'I Can’t Imagine What Those Parents are Feeling Today, I Can’t'

What can anyone say about such unspeakable cruelty that would drive a young man to throw himself off the George Washington Bridge?

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie today called the suicide of Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi an "unspeakable tragedy" and said he can't imagine how the two students accused of secretly filming Clementi can sleep at night "knowing that they contributed to driving that young man" to suicide.

The governor spoke hours after a body that was pulled from the Hudson River was identified as Clementi. The student leaped to his death after his roommate allegedly secretly filmed him during a "sexual encounter" with a man and posted it live on the Internet,

The medical examiner's office said an autospy revealed the 18-year-old had drowned and suffered blunt impact injuries to his torso.

Christie grew emotional when discussing Clementi's death.

"As the father of a 17-year-old…I can't imagine what those parents are feeling today, I can't. You send your son to school to get an education with great hopes and aspirations, and I can't imagine what those parents are feeling today," he said.

The governor also wondered about the two students accused of taping Clementi, bragging about it online and then trying to catch him on video a second time.

Here are those two charming students:

May their lives endure pain and hardship every day for what they've done to this young man.

Christie said his feeling on the case as a father “overwhelms whatever feelings I have as governor” and that he didn’t know how Ravi and Wei could sleep at night “knowing that they contributed to driving that young man to that alternative.”

Christie said his feeling on the case as a father “overwhelms whatever feelings I have as governor” and that he didn’t know how Ravi and Wei could sleep at night “knowing that they contributed to driving that young man to that alternative.”

“That kind of stuff is just unacceptable,” he said. “And you don’t know the feelings of the person on the receiving end of that …There might be some people who can take that type of treatment and deal with it. There might be others, as this young man obviously was… much more greatly affected by it.” he said. “And you don’t know the feelings of the person on the receiving end of that …There might be some people who can take that type of treatment and deal with it. There might be others, as this young man obviously was… much more greatly affected by it.”

More here.

Bias charges are being considered against Rutgers students Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, who are accused of using a camera hidden in a dorm room to transmit online a gay sexual encounter involving Ravi's roommate Tyler Clementi, authorities said tonight.

Clementi, of Ridgewood, committed suicide after he learned of the hidden camera by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. Authorities confirmed a body found in the Hudson River Wednesday was Clementi's.

Ravi, 18, of Plainsboro, and Wei, 18, of West Windsor, face charges of invasion of privacy and transmitting the image over the internet. Both are free pending court hearings.

‘’The initial focus of this investigation has been to determine who was responsible for remotely activating the camera in the dormitory room of the student and then transmitting the encounter on the Internet,’’ Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said in a statement released this evening.

‘’Now that two individuals have been charged with invasion of privacy, we will be making every effort to assess whether bias played a role in the incident, and, if so, we will bring appropriate charges.’’

Call it a hate crime, call it a bias crime, call it what you will, this was a simple case of evil. Is this the "Jersey Shore" mentality coming home to roost, the lowest cultural denominator? You show up at school, your roommate is gay (closeted, perhaps) and this is how you treat him? How clueless are these two?

Tyler Clementi deserved better than this. His name will long be remembered. These punks Ravi and Wei should also be remembered, and shunned.