In the wake of the supposed death threats towards media critic and Feminist Frequency creator, Anita Sarkeesian, on August 26th, 2014, many members of the gaming community were skeptical of her response, and of the death threats themselves.
While the threats were not the first to be directed at Sarkeesian, they were indeed the most disturbing, seemingly lending credence to her accusations of rampant misogyny in video game culture and industry.
You can see a screencap of the unsavory tweets below:
Anita Sarkeesian death threats
Click here to see a larger version of the screenshot.
As previously mentioned, many individuals were highly skeptical of the threats due to the fact that they were sent near the release of her latest video in the "Tropes Vs. Women In Video Games" series, and her request for financial support immediately following them.
Also, many were suspicious of when the screencap of the threats was taken, which less than 20 seconds after the last tweet.
A couple of days after the incident, Anita Sarkeesian posted the following on Twitter:
Anita Sarkeesian Tweets
Naturally, a man known as "Bill" took it upon himself to do some investigating, and discovered that the San Francisco Police Department had no clue in regards to Anita Sarkeesian's claims.
You can see that particular post here.
Furthermore, another individual, Davis Aurini, decided to dig a bit deeper and get in contact with Albie Esparza, San Francisco Police Department's Media Relations officer. What Aurini found out is quite intriguing.
You can see his video, and a transcript of the conversation below:
Transcript:
Aurini: I'm calling about an incident which occurred in your district on August 26th to a Miss Anita Sarkeesian; she is a prominent cultural critic who received a number of death threats over Twitter, which wound up driving her out of her own home. This has been reported throughout the gaming media, as well as in other mainstream sources such as the LA Times, and The Telegraph-
Esparza: I'm very familiar with the case… the incident. There's nothing, there's no record of any incident occurring on the 28th of August [Ed: this would be the date that she reported it, the 26th is when she received the tweets]. I've been trying to reach her for the past two days. If you have a way to contact this person and ask them for a case number, we'd appreciate that. There's no record from our dispatch centre that I called and asked. There's no record of any report being taken. So, when I saw her tweets it says "authorities"; Anita should make sure she reports to the San Fran police how she did this because there's no record.
Aurini: She said the officers told her she should stop doing her cultural commentary if she was receiving threats - is this the sort of thing that you would say to a victim of harassment?
Esparza: No, but that's hearsay. That's third party information, so I'm not going to speculate on whether or not that was said, but we wouldn't say that to someone.
Aurini: Would that possibly be disciplinary action, if an officer were to say such a thing?
Esparza: We're not going to talk about hypothetical situations because that would be hearsay. There's no record of that incident occurring, so I'm not going to speculate. It's inappropriate to make comments on that.
Aurini: I have some colleagues who have received harassment in other districts, and the police there recommended that they not respond it, or discuss it online, once the investigations has begun. Is that your department's policy, and if not, what advice would you give to somebody who was receiving threats?
Esparza: If somebody receives a threat - and we're talking specifically online: text messaging, twitter, email, that type of stuff - it's important to document it. So they should somehow save - either a text message or an email or a tweet - if they can capture that and bring it to the police station as evidence, that would be booked. It's very important that they document it, as long as can do so safely. It's very important because, again, if they don't do it and this continues, you never know what can happen. At least document it, if the person has any leads we will do our best, we take it seriously when somebody makes threats against someone's life, so we would ask that they file a report, bring the evidence, so we can initiate an investigation.
Aurini: Would your department handle online harassment, or is this the sort of thing that you would pass on to the FBI or somebody else?
Esparza: Well, certainly it depends on the nature of the threat. Typically, for a threat our department would handle it. If it's anything more significant - as far as maybe local domestic terrorism, that kind of stuff - it would move to the FBI or federal agents, but typically the city would handle it.
Aurini: If it was an online anonymous account - we don't know who the person is, it's a fake account - would you possibly pass that on because it's not a local issue, such as a domestic violence issue between a local couples
Esparza: We would certainly investigate it if we feel that it's something that is happening on a larger scale, we would share with our regional partners or even federal agents. Every case is an individual and the needs are different, but typically it's something [garbled] it would be shared amongst our law enforcement partners.
Aurini: You said you were trying to get a hold of Ms. Sarkeesian because you've never heard of it? You would like the case number that she would have received if she reported it as she claims?
Esparza: Right, so I do have a report for Ms. Sarkeesian was a victim of threats as well, but this was back in March of this year. So that's the only record I found. But there's nothing as of yet for August.
[~20 seconds of audio redacted; Anita's contact information was mentioned]
Esparza: The things it says on her tweets, she reports "authorities" but there are multiple police agencies in San Francisco, so I want to make sure she reported the harassment to the local police, and I did call the local precinct where she lives, they don't have any records of an investigation with her name currently. The only thing that came up in my system was a case from March of this year.
Aurini: So you are the public representative for the entire San Francisco area? All of the districts within?
Esparza: San Francisco PD, yes.
