I never questioned whether death threats are legal; they are illegal, pretty much full stop. Whether the prosecutor thinks they’re worth going after is another matter. “Hacking,” on the other hand, is practically guaranteed to get a prosecutor salivating even when there’s no real basis.
And I distinguish “violent rape” in the sense of “beat her so badly that if he hadn’t raped her the prosecution would have been automatic.” Somewhere I saw a comparison that indicated that if a guy is going to beat a woman, all things otherwise equal his chances of conviction are lessened by raping her as well. Because, you know, she might be lying about it. Or had it coming. Or something else.
I don’t think there’s any “depending on the state” caveat necessary - it’s more a matter of whether the threat/harassment is seen as serious enough that law enforcement is willing to actually expend the effort to investigate and send the case on for prosecution. The problem is, this kind of illegal activity requires a fair amount of resources and crossing jurisdictional boundaries (and a degree of technical savvy that most law enforcement totally lacks) by law enforcement, so they see it as being too much work for what they see as too little payoff.
I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and prove me wrong. It happens so rarely that I get inordinately excited when someone posts in a second thread.
The death threat you can hear in this tape comes from Columbus, Ohio. The prosecuting attorney in that district is Ron O’Brien. If he wished, he could bring criminal charges against this man by the end of the day.
(Emphasis mine.) She’s not exactly asking to set a new legal precedent here. The creep has called her more than once, he could easily be identified and prosecuted if there was the will to do so.
Come on guys. Do you really expect them to have the time to deal with some piddling little death threats when there’s still lots of hippies and uppity black people and assorted dissidents that they haven’t had time to maliciously frame and prosecute yet? Get your priorities straight.
my quick read of a few searches made it seem like there are some states where harassment is considered a criminal matter, while in others it’s a civil matter.
i think you’re right though. and i’d add the “too much work” aspect to the long list of underfunded social governance issues in the us. i sincerely hope the publicity gives her some traction.
I find it amusing you call it “Tumblr GG”, considering three of the most prolific GGers on tumblr go around posting lies that white supremacists has said, post anti-Semitic and racist imagery, and generally just being an asshole and harassing women and other marginalized groups, throwing out slurs, insults of all sorts, and so on.
I mean, when “Tumblr GG” actually makes a concerted effort to spread lies about black murder victims, how am I supposed to not think they’re part of the problem?
There is no such thing as a good GGer. They ALL have to be aware of what they’re doing at this point - which is supporting bigotry and harassment.
I think a good comparison are nazis; they fight for what they believed to be a good cause, but blissfully unaware of the damage they cause for everyone else. In short, anyone skeptical of current day social justice movement are either bigots or their tools; and all gamergaters are tools of the bigots who seek to preserve their dominance over others.
