For Tyler.........

Tyler Clementi, I never knew you.  However, I spoke of you back in 2010 when I learned of your tragic death by suicide.  I told my criminal law students at the time that if someone taped me having sex, and broadcast it to whoever happened to be watching on the internet, the punishment could not severe enough for such an offender.  The problem is that Dharun Ravi probably still doesn't think he did anything wrong.  Certainly, you could tell that by the way he shook his head when the jury's verdict was read today.  And, the billions of people who bully us on the internet on a daily basis don't think they are doing anything wrong, either.  It's funny.  It's entertainment.  It's certainly voyeuristic.  They are smarter and cleverer than we are.  There is no such thing as privacy anymore.  It's a real life Hunger Games where the exploitation of individuals is not viewed as something that needs to be stopped, but something that should be broadcast to the masses.  Maybe what Ravi did was worse than what an armed robber does -- criminals like Ravi are more calculating and cruel than a masked man in search of some quick money.  And, their actions can be more deadly.  I think Tyler's father summed it up beautifully today in his address to the press after the verdict:

"To our college, high school and even middle-school youngsters, I would say this: You’re going to meet a lot of people in your lifetime. Some of these people you may not like. But just because you don’t like them, does not mean you have to work against them. When you see somebody doing something wrong, tell them, “That’s not right. Stop it.”

You can make the world a better place. The change you want to see in the world begins with you."