This only serves to underline just how utterly insane Alex Jones is. What are you going to do after you were just found liable for a huge judgement for organizing an online mob to intimidate, harass, and harm the parents of murdered children? Well if you are Alex Jones, you are going to organize an online mob to intimidate, harass, harm, and murder doctors, nurses, government officials and others involved in providing live-saving Covid vaccines. At the same time push obviously false claims that the Covid vaccine killed millions of people. At this point it should be obvious that the Covid virus killed millions of people (most of them unvaccinated) and the vaccine saved millions of lives. At what point does the urging the harm of others become criminal? Obviously Alex Jones crossed the line a long time ago. This is not about "free speech". Of course, Alex Jones has vowed to keep terrorizing the families of school shooting victims despite the judgment.
I'm no Alex Jones defender, but I honestly don't understand how we as a country allow these stupid lawsuits involving Monopoly money. He didn't do $965M in damages to the families. That's $64M/family in the lawsuit meaning nobody in the family would ever have to work again. How the hell do they come up with these numbers? For those who don't know, I grew up in Newtown. I went to that school. I attended 1st grade 17 years prior to the shooting and my classroom might have been one of the classrooms that was shot up. I personally know some of the people in the community that have been verbally attacked by conspiracy theorists. My dad knew one of the victim's mother, but I'm not sure if she's in this lawsuit. Sandy Hook was real and Alex Jones is a piece of shit who will say anything for money. However, this lawsuit still seems ridiculous to me on its merit. There needs to be a cap on punitive rewards.
it is excessive and the only decision Alex cna win is asking it be reduced in appeals but the final figure will still be quite high and cause him to be bankrupt forever.... It is like sentencing a 50 year old to 100 years in prison....it is to make a point and ensure there is no potential to escape punishment.
However, how much damage did he really do? Is it really even in excess of $1M? Punitive lawsuits brought forward by money hungry lawyers aren't good for society even if you despise the defendant as most of the country does.
Punitive damages for unjust behavior are meant to punish the offender and to be sure they do not profit from their activities -- either now or in the future. These are not compensatory damages.
How much is your mother worth? Your 9 year old child worth? If some fucktard goes out and makes millions of millions of dollars claiming your family member's death was fake and not real then that person deserves to be punished and punitive damages are meant to compensate for sever emotional distress. Frivolous lawsuits brought by lawyers are not good but this was not a frivulous lawsuit. Also the jury decides the damages, NOT the lawyer so the number comes from the jury. They believed Alex's actions were so egregious for the 28 deaths that they awarded a shit load of money. No one believe the families will see $1 billion but the award is meant to punish and it esnures Alex is bankrupt and can never ever do what he did or profit any more from his bullshit. Any attempts to make money off of this will be seized by the government to satisfy the judgement. Alex did this to himself.... please dont feel sorry for him. It is not like he smashed into a house causing $10,000 in damages and a jury awarded his victim $10,000,000, He was punished beyond the point of bankruptcy to send the right message to him and the next Alex Jones.
So...I'll give you that maybe he made more than $1M off of it and they should sue him for those profits he made, but he didn't make anywhere close to $965M from it. However, when it comes to lawsuits, somebody's life should have a monetary cap on it. Sure, it could be worth more in the hearts of the families, but that shouldn't be what's put into law.
In a choice between a baseball bat beating that puts him in a wheelchair wearing a drool bucket for life, which he deserves but is sadly illegal, I'd imagine he'd choose this monetary penalty.
Jones had nothing to do with the children's deaths. The award was probably too much under the circumstances.