Real Harassment

[Badger3k]

Since harassment is an issue that is real, I thought we could have a thread here to bring up incidents or otherwise talk about it. I know it's come up in other threads, but I wanted to put one here away from the Fftb threads. Saw this one on a new case up in Canada:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -katz.html Female RCMP Officer brings second lawsuit against BC.

[AndrewV69]

Since harassment is an issue that is real, I thought we could have a thread here to bring up incidents or otherwise talk about it. I know it's come up in other threads, but I wanted to put one here away from the Fftb threads. Saw this one on a new case up in Canada:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -katz.html Female RCMP Officer brings second lawsuit against BC.

I suspect that many people in and around Pitt Meadows and surrounding towns are completely indifferent to her situation no matter what the merits of her case, if not actually celebrating her woes.

She was the front and center mouthpiece for the RCMP in trying to wip up hysteria in what turned out to be a false rape accusation. While she was on the idiot box every night hyping up the incident, she pissed off a whole bunch of people in the towns in the area so much they stopped talking to the media.

"Code of silence" in rape case in Pitt Meadows is shameful"
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commenta ... cle548888/

Every single young person I talked to about the incident, both male and female was of the opinion that she was spouting horseshit, and when the dust settled there was no case:

Pitt Meadows, B.C., rave rape case falls apart due to lack of evidence
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/21 ... -evidence/

Count me as another one so completely disgusted, I could not give a flying fuck at a rolling donut hole.

I am sure there are people who are boohoohooing over her, read the comments on the articles that I linked, but everyone who knew what really happened? I doubt it.

[AndrewV69]

Oh, and that part that "there was no evidence". That is a complete and utter bullshit also. The RCMP had a video that showed.... consensual sex, in a field, with kids watching and cheering, and taking pictures.

[disumbrationist]

I suspect that many people in and around Pitt Meadows and surrounding towns are completely indifferent to her situation no matter what the merits of her case, if not actually celebrating her woes.

Wow, what a shithole Pitt Meadows must be.

[Parge]

Wow, what a shithole Pitt Meadows must be.

Nah. Not really.

http://www.jiwiz.com/Images/GNpark05.jpg

Drunken teens are like that in a lot of places. The place itself happens to be quite nice.

[John Greg]

Parge, I'm in New Westminster. Not as geographically lovely as Pitt Meadows, but a surprisingly nice, small city to live in. I moved from Ottawa to Vancouver in '79, and then moved from Vancouver to New West in '06. I wish I had moved here in '79. It's the first time I have felt really at home in decades.

[Parge]

John, I'm just over the river from you in South Delta. I've made a few stops around N. America (starting in Kitchener) and ended up back here in the early 90s. Pitt lake is one of my favourite places to hang out. It's a shame, but I think that they closed down the canoe rentals there a few years back. We had such lovely summer afternoons paddling up Widgeon Creek.

I love New West too... mostly for the antiques :) I had a job there way back selling slices of pizza to the junkies under New West station. Don't get me wrong though. I'm not trying to disparage the place. The rest of it is lovely - a keystone of BC history. They've spruced up that block under the SkyTrain a bit now it seems.

So that's you, me and Andrew... I wonder if there are any more BC folk willing to reprazent?

[windy]

Sorry, not in BC, but an interesting case from a few years back - a whole town ganged up on a girl who reported rape:
http://www.thelocal.se/25750/20100326/

Swedish prosecutors might not have the best reputation for fair dealing in sexual assault cases, but I think they did all right here.

[RebeccaB]

... I wonder if there are any more BC folk willing to reprazent?

I'm in Ootischenia, just outside Castlegar. Moved here three years ago from Calgary, but was born and partly raised in Vancouver and spent many years abroad. And I agree, New West is lovely.

[Dilurk]

... I wonder if there are any more BC folk willing to reprazent?

I'm in Ootischenia, just outside Castlegar. Moved here three years ago from Calgary, but was born and partly raised in Vancouver and spent many years abroad. And I agree, New West is lovely.

I'm here in hot Ottawa.

[JAB]

... I wonder if there are any more BC folk willing to reprazent?

I'm in Ootischenia, just outside Castlegar. Moved here three years ago from Calgary, but was born and partly raised in Vancouver and spent many years abroad. And I agree, New West is lovely.

I'm here in hot Ottawa.

And I'm a couple hours south of that on Lake Ontario.

[Parge]

What's with all the Cancon? Is the Slyme Pit just an expression of our northern bitterness?

There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas

The trouble with the maples
And they’re quite convinced they’re right
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light
But the oaks can’t help their feelings
If they like the way they’re made
And they wonder why the maples
Can’t be happy in their shade

There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream, “Oppression!”
And the oaks just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
The oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light
Now there’s no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw

;)

[RebeccaB]

Oh Parge, what a rush! :)

But yes, there does seem to be fair number of Canucks on this board.

[JAB]

Oh Parge, what a rush! :)

More Cancon there if you were quoting from the Crowbar song... OOOOOo, what a feeling, what a rush!

:lol:

[John Greg]

Scented Nectar is in Toronto.

Interesting. Lots of reasonable Canadians here. I thought Harper killed most of them/us off, metaphorically spekaing.

We had such lovely summer afternoons paddling up Widgeon Creek.

/sigh

Sounds lovely.

I spent every summer from the age of three until my early 20s paddling around on a lake in Northern Ontario called Go Home Lake. My brother still owns a cottage there, but I haven';t been back in years.

I miss it more than I can say.

Ah well. Back to the junkies under the skytrain station ;) :)

And, yes, they have done a huge amount of work fixing the place up. Since I moved here in 2006, they have put up over a dozen new highrise apartment/condo/office buildings just in the downtown core, and the New West Skytrain station now has a big mall thing and open air walkway with a multiplex, restaurants, banks, a Safeway, yadda yadda ya. I am very much of two minds about it though. It is kind of nice to have it all cleaner and a little less crimey; but at the same time, I hate the gentrification which risks the small-town neighbourhood feel that is part of what makes New West so nice.

[bannedatheist]

Now for something completely different... an on-topic reply in this thread!

There is real harassment of atheists IRL, and it doesn't help when we get banned online, too.

It might not seem like a big deal to the Xtian who gets to stick around and troll any forum thanks to religious privilege, but lots of atheists are in the closet -- some of the more vocal online atheists are in the closet -- and online is the only safe place we have. It further isolates us as a community undergoing some serious growing pains when we start banning each other online, too.

But facing harassment IRL is a whole other bag of beans -- anyone who's been bullied knows this, and probably has a pile of defensive mechanisms on hair-trigger in case it happens, again. We're all in the world -- we know people don't treat each other right. When we hear stories of harassment, even as small as banning, we should remember Alexander Aan, Sanal Edamaruku, Madelyne O'Hair, Arthur Shelton, Damon Fowler? Only three of those five people survived the abuse they received for simple act of being just like just: atheists.

I actually wrote a two part series on this very subject a few weeks ago.