8 Awesome Cases of Internet Vigilantism
|
Yet another unintended side effect of the web has been the birth of the Internet lynch mob. Now, everything from child abuse to bad customer service can get the online masses whipped into a frenzy of Old Testament-style vengeance. Whether this is good, bad, or downright terrifying, we'll let you be the judge. #8.
Sasha Gomez and the Stolen Sidekick
A 16-year-old New Yorker, Sasha Gomez, made the unfortunate choice to steal the phone she found in the back of a cab. The victim had to buy a new phone and when she logged into her account, she found pictures of Gomez along with her AOL screen name, as Gomez hadn't been a criminal long enough to know that you don't put your name and photo on shit you steal.
A friend of the victim, Evan Guttman, tracked down the thief and sent her an IM asking her to return the phone, to which he was politely told to jam his head in his ass and see if he could look out his own mouth again. All Guttman did in response was to make a simple webpage that included the pics of Gomez and a description of what happened. These things always start small... Next the page was linked on Digg, and Gizmodo, and from there to hundreds of other sites. Hundreds of thousands of people read the story, remembered the last time they fell victim to some asshat with sticky fingers, and started a massive virtual campaign of harassment against Gomez. People from all across the planet were sending e-mails, some of them likely with the most strongly worded LOLcats you can imagine.
Of course this wasn't nearly enough for the more industrious types who tracked Gomez down on MySpace and started to harass her and her friends. Then it was time for the real hardcore avatars of justice (or the insane) to bring it into the real world, actually finding her address in Queens and driving past her home shouting accusations and 4chan memes. Eventually the thief's brother--a military police officer--got involved and told Guttman to back off, which at this stage would be like telling to butterfly to stop the hurricane it triggered. This incited a new shitstorm and earned the brother a reprimand from his military bosses. Before the situation could get out of hand and martial law declared, the thief gave up and turned in the phone. She was arrested and the story was added to the annals of cyber-mob justice. #7.
Patrick Pogan, Cyclist Abuser
We can probably all agree that things like murder, theft and cycling are wrong. It's hard not to be sympathetic then when you hear about the New York City cop who, during a demonstration by cyclists protesting... something or other, felt the need to pick one at random, on camera, to absolutely blow right off his bike for no discernible reason at all. He just hurled him like a ragdoll into a crowd.
The officer claimed the cyclist had veered into him, and so the biker was charged with assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. And it would have ended there, if there was no such thing as the Internet. Unfortunately for Pogan, the entire incident was filmed by someone who, seeing a whole bunch of annoying cyclists in the same place, knew something like this was bound to happen. The video was posted on YouTube where the whole world could see the officer move closer to the cyclist, the cyclist trying to veer out of the way and then Pogan sending him flying for no reason other than his own terrifyingly poor impulse control. A few million views later, charges against the cyclist were dropped since it was now clear that Pogan's recollection of events may have been slightly skewed by all the meat in his head. Pogan's badge and gun were taken away and he was given a desk job for seven months until finally he was fired for his actions and now faces criminal charges.
His lawyer says he quit so that he could focus on defending himself, which can't be easy considering there's that whole video thing out there. We're guessing he's either going to go for "it was all done with CGI" or "the NYPD's official policy is to toss around bicycle protesters because they find it amusing." #6.
Her Name is Dog Shit Girl
Let it be known henceforth that if your dog shits on a subway, you damn well better clean it up. You may think the subway is already chock full of human shit so your dog's waste isn't going to upset the fecal balance, but just to be on the safe side you best have some little baggies handy. Back in 2005, a South Korean woman took some manner of tiny dog on a subway, where it promptly shat on the floor of the car. South Koreans, being polite folks, asked if she wouldn't mind cleaning the steamer up. She declined. One passenger even offered her a tissue. She used it to wipe the dog's ass but left the shit on the floor. South Korean politeness just about ran its course at that point.
A passenger on the train snapped some photos of the woman with a camera phone. Some hours later her photo was on various popular websites across Korea with the label "dog shit girl" attached. Like clockwork, within a few days her name and personal info were posted everywhere as well, the results of Internet users with a lot of time and a lust for shit-free subways on their hands.
