth came out. Any harm (embarassment) that comes to them is fully deserved. Call it “justice” if you like.
Joe Schmoe
But she had to know that people would start looking for her.
If my wife told me that she was going for a jog, and then got on a bus and went to Las Vegas instead, I’d call the police within a few hours. She knows this.
Wilbanks had to know that her loved ones would do the same when she disappeared. The big manhunt couldn’t possibly have come as a surprise.
I am sympathetic to her plight too. That family she is marrying into seems to be pretty upitty, and if I were her I wouldn’t want to become a part of their incestuous little world either
But she damn well knew that her friends would be worried sick about her, and that they’d call the police, who would waste time and money searching for her.
I am sorry for Wilbanks. Her personal life is none of my business. But when her personal melodrama starts requring my tax dollars to be spent on it, I want a refund.
John Cole
But when her personal melodrama starts requring my tax dollars to be spent on it, I want a refund.
Her melodrama didn’t require your tax dollars. Cnn mandated it, though.
But why stop here- I think we shiould start charging people who are really kidnapped. When they get returned to their family, we can just hand the bag full of ransom money intended for the kidnappers over to the police. After all- they could have spent their money and man-hours on something else.
And let’s send a bill to everyone convicted of a crime for the labor it took to convict them.
Hell- let’s send a bill to everyone investigated, whether they are arrested, charged, and convicted or not. IN fact, we could really save some money by charging people who are suspicious.
And those people who don;t do maintenance on their cars, or don’t fill up with gas? We ought to be able to charge them some money for the time the police take to help them when they break down.
And let’s not even talk about the Fire Department. We ougfht to be able to recoup some money for people who smoke in bed, fires started that were preventable, etc.
You people need to get a damned grip on yourselves.
ppgaz
There is no law against deciding to go to Las Vegas without telling someone.
Nor will there ever be such a law. Nor should there be.
Her decision to do this is none of their business, and none of your business. STFU.
ppgaz
Just to be clear, for those morons who keep insisting that Ms. Wilbanks “owes” anyone anything because she decided to leave town without asking for permission ….
If you are worried about the cost to you, as a taxpayer, your recourse is not to ask for Ms. Wilbanks to reimburse you. Your recourse is to seek constraints and limitations on when, if and how such searches are initiated and carried out. That’s a legitimate debate.
As long as there is freedom to live one’s life (unless the shithead Republicans succeed in taking that away), and as long as people want law enforcement to go looking for people who just want to be left alone, then there is going to be a cost to be borne.
If you don’t care to bear that cose, fine, eliminate the cost if you can. But you will not succeed in “blaming” people who don’t want to be found for the cost of YOUR desire to find them.
ppgaz
I can’t stop posting on this topic. Somebody, stop me!
Anyway, I think the Republicans and the Homeland Insecurity Dept will take care of this problem.
We’ll have National ID Cards, first, and then we’ll have a requirement to show them in order to board any public transportation.
With that, brides with cold feet will be hunted down like dogs and brought back to the altar by the scruff of their necky-neck-necks, just as they should be.
At that point, CNN, Faux News, and MSNumbskullBroadcastingCo will be able to sue the government for taking away their tabloid exploitation opportunities.
Last but not least, as a white American, I demand that Ms. Wilbanks apologize to all white people for her fib about being kidnapped by an Hispanic and a white person. It’s time that white people stand up for their rights in this country, eh?
Do you think I could get on Larry King Live? Please help, I am desperate for attention.
Brian C.B.
As far as I’m concerned, having that “Ms. Deer, meet Mr. Headlights” photo plastered all over the Internets is punishment enough for Willbanks.
Joe Schmoe
Lots of sophomoric libertarianism here.
Each one of us, whether we like it or not, is a member of the community.
No one lives in a bubble. We know that when we do something, it will affect others. Others also respond do the things we do.
No, there’s no law preventing Wilbanks from going to Las Vegas.
But she damn well knew that when she simply vanished into thin air, without telling anyone where she was going, that the police would start looking for her. This takes time and costs money.
She went anyway because she is irresponsible and immature. She didn’t have the guts to call off the wedding, so she acted out in a way that she knew would cause a lot of grief and waste a lot of money and resources.
It’s time for the police to send a message to people like this: GROW UP. If she hasn’t committed a crime, then she shouldn’t be arrested. But I think the city should sue her for every penny that they spent looking for her.
scs2005
ppgaz – I understand that nothing happened after Wilbanks told her lie, considering her story was flaky and she confessed soon after. But it doesn’t matter to me.
She made a SERIOUS attempt, even if only for a few hours, to convince police of her story of a SERIOUS crime.
The fake story was not a flip comment or a joke, taken back a minute later. Or even a fake story about some trivial matter, like ‘someone stole my CD player’. In either of those cases I would have agreed to drop the matter.
Instead, she stuck to her story about a very violent crime, gave a description of the perpetrators and repeated it over and over, giving details, and acting emotionally distraught to bolster the effect. Even the mere attempt of that is unacceptable to me, even if she took it back, and even if nothing happened.
ppgaz
scs2005, good for you, your giant ego and your important outrage are noted.
