For about two hours, the drama was palpable. Watching the odd balloon racing through the air with, we were told, a 6 year old inside kept me on the edge of my seat. Finding no child when it finally came down was heart wrenching. Like everyone else, I imagined the tragic fall of a child from great heights. It was an awful image. And it wasn’t real.
From the LA Times :
From the LA Times :
“There is absolutely no doubt in our minds that this was a hoax,” Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said at a news conference in Fort Collins. Richard and Mayumi Heene planned the caper for at least two weeks, he said, and are likely to face felony charges.
The sheriff added that some entertainment media might have been complicit, but he refused to identify them. One outlet, he said, had already paid the Heenes in connection with the balloon launch.
The Heenes deny wrongdoing.
The mess unraveled when young Falcon Heene said on Larry King Live that they did it “for the show.” The contention is that Heenes were trying to be the next Jon and Kate, or whatever other odd family got its own reality show. It’s hard these days to do something to grab the producers’ attention. You have to get a little,well, extreme. Clearly, faking the tragic potential death of a 6 year old from 5000 feet qualifies as extreme. It certainly grabbed my attention.
Whether it’s true that this was a hoax has yet to be proven, but if so, it begs the question: Was it wrong? Was it a crime? Should the Heenes be prosecuted for causing a nation to care about the welfare of their son?
The answer, unfortunately, is that this was not only wrong, and likely unlawful, but also a terribly bad precedent that has to be squelched quickly.
According to the WSJ Law Blog,Larimer County sheriff Jim Alderden says he will
But even if one isn’t sympathetic to the associated public costs, consider the message to the next pair of parents who want to put their reproductive rights in question. What risks would they take to hit the jackpot of being TV stars?
While I may be pop-culture challenged, and lack much familiarity with reality TV shows, I am aware of the lengths to which people will go to get their 15 minutes of fame. Witness the television and movie phenomenon Jackass, possibly the best refutation of Darwin ever. Let’s face it, people get stupid when they’re reaching for the brass ring.
It’s not that they may harm themselves, but their children and, just as bad, you and me. I can’t begin to imagine the next insane idea that some couple may have to make themselves overnight stars, but I can clearly envision them doing serious harm in the process. The message must be that they will not be rewarded for being stupid. The message must be that they will be shamed and punished.
The very existence of these reality TV shows serves as an incentive for some hard-luck types to seek a miracle, much as the lottery plays on the belief that they will be the one in ten million to win, making it appear rational to spend the lunch money on a ticket. But losing the lottery may mean that these dopes go hungry until they learn better. Engaging in hoaxes that mobilize huge public resources and create significant risk of harm to others goes too far.
If the Heenes engaged in a hoax, then they should get their air time. Not as reality stars, but as criminal defendants. And it should be broadcast far and wide to stop the next couple from doing something even stupider.
Whether it’s true that this was a hoax has yet to be proven, but if so, it begs the question: Was it wrong? Was it a crime? Should the Heenes be prosecuted for causing a nation to care about the welfare of their son?
The answer, unfortunately, is that this was not only wrong, and likely unlawful, but also a terribly bad precedent that has to be squelched quickly.
According to the WSJ Law Blog,Larimer County sheriff Jim Alderden says he will
recommend the filing of two felony charges ─ contributing to the delinquency of a minor, which carries a maximum six-year term, and attempting to influence a public servant. The government will seek restitution for the money it spent in search of the child.It’s unclear how this case would fall into a contributing to the delinquency of a minor charge, or the scope of the attempting to influence a public servant. Under New York law, however, this would clearly constitute the crime of Falsely Reporting an Incident. The consequential harm from this hoax was quite pervasive, costing a substantial amount of public money to mount the rescue, simultaneously tying up resources that might have been needed elsewhere. The balloon could have landed poorly, on a house, car or person, who was harmed, or an accident in the rescue effort could have done the same. We are prepared to suffer the costs and risks in order to save the life of a real child. We’re not prepared to do so to enhance a family’s ability to score a TV show.
But even if one isn’t sympathetic to the associated public costs, consider the message to the next pair of parents who want to put their reproductive rights in question. What risks would they take to hit the jackpot of being TV stars?
While I may be pop-culture challenged, and lack much familiarity with reality TV shows, I am aware of the lengths to which people will go to get their 15 minutes of fame. Witness the television and movie phenomenon Jackass, possibly the best refutation of Darwin ever. Let’s face it, people get stupid when they’re reaching for the brass ring.
It’s not that they may harm themselves, but their children and, just as bad, you and me. I can’t begin to imagine the next insane idea that some couple may have to make themselves overnight stars, but I can clearly envision them doing serious harm in the process. The message must be that they will not be rewarded for being stupid. The message must be that they will be shamed and punished.
The very existence of these reality TV shows serves as an incentive for some hard-luck types to seek a miracle, much as the lottery plays on the belief that they will be the one in ten million to win, making it appear rational to spend the lunch money on a ticket. But losing the lottery may mean that these dopes go hungry until they learn better. Engaging in hoaxes that mobilize huge public resources and create significant risk of harm to others goes too far.
If the Heenes engaged in a hoax, then they should get their air time. Not as reality stars, but as criminal defendants. And it should be broadcast far and wide to stop the next couple from doing something even stupider.
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First, what the little boy said hardly constitutes evidence of a crime.
Second, when will people learn to not talk to the police? As someone once commented, “If the police are talking to you then they don’t have enough to arrest you. If you talk to them they soon will have.”
As you say, the real crime is making all those people work so hard to rescue the boy for no reason. There are few non-violent crimes lower than wasting the efforts of rescue workers. This isn’t someone who ran away from their family and didn’t tell the police they were okay when the big search started. If the Heenes really staged all this, they deserve some grief.
Still, if the Sheriff finds strong evidence, I wonder if the feds will find a reason to step in because the balloon interfered with air traffic. These days, that’s probably charged as terrorism.
Dear Mr. Greenfield,
This was eloquently, beautifully & descriptively written. Nice work. Really, really nice work.
‘Cheers.
Yeah. He does that a lot.
Thank you for your kind words Sir.
Why not send a bill asking for reimbursement of the costs to the County due the false report? If the bill is not paid the County could sue in civil court asking for punitive damages as well.
The fine for a false report would be much smaller than the cost of responding to this particular incident.