Oh, look, another abusive commenter
Jul. 21st, 2011 10:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutThe second post on the crash has attracted a vindictive, verbally abusive and local commenter who "prays" and thinks I'm an "ignorant ass" (or possibly R.). They thought they'd be really clever and post my name and the street I live on in a comment. However, I screen anonymous comments. Ooops! If you want to name and shame me in my own blog, you'll have to create an LJ account to do it; in the meantime, I'll just delete you.
I'm leaving the previous remarks in place and will case-by-case the followups. I'm assuming my commenter is local to the town and possibly related to the person or persons involved in the crash.
It really is the work of a second or two to track me down; my anonymizing is only designed to slow people down. However, I will note that the person who named me mentioned that I have pictures of small children up. I would like to point out that doing that sounds, oh, I don't know, threatening?
Maybe I'll go turn on IP tracking now.
ETA: Done. I also addressed the issues in the comment I deleted rather than unscreening (identifying a minor) by posting a link about journalism and naming minors.
Here's the deal. If I name someone in my blog in an identifiable and unflattering way, I am, in an extremely passive aggressive way, looking for a fight. I was careful about what I posted about the recent crash, because I wanted to see what kind of details were going to surface. But exculpatory details have not surfaced, and honestly, the person who showed up to defend the driver is really unpleasant in that sort of Holier Than Thou Protect My Own People Even When They Do Very Bad Things way.
A young man (already named, and already pointed out his earlier arrest) who drove down _MY_ street at a little before 11 p.m., took out a couple of phone poles and hurt, as near as I can tell, only himself and a person who was dumb enough to get into a car he was driving. But he could have killed me -- I've been out walking on that sidewalk after dark, I've been on my bike on that sidewalk, maybe not that late, but kinda late. And I've seen lots of kids in the neighborhood, and adults too, on that sidewalk late at night (and every other time of day).
He needs to be named and shamed, and everyone who knows him should be not just "praying" that he "finds the right path", but actively applying pressure (you know: taking the car keys and license away, not to mention limiting his access to alcohol) to get him to straighten up. Lots of us were young and stupid once, and plenty of us drank and drive. But it takes a special kind of bad judgment to get drunk and drive that fast down a small town street at 11 o'clock at night. Most of us have the sense to limit our bad judgment in vehicles to dry, daylight, interstates in the middle of nowhere. You know, like Montana or South Dakota or Texas.
I lost a friend, the brother of one of the closest and longest term friends I have ever been lucky enough to have, to _exactly_ this kind of bad judgment (okay, the perp in that case was on a motorcycle and died instantly, along with his passenger): driving way too fast down a small town road, late -- but not that late -- at night. In addition to killing D., it all but destroyed my friend, and their parents were devastated as well.
I might not have named the motorcyclist, had I known his name (in the late 1980s, I wasn't blogging yet): he was dead. No one needed to be warned about his future bad behavior. That's not the case here. Through a combination of luck and, as my husband pointed out, excellent choice in (expensive) well-engineered vehicle (altho the whole convertible thing was incredibly risky), this guy may well be in a position to do more or less the same (or as stupidly dangerous) thing again.
I named him, because I don't want him walking away from the repercussions of that accident and acting like they didn't happen. And I don't want him blowing it off as a one-time event. He's got a pattern.
Not that it matters; it's all documented elsewhere and google will find those places, all on its own.
I'm leaving the previous remarks in place and will case-by-case the followups. I'm assuming my commenter is local to the town and possibly related to the person or persons involved in the crash.
It really is the work of a second or two to track me down; my anonymizing is only designed to slow people down. However, I will note that the person who named me mentioned that I have pictures of small children up. I would like to point out that doing that sounds, oh, I don't know, threatening?
Maybe I'll go turn on IP tracking now.
ETA: Done. I also addressed the issues in the comment I deleted rather than unscreening (identifying a minor) by posting a link about journalism and naming minors.
Here's the deal. If I name someone in my blog in an identifiable and unflattering way, I am, in an extremely passive aggressive way, looking for a fight. I was careful about what I posted about the recent crash, because I wanted to see what kind of details were going to surface. But exculpatory details have not surfaced, and honestly, the person who showed up to defend the driver is really unpleasant in that sort of Holier Than Thou Protect My Own People Even When They Do Very Bad Things way.
A young man (already named, and already pointed out his earlier arrest) who drove down _MY_ street at a little before 11 p.m., took out a couple of phone poles and hurt, as near as I can tell, only himself and a person who was dumb enough to get into a car he was driving. But he could have killed me -- I've been out walking on that sidewalk after dark, I've been on my bike on that sidewalk, maybe not that late, but kinda late. And I've seen lots of kids in the neighborhood, and adults too, on that sidewalk late at night (and every other time of day).
He needs to be named and shamed, and everyone who knows him should be not just "praying" that he "finds the right path", but actively applying pressure (you know: taking the car keys and license away, not to mention limiting his access to alcohol) to get him to straighten up. Lots of us were young and stupid once, and plenty of us drank and drive. But it takes a special kind of bad judgment to get drunk and drive that fast down a small town street at 11 o'clock at night. Most of us have the sense to limit our bad judgment in vehicles to dry, daylight, interstates in the middle of nowhere. You know, like Montana or South Dakota or Texas.
I lost a friend, the brother of one of the closest and longest term friends I have ever been lucky enough to have, to _exactly_ this kind of bad judgment (okay, the perp in that case was on a motorcycle and died instantly, along with his passenger): driving way too fast down a small town road, late -- but not that late -- at night. In addition to killing D., it all but destroyed my friend, and their parents were devastated as well.
I might not have named the motorcyclist, had I known his name (in the late 1980s, I wasn't blogging yet): he was dead. No one needed to be warned about his future bad behavior. That's not the case here. Through a combination of luck and, as my husband pointed out, excellent choice in (expensive) well-engineered vehicle (altho the whole convertible thing was incredibly risky), this guy may well be in a position to do more or less the same (or as stupidly dangerous) thing again.
I named him, because I don't want him walking away from the repercussions of that accident and acting like they didn't happen. And I don't want him blowing it off as a one-time event. He's got a pattern.
Not that it matters; it's all documented elsewhere and google will find those places, all on its own.