Hi All, Death Threats are nothing new and it has once again kicked off after the last round of the Champions League. We've had them before for another PL team's exit from the Champions League over a controversial decision. I am not sure if Halsey had received death Threats but can certainly say there was some really uncalled for abuse given regarding his health and god knows what else _______________________________________________________________________ I have read some alarming impact downgrading of these threats and the stalking that goes on after football results that have been debatable from some members on another board. Saying a death threat is not the same on Twitter as it is to your face. Stalking on facebook is not the same as standing outside your house in the bushes. Physically speaking that is accurate from a geographical position. I would venture that if the twitter threat makes the victim fear for their life regardless of an ignorant football fan's view, then it is the very same as going up to them with a knife and waving it at them. This was from someone I considered to be intelligent and even headed. I found it a bit shocking. This is why you will face the same charges of armed robbery for robbing a bank with a plastic gun instead of a real gun, because of the fear it invokes in the victims. The impact of telling someone you will attempt to take their life depends on the individual on how it will be received and perceived. Myself, I'd say Anger. Others Fear, others indifference. IT HAS TO STOP. We (Fans) cannot do this every time we don't get our way, those sitting on their arses judging all all and sundry from our sofas. I was as Angry as anyone when refs seem to do us, but I never had the slightest urge to threaten a ref. After becks had kicked out, hardly kicked but got sent off v Argentina, he also received death threats. Players & officials are being threatened with death for football and I am seeing a scaling down of the impacts by many saying ah its only twitter without any regard of how it affects those being threatened, this attitude from intelligent people is worrying as there is no regard of how it affects the lives of those being threatened and even less consideration for their families who were not even mentioned. Where do we go from here? I think criminal proceedings against anyone as you would if you had pulled a knife and said you will kill them, I think there is no difference, you can be angry on twitter and not mean it and you can be angry on the street with a knife and still not mean it, the impact can be the same, it can cause anxiety and fear for those and their families.
is sad and very low, only trouble is how do you go about proving that it was the person of said account for facebook,twitter etc that typed the threat and not someone else using their ip address? only way i can see getting round that is through the use of webcam as some sort of proof with your face and said time the incident occurred, but that would inevitably lead to spying on people, already does to a degree. society is wrong full stop, but to be honest i don't think their is any politicians out there today that actually give a **** for your average normal people, just let them get on with it that's the trouble, at least i can now give these little ****wads a slap if they break into my flat! i was brought up crime doesn't pay, or allegedly doesn't anyway, well when i was younger i got in with the wrong crowd and i can assure you sadly crime does ****ing pay. this is a bit sad lol but i watch those cop programmes and some of the **** they have to put up with, they go to all the hassle of getting dangerous people off the roads out of society etc, only for the Law to turn round and say don't be a naughty boy have probation and the Police who have a ****y enough job anyway, just think what's the fecking point! when crime really doesn't pay and people are held accountable for things(only seem to be when its money motivated) then we can start to sort out the terrible ****ing attitude we have in society now days, maybe we could start with me swearing lol
I understand your point, especially on the anonymity of posting these things and that takes us into internet control and monitoring, a dark dark place which actually doesn't address the root cause. It's of course as we know a social issue. An educational issue. It's also a cost issue, a privacy issue and political issue, the users can be traced there is no doubt, the effort in such tracing is expensive and if some of the communications systems used are in non friendly countries it makes it nigh impossible, as in using a North Korean proxy for example when posing from a US twitter account, unless you start hacking which is another whole kettle of tricky slippery fish.
I agree with most of the above. Difficult though it may be if you're on the receiving end of this sort of thing, it's best to remember that it's almost all hot air. I make it a rule never to say to anyone on here anything that I wouldn't say to their face. I never call people names unless I know they know it's only banter. I have to laugh at the internet hard men hurling abuse at each other in a way they'd never do in any other social scenario. Most of those that threaten refs, players, whatever are probably spotty 14 year olds who can barely tie their own shoelaces never mind carry out a death threat.
An Irish minister and his sisters all killed themselves over this, granted there might probably have been underlying issues to have taken such drastic action but in the end it must have been relentless and very distressing. The person abusing is anonymous but those being abused are not, we can't say how it should be taken until we experience it ourselves and also that we're not all thick skinned all of the time, if at all. Then there's those related to you, they have it in their faces because it's all over the web. To start to tackle it the start must be condemnation, not saying it's just hot air or someone saying it's not as bad as if they were threatening you in the street. Perception is everything to the victim and nothing to the person abusing.
I think you have to consider that football is very much the minority in this area. Google "Twitter death threats" and there are literally hundreds of cases involving any number of people - politicians, celebrities, actors, comedians all seem to get many more threats than anyone associated with football. The sheer volume of it makes it literally impossible to police - like all the tw@tters who were posting about Giggs' super injunction. Even when the 'threats' are made in person it is practically difficult - didn't 40,000 Sunderland fans sing "Steven Taylor we wish you were dead"? Are we going to bang up all of them? There's also the legal issue that a death threat is only illegal when it is made with the intention of causing the target to fear it would be carried out. The intention is harder to prove - most of the 'death threats' by Utd fans were along the line of "F****** p**** hope u die." and "The united army are coming to attack your receding hairline you daft p****". Very hard to prove beyond reasonable doubt they were actually credible threats - any half decent lawyer could argue they were just angry idiots having a rant. My point about Twitter is that it is a remote and directionless medium, with a high level of publicity - anyone can post a 'death threat' on Twitter or Facebook with no effort or credibility. But if to actually find someone's address or phone number usually takes effort over a period of time, which implies a degree of premediation which would obviously cause someone to worry. It in no way excuses the people making these threats, and at the very least they should have their accounts cut off until they voluntarily visit a police station to explain their actions and receive a formal caution. But I fail to see how a few illiterate Utd fans throwing insults around can in any way equate to the sort of specific and long term sustained campaigns of hate against refs like Frisk and Ovrebo and many other celebrities and other individuals. Of course if the campaign by any Utd fans persists then it will become more serious and need to be dealt with.
