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from the more-than-just-a-40-year-old-TV-series dept.
Three months after she introduced the Internet Swatting Hoax Act in US Congress, Representative Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) found herself at the end of an apparent swatting attempt on Sunday night.
Melrose, Massachusetts police press spokesperson John Guilfoil confirmed to Ars Technica that the department received a phone call from "a computerized voice, not a natural voice" alleging "shots fired" and an "active shooter" at the address of Clark's home. The resulting police report confirmed an incident time of 9:57pm for a "life alert alarm" and "automated call reporting shooter."
This type of police report—using a disguised voice to allege false threats at a residence—is known as "swatting," due to the likelihood that police departments will react by sending SWAT teams to respond to serious-sounding threats. In the case of the Sunday night call, however, Guilfoil confirmed that Melrose police followed "established protocols" to choose a de-escalated response of normal police officers, though the officers in question blocked traffic on both ends of Clark's street with patrol cars. Guilfoil was unable to clarify whether weapons were drawn at the scene, and he did not answer our other questions about the incident, particularly those about the nature of the phone call received, "due to the ongoing nature of the investigation."
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Thursday February 04 2016, @05:01PM
The thing that's sexist here is that she completely ignores male victims of SWATing. Gender did not need to come into play here. Now we need to figure out who is a woman and who isn't. There be dragons.
Compare and contrast the tone of the article I linked above to this one [fbi.gov]. (As the article suggests, Vanderhoth is correct that SWATing is already illegal.) Now what we're really missing if we're going to make this a matter of gender are some numbers. I want to know how often the target of the SWATing is male or female. Then I want to know how often people who wind up murdered by the police after being SWATed are male or female.
I have a feeling that would paint a different story. I'd expect it'd be like the numbers for attempted suicide and completed suicide. Yeah, women make more suicide attempts, but men die far more often from suicide. I did some quick Googling, but I didn't find anything useful in the first few hits.
It is my understanding that women do feel disproportionately threatened in many everyday situations.
It's not my problem if other women think there are rapists around every corner. I somehow get through my day without being worried about that, and I'm shorter and less capable of defending myself than many women. Male privilege goes out the window, because I've determined at this point that pretty much anybody who doesn't know me will gender me female even if I'm presenting as male. No complaints here!
Besides, we're talking about the internet. I've never encountered this widespread internet harassment that's supposed to affect every last woman online, not once. I have seen a lot of shitlords like Brianna Wu get what's coming to them.
If I walk to certain neighborhoods and start promoting white supremacist views and saying that all blacks are violent criminals who haven't been caught in the act yet, I can expect on a long enough time scale of doing that somebody might get violent with me or threaten me. I'm sure I'd be harassed out of the neighborhood and even followed back to my house where I'd face further harassment. I would have to demand a law to specifically target harassment of whites! That's not racist at all, right?!
Being a woman doesn't preclude being an asshole, and I can tell you I've run into a lot of asshole women online and IRL. I concede a point to TERFs: no, I'll never understand what being coddled and privileged from day one is like. When I was harassed, I was told to stop being a crybaby and grow a pair, you sissy. So, my only advice to these women who are constantly feeling threatened by daily life: stop being a crybaby and grow a pair, you sissy. There. Gender equality!
(Oh, and the rest of us don't need white knights looking out for us, tyvm.)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 04 2016, @06:52PM
TERFs are fucking nuts. TERF:feminism::Westboro:Christianity. I have been called "traitor to the lesbian race" (stop and think about that one a moment...) because I dare to support trans rights and think rape is wrong no matter who it happens to.
Ignore them. They are loud but small, and dumber than a snowblower in the Arctic.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kurenai.tsubasa on Thursday February 04 2016, @11:54PM
Mhmm. They also have some choice words for trans men along similar lines. The mistake I made was not listening to you and others who have been telling me this for years. Turns out pretty much everybody in Michigan is insane and has latched on to extremist views of one nature or another. TERF, militia movement, white supremacism (closely related to militia) are the ones that stand out the most. Hop over to the big city, and everything is different.
Being this site, I have to nitpick your analogy. I'd say TERF:feminism::Christian Identity [wikipedia.org]:Christianity. The Westboro church is just a bunch of lawyers being assholes.