Read more: http://www.gamerheadlines.com/2014/09/anita-sarkeesian-faked-death-threats/#ixzz3D4St2KME
While the threats were not the first to be directed at Sarkeesian, they were indeed the most disturbing, seemingly lending credence to her accusations of rampant misogyny in video game culture and industry.
You can see a screencap of the unsavory tweets below:
Anita Sarkeesian death threats
Click here to see a larger version of the screenshot.
As previously mentioned, many individuals were highly skeptical of the threats due to the fact that they were sent near the release of her latest video in the "Tropes Vs. Women In Video Games" series, and her request for financial support immediately following them.
Also, many were suspicious of when the screencap of the threats was taken, which less than 20 seconds after the last tweet.
A couple of days after the incident, Anita Sarkeesian posted the following on Twitter:
Anita Sarkeesian Tweets
Naturally, a man known as "Bill" took it upon himself to do some investigating, and discovered that the San Francisco Police Department had no clue in regards to Anita Sarkeesian's claims.
You can see that particular post here.
Furthermore, another individual, Davis Aurini, decided to dig a bit deeper and get in contact with Albie Esparza, San Francisco Police Department's Media Relations officer. What Aurini found out is quite intriguing.
You can see his video, and a transcript of the conversation below:
Transcript:
Aurini: I'm calling about an incident which occurred in your district on August 26th to a Miss Anita Sarkeesian; she is a prominent cultural critic who received a number of death threats over Twitter, which wound up driving her out of her own home. This has been reported throughout the gaming media, as well as in other mainstream sources such as the LA Times, and The Telegraph-
Esparza: I'm very familiar with the case… the incident. There's nothing, there's no record of any incident occurring on the 28th of August [Ed: this would be the date that she reported it, the 26th is when she received the tweets]. I've been trying to reach her for the past two days. If you have a way to contact this person and ask them for a case number, we'd appreciate that. There's no record from our dispatch centre that I called and asked. There's no record of any report being taken. So, when I saw her tweets it says "authorities"; Anita should make sure she reports to the San Fran police how she did this because there's no record.
Aurini: She said the officers told her she should stop doing her cultural commentary if she was receiving threats - is this the sort of thing that you would say to a victim of harassment?
Esparza: No, but that's hearsay. That's third party information, so I'm not going to speculate on whether or not that was said, but we wouldn't say that to someone.
Aurini: Would that possibly be disciplinary action, if an officer were to say such a thing?
Esparza: We're not going to talk about hypothetical situations because that would be hearsay. There's no record of that incident occurring, so I'm not going to speculate. It's inappropriate to make comments on that.
Aurini: I have some colleagues who have received harassment in other districts, and the police there recommended that they not respond it, or discuss it online, once the investigations has begun. Is that your department's policy, and if not, what advice would you give to somebody who was receiving threats?
Esparza: If somebody receives a threat - and we're talking specifically online: text messaging, twitter, email, that type of stuff - it's important to document it. So they should somehow save - either a text message or an email or a tweet - if they can capture that and bring it to the police station as evidence, that would be booked. It's very important that they document it, as long as can do so safely. It's very important because, again, if they don't do it and this continues, you never know what can happen. At least document it, if the person has any leads we will do our best, we take it seriously when somebody makes threats against someone's life, so we would ask that they file a report, bring the evidence, so we can initiate an investigation.
Aurini: Would your department handle online harassment, or is this the sort of thing that you would pass on to the FBI or somebody else?
Esparza: Well, certainly it depends on the nature of the threat. Typically, for a threat our department would handle it. If it's anything more significant - as far as maybe local domestic terrorism, that kind of stuff - it would move to the FBI or federal agents, but typically the city would handle it.
Aurini: If it was an online anonymous account - we don't know who the person is, it's a fake account - would you possibly pass that on because it's not a local issue, such as a domestic violence issue between a local couples
Esparza: We would certainly investigate it if we feel that it's something that is happening on a larger scale, we would share with our regional partners or even federal agents. Every case is an individual and the needs are different, but typically it's something [garbled] it would be shared amongst our law enforcement partners.
Aurini: You said you were trying to get a hold of Ms. Sarkeesian because you've never heard of it? You would like the case number that she would have received if she reported it as she claims?
Esparza: Right, so I do have a report for Ms. Sarkeesian was a victim of threats as well, but this was back in March of this year. So that's the only record I found. But there's nothing as of yet for August.
[~20 seconds of audio redacted; Anita's contact information was mentioned]
Esparza: The things it says on her tweets, she reports "authorities" but there are multiple police agencies in San Francisco, so I want to make sure she reported the harassment to the local police, and I did call the local precinct where she lives, they don't have any records of an investigation with her name currently. The only thing that came up in my system was a case from March of this year.
Aurini: So you are the public representative for the entire San Francisco area? All of the districts within?
Esparza: San Francisco PD, yes.
Read more: http://www.gamerheadlines.com/2014/09/anita-sarkeesian-faked-death-threats/#ixzz3D4St2KME
