Runaway Bride = Towel Head

[+ glutes]

Is anybody else upset at the pure selfishness and self-centeredness of Miss Wilbanks? Spending time gambling in Vegas while her family freaks out?

God I'm glad I'm not straight and hope one DA will throw the book at her.

[Guest ChgoBoy]

>Is anybody else upset at the pure selfishness and

>self-centeredness of Miss Wilbanks? Spending time gambling in

>Vegas while her family freaks out?

>God I'm glad I'm not straight and hope one DA will throw the

>book at her.

 

 

Glutes, to be fair, her bus passed thru Las Vegas. She never graced the door of any casino. Yes, it's a sad story and somewhat bizzare. I'll bet however, this happens more than you'd expect. It just happened to get picked up by the news media and we all know what happens when that happens.

[PacNW]

600 guests? 14 brides- and groomsmen each? Who wouldn't run screaming from a circus like that. Maybe she should be congratulated.

 

A production like that in a small "tightknit" Southern town smacks of big money and big ego. Usually that's laid at the feet of the bride, but in this case it sounds like it's attributable to the family's community prestige factor. She ran away from the wedding, but that's no crime. If blame for the hysteria's going to be assigned, I'd lean more towards the consciously or unconsciously self-deluded principals who maintained for several days "Oh no, Jennifer would never run away from such a lovely wedding" instead of facing up to the idea that at least someone rather key to the proceedings didn't see it as quite the storybook romance.

[ErikMcAlister]

Maybe she should have had the balls to say so, rather than running away from her problems.

[PacNW]

I'm suggesting that there might not have been anyone around that wanted to listen to her if she did say so. You've got to snap pretty hard to catch a bus with $40 in Georgia and not lift your head up until you arrive broke in Albuquerque. That implies a fairly pressurized situation you're escaping from.

[ErikMcAlister]

Or it could imply a fucked-up concept of actions & consequences.

[Guest ReturnOfS]

Seems like stories like this has been happening a lot lately... A person disappears. People think that the person was a victim of foul play. It makes national news. Then the entire thing turns up to be a big misunderstanding.

 

Has anyone else noticed this trend?

[PacNW]

As far as the efforts and expenses of the wedding planners and guests, I'd agree she bears a lot of the responsibility. These things get worked out in the case of jilts all the time.

 

I'm just not comfortable watching her become the scapegoat for all the post-flit hooraw. How the hell was she supposed to know it was going to be a slow week for Amber Alerts and the permanent S.W.A.T.H. (Special Weapons and Tactical Hysteria) teams from the nation's news desks had to find something to justify their paychecks? Law enforcement and the media were headed into full Scott Peterson mode. Now it looks like the groom wasn't a murderer, just a schlump left at the altar too embarrassed to admit to the possibility. LE and media are disappointed there was no body at the end of the trail and no trial to be their bread ticket for the next several months and they have to find someone to blame. It's a given they're not going to look to themselves. Casting the bride as villain is easy (one bad gal makes for a simple easy-to-follow storyline), but from what I've seen so far I don't think it's particularly fair.

[+ deej]

It has always been around us. But with improved communications it takes less time for a story to get out of hand. With the nation-wide Amber Alert system, a story can go from a blip on the local news to national headlines in minutes. (Which is as it should be in justified cases.)

 

But toss in sensationalistic and ratings-driven news organizations, and you get mountains being made out of molehills.

 

Of course, quick publicity can work in our favor. It was conflicting stories told to the media that tripped up the schmucks who "found buried treasure" last week. <shrug>

[Guest ChgoBoy]

>It has always been around us. But with improved

>communications it takes less time for a story to get out of

>hand. With the nation-wide Amber Alert system, a story can go

>from a blip on the local news to national headlines in

>minutes. (Which is as it should be in justified cases.)

>

>But toss in sensationalistic and ratings-driven news

>organizations, and you get mountains being made out of

>molehills.

>

>Of course, quick publicity can work in our favor. It was

>conflicting stories told to the media that tripped up the

>schmucks who "found buried treasure" last week. <shrug>

 

Deej, is that a $20 from 1930 in your back pocket?...

:7 :7

[Justice]

One of the more sadder/frightening is that at least some of the public (and probably the authorities) thought that her fiancé was another Scott Peterson and/or Mark Hacking. x( I'm glad that she didn't suffer the same fate as Lori Hacking or Laci Peterson, but, if I were her fiancé, I would ask for my ring back and have NOTHING more to do with her. I also hope that she gets charged with some sort of crime. (At a minimum, she should be charged with filing a false police report.) That being said, I hope that she gets the help that she so obviously needs.

