Tabletop gaming, harassment, and "white male terrorism"

[Anaxagoras]

Wow, if all of this is true, it's pretty bad. OTOH, I'm kind of getting a twinge like I had reading about UVA Jackie's alleged gang rape. Now, harassment of course is a terrible thing, and it exists. Creepy stalkers exist, and some of them seem to fixate on women. Like the young sociopath who would harass women gamers by doxxing them and swatting them. So I suppose it could be real, or parts of it could be real.

Haven't read it all yet, but start here:

It's not just video games — tabletop gaming has a harassment problem too

One of the things that made me skeptical:

++++
I am at Keycon, waiting for a friend to finish her Shadowrun game. One of my male friends hands me a pepsi. I take it and thank him.

I wake up in a hotel bed I don’t remember. A man’s hand is inside me, jabbing and painful. I try to scream but nothing comes out. I try to move but I cannot. After what feels like a lifetime, I stagger away, ripping his hand out of my jeans. The convention whirls around me like a nightmare kaleidoscope as I beg for help. Eventually, someone takes me aside.

“This is a safe convention. We have a reputation to protect. If you go to the police, we’ll say you were never here.”

I nod numbly. I think I am crying, but no tears fall. I stumble into a bathroom in the lobby coffee shop and sob until I can’t breathe. When I am calm, I call the police and report the attack.

“You sound drunk. Were you drinking? I’m not filing a report for some drunken slut.” The officer hangs up.

I have no more tears.
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Really? The part about the rape drug thing, yeah, that could happen I guess. That was Bill Cosby's MO, wasn't it?

But then when you try to report it to either the conference of the police, that is the response?

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It is 2009. A man at my game store has been sexually harassing me, talking about how much fun he would have raping me. When no one is in the store, he traps me against a wall and rubs his genitals against me. I call the police.

“This is a matter for your manager. If he touches you on the street, then you can call us.” The officer hangs up.

The owner refuses to expel the creep and fires me instead. Three years later I win a precedent-setting human rights case against him.
++++

I suppose yeah, if that happened there would be a record of it. If the police are really that terrible though.

Some mixture of truth and hyperbole?

[ed]

Calls to the cops are recorded. No recording? No call.

[Anaxagoras]

I should mention this is in Canada. Are they any different?

And since when? 20 years ago? More?

It does sound pretty hard to believe. Is it demonstrably false though, or just one of those things that can't be independently checked?

[ed]

It provides a falsifiable hypothesis. She called the cops. That is falsifiable.

[Ben Trovado]

Internal quote within internal quote from unidentified police officer:

“You sound drunk. Were you drinking? I’m not filing a report for some drunken slut.” The officer hangs up."

That sounds totally believable. Assuming she is telling a story from 1963.

[ed]

That long ago? OK then.

[Nyarlathotep]

In the '80s gamers were all a bunch of Satanists. Now we are a bunch of 'terrorists'. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Frankly, I have seen gamers do/say really shitty things. I have also seen them do/say really nice things. I haven't been keeping a tally, but I suspect the ratio of the two is roughly on par with the rest of humanity.

[Rob Lister]

Three years later I win a precedent-setting human rights case against him.

So where's the case?

[Anaxagoras]

Three years later I win a precedent-setting human rights case against him.

So where's the case?

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/ ... 04591.html

The guy she sued acted as his own lawyer:

Tackaberry acted as his own lawyer during the hearing

Tackaberry said the human rights commission's process was stacked against him, in part because Garland had a lawyer provided to help make her case, and he did not. He called the process "a kangaroo court."

[Pyrrho]

Case decision:

http://www.manitobahumanrights.ca/publi ... arland.pdf

[Ben Trovado]

Case decision:

http://www.manitobahumanrights.ca/publi ... arland.pdf

One of Canada's "Human Rights Commission" cases?

I stopped reading there. They pay for the claim to continue and are loaded with activists. That is not to say they could not reach a correct conclusion, but it does mean that I wouldn't trust them to.

I