The woman herself was harassed on the street and soon requests for information about her family popped up, as people wanted to meet and harass dog shit mom and dog shit dad, maybe see if there were any dog shit babies wandering about. Eventually she was forced to quit her university in shame and issue a public apology online in which she inexplicably threatens to commit suicide if the harassment didn't stop. She didn't, as far as we know, but the story did make its way around the world, even getting picked up in the Washington Post. What else has this woman accomplished in her life? What are her goals, or talents? We will never know. From now on, she's Dog Shit Girl. #5.
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Hates Children
If there's one thing that unites mankind, it's our all consuming need to get to the can when diarrhea strikes. You can be a Shaolin monk, a soccer mom, a marine or a five-year-old girl, but when that feeling starts to brew down below, may God have mercy on anyone who stands in your way. Sadly, this credo was lost on the management of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in Huntington Beach, who refused to let a five-year-old girl use their bathroom. The result was a child evacuating the troops right there in the store, across herself and her mother and whatever else was in range, while the employees supposedly chuckled and showed the kind of indifference to the suffering of children that only a job like retail can teach you.
The mother of the girl called the manager to complain and was told that the employees who refused access to the washroom were in the right, as there were insurance concerns and Lord knows if you let one child with diarrhea into your bathroom, you'll have to let dozens more in, and before you know it the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is little more than a highway rest stop with Mallomars. Naturally, no massive shit storm like this (see what we did there?) can go unpublished, so the tale hit Consumerist.com as an example of some pretty terrible customer service. The story wound up on Digg and everywhere else and, well, you know what comes next. (We've provided a helpful visual aid below. The boy represents the Internet, and the diarrhea represents this story. See how the "story" forcefully explodes out of the Internet at a dangerously alarming rate? That's what it was like.)
The manager's contact information hit the Internet, including Google Earth shots of his home. That was then used to facilitate death threats and threats of shit being smeared across said home, which is the standard Internet reaction to not only bad customer service but health scares, insurance fraud and Thursdays. It didn't end until the CEO of the entire company stepped in, personally issuing an apology to the mother and pointing out that the franchise in question was not acting in accordance with company policy, or even state law; apparently it's required that any business serving the public make a restroom facility available. We're assuming over the next week, several hundred random strangers showed up to the store demanding to use the shitter, just daring them to refuse. |
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
Digg
Del.icio.us
FarkRecommended for Your Pleasure
-
If Video Games Were Realistic
by: CRACKED Readers562,869 views -
5 Awesome Cases of The Internet Owning The Mainstream Media
by: Robert Brockway545,808 views -
8 Online Fads You Didn't Know Were Invented Decades Ago
503,752 views -
5 Plot Devices That Make Good Video Games Suck
by: Derek James476,303 views
@Watchtower:
Sorry bud ... she gets whatever others feel she deserves. Here's the bottom line: if she hadn't stolen the phone, none of the repercussions would have ever transpired. That's it.
Chris Forcan 720 Trethewey Drive, Apt. 1503, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6M 5A5
I think he's moved now though XD
In the case of #5, at least they asked.
Ugh, Anonymous... They never seize to make me sick with their IRL mask of theirs. They wear meaningless symbols, chanting meaningless words.
But at least when they're not "changing the world," they can still do good deeds that the rest of the egoistic Internet can't do.
Even so, they try to run the world...
Heh heh, this is so totally awesome. The creeps got their just reward. Anyone who decides to behave immorally should be discouraged in the most powerful way possible, so that IT DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN.
Nah nah nah, the point is, the idiots that get attacked by Annon should pull their heads out of their asses as early on as their myspace profile being invaded, turn whatever they stole back in, and say, "I'm sorry," but instead they're too proud to do so until the MEDIA is involved. Plus, publicly humiliating punishment is an excellent way to prevent crimes. You think she's ever going to steal anything ever again ever? I bet a bunch of other potential thieves were thwarted by this because they feel like the internet is always watching. Which it is.
The first case, the one with Sasha Gomez, showcases the 3 faults with Internet vigilantism.