 

Just my $0.02.

 

Justice.

[+ glutes]

Well some of here are not alone:

 

Should Jennifer Wilbanks face charges? * 7332 responses

Yes 74% No 26%

 

Tune in to MSNBC for the latest analysis. This is not a scientifically valid survey

 

 

 

Would the media be so gun-ho if this woman was an African American?

[Guest ChgoBoy]

>Well some of here are not alone:

>

> Should Jennifer Wilbanks face charges? * 7332 responses

> Yes 74% No 26%

>

>Tune in to MSNBC for the latest analysis. This is not a

>scientifically valid survey

 

 

Jennifer Wilbanks, IMO, broke no law that would lead to criminal charges. All she did was excerise her right as an American to leave her home and travel to New Mexico. Now if you want to talk about decency and morality, I think she really betrayed her family, fiance and friends. But the last time I looked bertrayal was a character flaw, not a criminal act. Does she get to keep any of the wedding gifts anyway? loljk.

[ErikMcAlister]

She filed a police report? What? She reported herself missing?

[Guest ChgoBoy]

>She filed a police report? What? She reported herself

>missing?

 

She did? really? then thats an entirely different thing. I havent heard that.

[ErikMcAlister]

Nor have I, but it was suggested that, at minimum, she should be charged with filing a false report. I'm curious to know what report she filed & why/how it was/is false.

[Guest ChgoBoy]

>Nor have I, but it was suggested that, at minimum, she should

>be charged with filing a false report. I'm curious to know

>what report she filed & why/how it was/is false.

 

How can a missing person file a report? Wouldnt that put them in the catagory of not missing?

[Chairmans Pig]

>>She filed a police report? What? She reported herself

>>missing?

>

>She did? really? then thats an entirely different thing. I

>havent heard that.

 

If I heard correctly she first told the Albuquerque PD and the FBI in NM that she had been kidnapped.

 

CP

[ErikMcAlister]

That'll do it!

[Guest ChgoBoy]

>>>She filed a police report? What? She reported herself

>>>missing?

>>

>>She did? really? then thats an entirely different thing. I

>>havent heard that.

>

>If I heard correctly she first told the Albuquerque PD and the

>FBI in NM that she had been kidnapped.

 

Ok, then if that's true, she's at the mercy of the DA.

[PacNW]

If this all sticks to the script, the next step should be for the Governor to call the Georgia Legislature into special session to pass John's Law (named for the groom-to-be) to make it illegal for a prospective bride to ditch her fiance after they've signed the caterer's contract.

[ErikMcAlister]

Ditch whomever you want, but you don't have the right to waste public resources. There's no excuse for lying to the FBI about it.

[PacNW]

It's a pretty minor crime in this instance, and fairly understandable too if you consider her panic as she came to realize the extent of the reaction. I'm thinking the story was seen through pretty readily by the Albuquerque PD since they didn't keep her for a particularly long time and sent her off with a teddy bear. It's the Georgia authorities (the ones with egg on their faces) who are pitching a fit because she phoned a report to them during the initial period she was being held for questioning.

[ErikMcAlister]

>It's a pretty minor crime in this instance,

 

Is she going to reimburse law enforcement agencies for the money spent looking for her kidnapper?

 

>and fairly

>understandable too if you consider her panic as she came to

>realize the extent of the reaction.

 

No, lying to the FBI so that they will waste taxpayer money is NOT understandable.

 

>It's the Georgia authorities (the ones with

>egg on their faces) who are pitching a fit because she phoned

>a report to them during the initial period she was being held

>for questioning.

 

There's no excuse for phoning that report though! Getting away from a marriage you don't want doesn't mean squandering public resources.

[+ Charlie]

Young women disappear all the time and hardly anyone seems to notice or care. The difference here was that she and her fiance were both from prominent suburban Atlanta families, which was bound to attract the attention of the news media, who are always looking for another Laci Person/Lori Hacking kind of story. If she had been thinking clearly, she would have realized that she couldn't just disappear for a few days and then return quietly to her family, but she obviously was under too much stress to think clearly--the act was spontaneous and not planned. Running away from a wedding is not a criminal act, nor did she intend to set the whole manhunt/media frenzy in play. However, I think she should be responsible for the public money spent to find her (the media made money on the story, so they should probably offer her some of it), and she certainly owes profound apologies to a lot of people whom she thoughtlessly upset.