Feel like misleading people? Want to get people to join your side? Start a petition online!
Just as bad as the hoaxes are that have spread around the Internet for years, think Nigerian money wire, the latest appears to be petitions online and they flow steadily on the social media sites.
Just last summer I debunked one of these lying petitions with an article called, “Contrary to Hyped Reports, the Navy Isn’t Out To Kill Whales and Dolphins”
And now we have the latest, “Don’t Charge Pregnant Woman With Child Endangerment!”
Catchy isn’t it? Makes you want to click the link and sign the petition. According to the detail: Maria Guerra was driving alone when she crashed her car. She is charged with a DUI and child endangerment because she is four months pregnant. Tennessee law includes a “viable fetus” as a victim. However, the minimum of the age of the fetus is 24 weeks old, which is 5.5 months, and Guerra is only four months pregnant.
How dare they, those evil police and prosecutors?!? Until you actually dig in and find the truth and reality of the situation. The Internet is powerful when we bother to use it for fact checking.
According to free, national arrest record database Who’s Arrested, the bail amount listed in the petition is wrong, the picture used in the petition is misleading, Maria was driving without a license, was driving recklessly, and was intoxicated just not to the legal limit.
It is likely that prosecutors will throw out DUI – child endangerment charge because, as the petition actually gets right, the unborn fetus is not old enough to meet the legal requirement.
But why should I petition for this woman? Drinking and driving, drinking enough to impair her driving while pregnant, driving illegally without a license, et cetera. I see plenty of reasons not to petition for her. That is for her family to do and not the rest of us.
And again, why is this an Internet petition?