First, it's misguided. I bet there's at least one incident every day where someone steals something like a wallet or an XBox, and sometimes, it can be something as big as a car or money from a store. Yet it takes one story of a girl stealing one phone to set the Internet on f*****g fire. A vigilante can't only chase the obscure.
Second, it's extremely harsh. Some people, like Child Forcand, Kenny Glenn, and Patrick Pogan, deserve the harassment, but there are others like Sasha Gomez who get harassed when they don't really deserve it. Don't locate the guy's house and send every death threat in the book if he hasn't even committed a crime, let alone one severe enough to justify that level of harassment. It just makes you look like the cop who uses tear gas on a civilian.
Third, as stated by someone before, it spreads like a disease. Now, it's not just the victim of the harassment getting the death threats; the victims family and friends are now involved just for knowing him/her. Don't get a person involved if he/she wasn't involved to begin with.
Internet vigilantism is like a gun; you can only justify its use if you use it right.
/snicker
The Internet: Helping hypocrites spread the same hate that they cowardly decry, from behind computers, since 1989!
@Taekwandogirl
You should read the news article that cracked links to in the diarrhea article. All of the information that HamatoKameko is included there.
It's entirely possible, and probably likely, that all that talk about the franchise violating company policy was just a lie told by the CEO to mitigate any further PR damage. The internet hate machine doesn't really care that most stores just honestly don't have public bathrooms in them.
Moral of the story is that corporations should in general be more compassionate to individual circumstances, and that franchise owners should be given some leeway. The moral is certainly NOT that the store owners are spiteful assholes who should be mocked and scorned.
HamatoKameko, you fail at reading. There is no mention of a nearby public restroom in that section of the article, and was stated by the CEO that what the employees did was, in fact, against company policy. On top of that it was against the law.
"It didn't end until the CEO of the entire company stepped in, personally issuing an apology to the mother and pointing out that the franchise in question was not acting in accordance with company policy, or even state law; apparently it's required that any business serving the public make a restroom facility available."
Maybe it's just me but any kind of item/stock going to be sold should NEVER be in the same room people use to get excrement out of their system. Ask yourself which would be worse: someone potentially stealing things while using the bathroom, or because they were turned away deciding to take a s**t on your floor which you then get to pick up because you're a dick.
Yeeeah, I've worked retail, and I have to tell you, our private bathrooms are usually full of stock as well, and there is a chance that the kid or parent could steal. As well, the bathrooms (which you have to go to the stockroom to reach), can pose a genuine hazard to anyone who isn't extremely familiar with the rooms, when you factor in stacked heavy boxes, over-stacked shelves, buckets of merchandise all over the floor. Don't forget all the hardware and empty displays there are to pull down on oneself. And this is all to say nothing of expensive merchandise typically within easy reach. It's hard enough keeping an eye on possible shoplifters to begin with without them going out-of-sight in the back room.
Store employees are covered by the company's insurance should an incident take place involving them. Customers in places where they aren't allowed to be are not.
So there's good reason why we can't let customers into the staff bathrooms. No one who is not an employee is allowed into the stockrooms, period--not even employee's spouses or children. It's a company policy for most any retail business. In fact, it's a fantastic way to get fired on the spot, especially if the person asking is, god forbid, a company "secret shopper."
The employees of that store did nothing wrong; they were, in fact, following company rules. Not only that, but the article states that there were plenty of public bathrooms available very nearby. Instead of wasting time bitching at good employees, she could have walked to the nearest public bathroom. And I highly doubt that they stood there laughing at the kid. More than likely, it was nervous laughter from being unable to help, and trying to figure out who was going to clean up the mess.
http://ihatelara.com?id=MTI1LjIzOC45Ni4xNjc=
I also forgot to mention one case in which a 5 years old boy died when robbers stole his mom's car. The mom and the sister managed to get out, but the boy got stuck to the door. The robbers ran for miles and the boy's death was unavoidable.
Some days later, some random p***k went to the sister's scrapbook and said some pretty stupid things like "Your brother died, so what? It's him before me" and stuff. That same p***k was cursed by loads and loads of people. The number of threats he received was impossible to count.
