Cops say they can’t believe a New Mexico woman put on ad on Craigslist to find and try to purchase drugs—‘Mary Jane’. But surely cops can’t be surprised: If Facebook's Sean Parker, as one of the nation’s top billionaires and geniuses, is dumb enough to advertise illegal drug use via Facebook public status update, police certainly can’t wonder about the average person’s online intelligence.
The 29-year-old apparently not only posted her desire to purchase some marijuana, but also confirmed her own demise by adding proof to the list of idiocy. She actively arranged to meet Roswell (NM) undercover cops via multiple text messages – apparently sealing her fate.
Perhaps one of the best questions is why law enforcement and police officers in New Mexico -- the same New Mexico ranking second-worst (#2) for most dangerous state in the nation, according to 2010 crime levels for “Daily Finance” -- have so much time on their hands that a Craigslist buy, for what seems to be some minimal amount of pot, ranks first and foremost. That fact that a small pot purchase warrants so much devoted time and effort on behalf of law enforcement is a bit baffling. The accused doesn’t exactly rank among the nation’s most dangerous drug lords.
You have to give the woman credit for trying to post in the most appropriate section. She did after all choose Craigslist's "casual encounters" to post the ‘want ad’ of sorts. If the young woman was “new to town” as the ad claimed, she wasn’t from that far out of town – or at least not from out of state. Cops claim the ad said she was "looking for Mary Jane.” Alas, she never found her. But cops did find the woman. The 29-year-old from Albuquerque was cuffed in a parking lot by officers, following texts related to the arranged meet-up.
A Roswell (NM) police sergeant expressed the idea that the Craiglist ad was so blatant, cops had to check to make sure it actually hadn’t been posted by some other undercover.
According to Roswell Police’s Ty Sharpe: "I was really surprised that someone would actually put on there [Craigslist] they were looking for weed — an actually illegal product — to the fact that I called my boss to make sure it wasn't one of our guys trying to do a reverse sting. Wait, cops are surprised someone was posting an ad for an “actually illegal product”? Well, then, it’s a bit confusing as to what the officers were doing on Craigslist if they weren’t looking for someone listing an “actually illegal” something.
But speaking of social networking and cops: It’s no secret police and attorneys have been readily using social networks and online words to prosecute crimes -- and as evidence in civil cases -- in recent years. But surely police can believe someone is dumb enough to post a ‘want ad’ for some illegal stuff when in fact one of the world’s most successful and intellectually brilliant men is dumb enough to post his own wrongdoings. It’s no secret that former Facebook President and Spotify.com investor Sean Parker has seen his share of legal troubles. First there was Napster that caused the now-billionaire some serious legal problems. Then there was a 2005 incident where Parker was pushed out of Facebook for a bit – or kind of fired, after a felony accusation that Parker was involved in a little something called cocaine possession. Fortunately for Parker he was never charged with a crime for the coke incident in North Carolina.
Sean Parker’s led a colorful life despite his young years. And who can avoid every form of trouble, when actually living. But, while living, there is something called a dollop of common sense. There’s already the recent bad press about a West Hollywood argument between Parker and Mark Zuckerberg over Spotify after last month’s announcement of Facebook integration. But at least reports of an alcohol-induced spat at The Beverly deal with a legal substance.
Sean Parker is now worth $2.6 billion and an incredibly smart guy. It would seem a Facebook founder would be highly aware of the fact that law enforcement and attorneys are using words on Facebook not only for criminal cases, but also for civil cases – even when those words aren’t intended to be public, like sent via what users assume is a private message. That would make the ultra-public form of posting a general status update involving an illegal substance to be extremely stupid, particularly at a time when the federal government seems focused on crackdowns and creating public example.
Sean Parker may not have to worry about possession charges with virtual words however, since cops are busting people using Craigslist, perhaps it’s not the best decision to tempt fate in meaningless ways – like Sean Parker’s October 14 Facebook status update: “Everybody's askin, did Snoop Dogg smoke me out? C'mon people, we're talking about SNOOP here, so YOU CAN BET HE DID, and I enthusiastically accepted his offer. Not only was it the fattest OG blunt I ever smoked, it may even have been a Jeffrey!”
Apparently Sean Parker needs a refresher on the Fifth Amendment – and that right against self-incrimination.
Surely those Facebook Friends aren’t really all that important – or important enough to risk landing your ass in jail or, say, a cop following your every future move. By the way, Sean: your Facebook profile is public and pumped out to Google and circulated on every other site including Tumblr, Reddit, and everything in-between. Maybe someone better consider fixing those privacy settings – or instituting a version for humans, like ‘zip the lip’.