The fact is, no harm was done, nobody was injured, it cost nothing, and it’s none of your damned business.
All the howling you and the tv-heads do now notwithstanding.
Don’t you have something important to rant about?
ppgaz
Joe Schmoe, what the hell is the matter with you?
People have a right to be LEFT ALONE. That is not a “libertarian” view, it’s basic to Americanism. What the hell do you think “freedom” means?
What structure of laws and procedures will you invoke to coerce people into giving up their right to get on a bus and leave town without getting permission? Spell it out, I double dog dare you. What is the remedy you propose?
What is the source of your real outrage? That your serial tabloid-tv addiction was suddenly cut short on Saturday morning?
Read my lips: It was, is and will be, none of your business. Who the hell are you to lecture anyone on how to conduct their lives? What facts do you have about the reasons for what happened, the nature of the situations involved? All you know is that a completely trumped-up “crisis” on tv suddenly evaporated. That is all you know about it. Mind your own f_____ing business.
scs2005
Fine ppgaz -have it your way.
All lies to the police are legal. You happy?
Hey, why don’t you call 911 right now and make up a lie and say your neighbor was just murdered and you saw a hispanic man do it? And then call back a few hours later and say, “Psyche!”
Hey sounds fun to me! I’m bored right now. Maybe I’ll try it too!
ppgaz
Nope, have it your loony way.
The “lie to the police” had no effect. Don’t you get that?
The disappearance itself was legal and was none of your business.
So what exactly is the basis for your rant? Do you think “lies to police” is now a national crisis?
Maybe we should have Tom DeLay convene a special session of Congress over it?
scs2005
ppgaz, Dude you obviously did not read or comprehend my reply.
My point was, I don’t CARE that there were no effect. Yes there may have been no effects, but it is my OPINION that the lying was bad enough. This opinion is a “value judgement” I have placed on the situation.
By repeating over and over that there was no effect, will not add to the argument, nor change my value judgement on the negativity of lying to the police. I think lying to the police about a serious crime is a serious offense, period, with or without effects.
bago
Whatever. Someone gets married, someone doesn’t. Unless I know them, I don’t care.
I’m not going to cry when Princess Di Kicks the bucket, or when a nobody in a southern state gets married. I have more important things to worry about, like dinner.
janice wagner
Actually she can be prosecuted in Georgia. I’m a prosector in Atlanta and my husband’s a judge here. When Wilbanks spoke to Belcher (law enforcement) and said she was kidnapped by the Hispanic man, blah, blah.. She did break Georgia law and can be prosecuted for giving false statements and/or giving a false police report. It sounds like Porter (DA) is presenting this case to a grand jury in approx 10 days. He is going forward and legal pundits here all agree she’ll be indicted by the grand jury. She thought things were bad now??? Just wait!!
Nasty McNasty
Wilbanks is just like all women, all they need is two dicks. One in her mouth and another in her pussy. Nuff said.
Anon
I am going to step aside from the rest of my opinions I have about this lady.
Everyone, she NEEDS to be charged. The law is nothing to tamper with at all. She could have got innocent people locked up just because she needed to cover her tracks on why she left her husband. she purposely planned everything. What I am glad about is that she finally told the truth AFTER and ONLY AFTER the police DID NOT BUY her story. If the police had not questioned the holes in her story, she would NOT have told the truth at all and some people would have been in jail. Her lieing to the police is actually a felony.
—-
That is just like going to a store and stealing… Lets make this story more petty so some of you guys can understand.
Lets say instead, she went to a well-named store and tries to steal a TV through the back end of the store. The alarm goes off because of the sensors on it. Lets say the store made a bigger deal about the steal than she thought and broadcasted it right away. Feeling guilty and scared of being caught on camera, she calls them at the house after some thought and says who she thinks may have done this. So, They ask her to come in. She tells her story of who might have done this. After awhile They dont neccessarily buy her story because of all the holes in it. Then she confesses of the steal and brings the TV back to them and gives them an excuse of the fact she has a problem with stealing and multiple personalities BUT FELT GUITLY and thats why she did was she did.
Dumb? Yeah, but thats exactly what she did. Everything she pulled was idiotic and made no sense what so ever if you really think about it. Her excuse was depression and she thought by saying that, she can walk away from this whole thing. I dont think so…
And some people are saying she shouldnt be charged?
Except take away a petty steal and add felonies. She purposely planned her abduction. She wasted thousands of TAX PAYERS dollars trying to find her ass. THEN she lied to the police several times about what happend. She could have got several people arrested through her antics. Think about how many innocent people are in jail now who were falsely accused of something they did not do. Jennifer Wilbanks is the type of person who would backstab and frame anyone if she needed to. She is cold and selfish.
Instead of wasting peoples time, energy, and money. She could have told her husband VERBALLY instead of through actions that she wanted out and didnt give a damn about how he felt about it. That man is stupid as hell to marry her. I agree with a family member of theirs who told him to “Take it slowly” In otherwords everyone, the guy said. TAKE YOUR TIME AND THINK ABOUT WHAT THE HELL YOU WILL BE GETTING INTO lol.