Actually, s**t like this happens all the time in Orkut.
Last case I'm aware of, a 14 years old boy had sex with a 11 years old girl with 2 other boys in the room, one of them filming everything. Thinking it was fun to send the movie to their friends, these friends sent it to other friends, who sent to other friends... Until it ended up on the Internet.
It was a matter of seconds until people found the boy and the girl's profiles in Orkut. Also in a matter of seconds, their scrapbooks were filled with people laughing at how the boy's dong was so incredibly small and he looked like to be proud of the small thing and calling the girl a whore, a s**t and a lot of other nasty names.
The family of the girl, ashamed with all that story, moved to another town. I don't know exactly what happened to the boy and his family, though.
And this was not the first case of underage amateur porn videos ended up on the Internet. It happened once some years ago. Only different things were, there were only the boy and the girl on the bedroom, they were a little older (but still underage) and the girl did not know she was being filmed. At the end of the story, people were making fun of the boy for having a small AND dirty penis (the girl had to clean the guy's penis before going for a b*****b), and the girl's family sued the boy's family and won, although I'm not sure how much she won.
And lastly, if you know portuguese, you can check Orkut fake profiles and you'll see that a LOT of them are actively monitoring their friend's profiles. If somebody comes up and says s**t to that friend, the fake gathers other fakes and floods the offender's scrapbook.
I wish they could have mentioned supershadow on this, but unfortunately he hasn't been brought down yet...DAMN YOU SUPERSHADOW!
nice one!
Love to crack jokes and make people laugh? Now, make the world laugh at your jokes! The comedy format of Uploaded.TV, gives you this superb opportunity to shoot your comedy video and upload it in www.uploaded.tv. Your video will appear on real TV, worldwide. This is the chance to spread the joy of laughter, so grab it with both hands!
please take the video off with the cat being hit .. I didnt know it would show him howling and being hurt and it really bothered me. Sorry to be Major Buzzkill but I think you should atleast put some sort of warning that the video will show the kitty being hurt.. =(
Chris Forcand got fourchan'd HA gettit
More on Tech
-
The 5 Most Ridiculously Awful Computers Ever Made
708,389 views -
The World of Tomorrow (If The Internet Disappeared Today)
700,350 views -
A Review of the Pirated Copy of Windows 7 I Bought On eBay
609,751 views -
6 Web How-To's That Are Apparently For Supervillains
600,956 views
-
The Men Who Stare At Goats: New Trailer
by: CRACKED21,257 views -
Curse of the Duck Hunt Dog
by: Tremendosaur67,902 views
-
Articles
-
Videos
-
Columnists
-
More Cracked
-
About
Copyright © 2005 - 2009 Cracked Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. CRACKED, CRACKED.COM and the "CRACKED" logo are trademarks owned by Cracked Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved.
First: In regards to 'apparently it's required that any business serving the public make a restroom facility available', that only applies to establishments serving food.
Second: @HamatoKameko
You are dead-on! I worked in retail, women's clothing, and let me tell you there is nothing more disgusting than a woman shopper. Especially when you work in a private label in a mall. I probably shouldn't name the name of where I worked, therefore I'll just say it was a place like Ann Taylor. Anyway, the women shop at those places can't really afford it, so they'll do just about anything to get to (i.e. damage the clothing slightly for a discount and buy the clothing, wear it, then return it for a refund). You're probably saying that doesn't really have anything to do with the topic, right, but it is an extension of the woman that will ask a sales associate to use the restroom, asks for the manager (that would be me, unfortunately) when the the sales associate tells her she can't for insurance reasons and then proceeds to blow all over the toilet only to leave it there for us to clean.
People in our country think they are privy to anything they want. Somewhere between my mother chasing us out the door with the strap of an old leather purse to that disgusting thing in our store's bathroom something broke down. Because my mother taught me right from wrong and the ever important boundary, I behave properly. Thanks mean Mom.
When people are to the point they HAVE to use your bathroom and it becomes the store's fault if they have an accident, they knew for sometime they needed to go to the bathroom. Same goes for their kids. The kid has usually told the parent they have to go only to be put off by the parent while they continue shopping.