A Dark Day at DU

[sfecap]

A week or so ago, one of our distinguished members of DU posted about an incident that had occurred to him. It seemed that a member of DU (allegedly a Dean supporter) had written an email to his employer regarding opinions he had expressed here. The response from DU members was swift and sure. Find the person who did it! Ban them! A line has been crossed! This is outrageous!

A line had been crossed. That was the overwhelming opinion here.

Yesterday, it appears another line has been crossed. A far more serious and sinister line.

One of our members, an ardent Howard Dean supporter and Democratic candidate for office, received an email from an alleged Wesley Clark supporter, and author of a "Stop Dean" website. Contained within this email was the threat of physical harm. Like many of us, the victim of this outrage left his email icon at DU active. The email was sent via that link.

Note: The fact that the alleged perpetrator of this act claims to be a Wes Clark supporter is not to be construed in any way as an indictment of all Clark supporters who participate at DU. I hope they would never, ever, condone harm or threats toward another participant here, regardless of disagreements or choice of candidates.

It goes without saying that sending a threatening email is completely and totally inappropriate. It is expressly forbidden in the rules of DU. Furthermore, it is a serious offense under the law. Should this matter be proved true, this could have repercussions far beyond DU.

What is even more troubling, the recipient of this email has now been removed from these forums, while the alleged sender is still permitted to participate.

Fellow Duers, we all get pretty intense here on occasion. In recent weeks the tenor of this place has taken a turn for the worse. It is one thing to debate the candidates’ policies, opinions, statements, and political backgrounds. It is quite another thing to personalize the debate to the point of sending email threats. In the end, a candidate will be chosen, and hopefully we will all unite in the singular goal of taking back our country from the thugs who have stolen it.

It is truly unfortunate that one person here has now crossed a line that causes me to question the worth of continuing to participate at DU. I have now deactivated my email link. I do not wish to be subjected to hate mail and threats. It’s a sad commentary on the state of things here that one has to make that decision.

I am certain that the Administrators of this forum will straighten this matter out. In the meantime, I hope that we'll all take a step back, a few deep breaths, and reaffirm that hatred and threats of violence against fellow members have no place at DU.

[CatWoman]

1. If I were a betting woman

I would wager $100 that this thread won't make the night :D

[frogfromthenorth2]

2. The night???? You mean the next 15 minutes!

[CatWoman]

4. ROFL

:D

[CTLawGuy]

6. Im sorry

death threats are no laughing matter... sorry to rain on your parade.

[CatWoman]

12. Not at all dear

I'm not laughing at the circumstances.

Not at all.

I'm laughing about the fact that people continually post these type threads, knowing it's all in vain.

And to me, that's funny.

Sorry to rain on your parade.

[frogfromthenorth2]

13. CAT FIGHT!!!!

....

[KG]

25. i find the childish candidate squabbles between supposed adults

amusing myself.

i mean, it's just a fucking BBS for crying out loud. :eyes:

[Myra]

28. darboy perhaps you haven't seen the previous posts from this DU member.

That have made, me at least, skeptical.
Very skeptical.
Always good to be skeptical, but esp in this thread.

[KG]

5. we're probably not getting all the facts here.

but there might be some juicy gossip. and i know your always ready for juicy gossip, midori.

:)

[CatWoman]

7. *ping*

:D

[dsc]

10. this is not gossip

many of us have seen parts of the email in question and the defense posted by the poster in question. The email exists and we are telling the truth here.

[dsc]

3. This issue needs addressed

and I hope that happens. I alerted the poster in question and asked why he or she still had priviledges. I have yet to hear back.

[markm]

8. This Clark supporter agrees.

Peace

[calimary]

9. The RECIPIENT has been banned?

Uh... WTF?

Shouldn't it be the SENDER, as opposed to the recipient? I hope the good Admin folks are sorting this out. This is a shame if true...

[Wonk]

11. Apparently. I echo your "WTF?"

:wtf:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=user_profiles&u_id=129869

[KoKo]

18. Sorry to hear that.....is there a link to what happened?

The receiver has been here awhile. :-(

[TreasonousBastard]

31. Eh?

I remember him asking to tone things down about this.

Now he's tombstoned?

A few other tombstonings I didn't understand either, and they never tell us why.

[Cocoa]

14. an allegedly dark day at DU

who knows if any of this stuff really happened?

What we know for SURE, if you claim you've been victimized you can score points.

To go public with the accusations is a red flag to me. It would make more sense to handle it with the police, or privately with the admins.

Same reason I questioned Joe Trippi's open letter to Gephardt about the alleged gay bashing. I didn't see a reason to handle it that way, other than to score points.

[dsc]

19. The person in question tired it privately

and got banned. Just what would you have had him do at this point?

[virtualobserver]

21. yes, move along citizen

nothing to see here.

[dajabr]

24. "if you claim you've been victimized you can score points"

Or donations...

[TiredTexan]

15. As a newer member

I can only hope that DU responds to this in such a way as to not censor this link. I also hope that they deal with the issue openly, and inform us what has happened (no need for names, just what really happened, and what steps were taken).

Otherwise, DU will appear to employ the very characteristics of the regime we are working so hard to replace.

Secrecy and suppression has no place here. I just hope my faith in this wonderful, messy, open forum in not misplaced.

[Systematic Chaos]

16. What the hell could AWD have EVER done to have gotten banned??

He was one of the coolest and most active members we had. First William Pitt leaves and now this?

This just isn't right. No way. Nuh uh.

[TiredTexan]

26. Why did William Pitt leave?

I have one of his books, and love his articles at Truthout.

[dsc]

17. I admit to an astonishment over the reaction to this here

One member has a note sent to his boss and we are ready to lynch every Dean supporter on this board and a death threat is sent and nearly half the posts in this thread make sport. I am glad our priorities are in order.

[dajabr]

20. Suprising...

Isn't it? :eyes:

[cally]

23. I just don't understand what happened

I'm reading the thread trying to gather more details. Some of you have more info than the rest of us. It's appaling that someone received death threats. By the way, I don't think I posted on the William Pitt thread for a similar reason. I didn't understand what happened. It has nothing to do with who supports which candidate.

[Systematic Chaos]

27. Well, for me

this issue has nothing at all to do with who was supporting which candidate. I have yet to take part in any kind of candidate bashing whatsoever as I think every single one would do at least a marginally better job than Bush and most of them would be quantum leaps better.

No, I don't know the facts about this whole thing, and heaven only knows I don't mean to sound as though I'm "making sport" of it. I just think it's a shame that someone like AWD could have been banned. I remember some of his posts, like the one from the protest back on the original DU site, and it boggles my mind how someone like him could end up being banned. :shrug:

I hope the whole truth of the matter will come out somehow. That's all.

[davsand]

22. Am I reading this right?

The one who GOT the email was banned? How about the one who sent it? Was there something that led up to that threatening email? Some dispute that came before? I am not making sense of this.

Laura

[FloridaPat]

29. Nice to see the Democrats sticking together to fight the

imperialist realm - NOT.

And then people wonder how the republicans have so much power.

[MoonRiver]

30. This doesn't make sense.

I hope we get an explanation from adms. soon.

[Moderator]

32. I'm locking this

AWD has so far refused to provide the evidence to back up his allegations. We would love to look into it and take appropriate action if he would ever forward us the proof that a DUer made a threat against him.

any other questions should be adressed in Ask The Admin Forum