General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHave you ever received a death threat? What was the context?
Just reading about Zimmerman and his family and everyone involved in his case, and apparently, they are all getting various death threats.
While this thread is not intended to discuss Zimmerman per se, I am just curious how common this kind of thing is, and in what circumstances people get them.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)Serious threats, however, are very rare. I got one. I gave it and all the information I could find about the person who sent it to me to the police. The person who sent it got a visit. I didn't hear from him again.
That person believed that he was anonymous on the Internet. That turned out not to be so, and surprisingly easy to uncover. Took me about two hours to go from a screen name to a name and address.
Internet anonymity is largely a myth.
Note: The police will not act unless you can identify the person making the threat. They don't have time, and most such threats are idle, anyhow.
Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)Took me about the same amount of time to get a positive ID on the asshole, too. I didn't actually take the threat all that seriously (the person issuing it is a notorious shit-talker on that forum), so instead of reporting it, I made a post with nothing but the numerical component of his street address in the subject line and a screenshot of the Google Earth view of his house in the message body. Never heard another word...
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)I wasn't actually concerned about the seriousness of the threat. I just wanted to send an unmistakable message to the person who sent it. I think he got the message. Your method's not bad, either.
Bullies need lessons, sometimes.
Generally, people who send online death threats are not very bright, and usually give themselves away with a little research.
William769
(55,147 posts)Several was from my career (State Department of Corrections).
For being Gay in a redneck community and not taking no shit from them.
Just because I have AIDS (now try & figure that one out).
This is why I will not under any circumstance apologize for for having a concealed weapons permit.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)Any that you received which were particularly frightening? (And good for you on the CCW - I'm sure you are as well-trained as any LEO - heck, that's what you WERE.)
William769
(55,147 posts)With a note saying your next if AIDS don't get you first. Never found out who did it. I will say this though this is one time I would have shot to kill & taken my chances with a jury if I had caught this person.
Yes to this day I sleep with a .357 fully loaded in my bedside table. This happened when David was still alive, even though he didn't like "guns", he totally understood.
MadrasT
(7,237 posts)I am so sorry that happened to you and your pet.
Butterbean
(1,014 posts)I'm so sorry that happened to you and your poor innocent pet!
My mom has received death threats a few times, as she works with violent sex offenders and sociopaths.
BanzaiBonnie
(3,621 posts)Crazy people are CRAZY.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Details?
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)cliffordu
(30,994 posts)HappyMe
(20,277 posts)all over the internet.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)HappyMe
(20,277 posts)until I went on MIRT. It's not so scary when you know that he's just an asshat with nothing better to do.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)William769
(55,147 posts)HappyMe
(20,277 posts)We try to get him as fast as we can.
William769
(55,147 posts)& changed it to Just "The MIR Team". Several of us were hit & he was especially cruel to "uppityperson".
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)apartment balcony ranting and raving hysterically, blaming her awful neighbor (me) for all the world's ills because I have had to call the cops on her previously (once for noisy, drunken partying till all hours and once for physically abusing her minor daughter). She then threatened to kill me. I'm not sure if she was on the phone with somebody or yelling to somebody in the parking area.
At the death threat, I called the cops again. She probably won't remember all that today - but I'm sure she's nursing a whopper of a hangover.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)The most dramatic was from a guy who had just spent 10 years or so in prison for attempted murder. He didn't like the result of a psych assessment I did on him that found him dangerous & in need of enhanced supervision & treatment. He had just heard about the result at his parole agent's office & blew up. By chance I was arriving at that office on another matter & a secretary ran out into the parking lot to warn me off while the police were summoned.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)But I am a large white male. I don't expect anyone to warn me first.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)Clearly, they're out to make someone dead. Who says it's not me?
pipoman
(16,038 posts)some credible..I repossessed around 12,000 vehicles in an 18 year career, served countless court documents including seizure of property and evictions, asked many questions of people who didn't want to answer them in the course of criminal defense investigation..all a little risky from time to time..
One of the threats came from a man I was serving with a seizure notice..about 3 years later he shot my boss while doing the same thing I was doing..my boss lived after a year of recovery..
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)An employee I let go three years ago called me at my home one evening a few months after his termination and went on a five minute rant regarding how abusive I am, how horrible the working conditions are, etc. and finalizing it with a handful of ways he was going to kill me.
Anyone else, I would have called the police immediately; but seeing as how he was one of those ineffectual kind of guys who blames the world for any problem (work, women, traffic, sleeping late) by never confronting anyone (or even looking a person in the eyes-- a rather difficult proposition if you want to pretend to be tough), and simply writing about it in his blog compelled me simply to chuckle about it (and update his re-employment status to Do Not Rehire).
That being said, I have no doubts Zimmerman claims to be receiving many death threats. I do however, have some doubts as to the accuracy of his claim.
Sen. Walter Sobchak
(8,692 posts)He also had a private investigator follow me and bug my car.
I didn't take him terribly seriously. I would bet money she was cheating on him, just not with me. But we travelled together for work extensively.
My aunt however who was in a high visibility public health role at the onset of the AIDS epidemic, she practically had the police sleeping on her couch. She had lunatics on both sides threatening to kill her and occasionally some psycho would show up at her door.
sinkingfeeling
(51,457 posts)Face book. It was a directly spoken threat from a 'bouncer' while I was standing on my own property video taping what was happening at their 'club'.
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)I was playing a pick up basketball game and I fouled a guy pretty hard. He said..."I'm gonna kill you mother f*cker"
I didn't take it seriously and I'm still alive.
BTW, we won.
sarisataka
(18,663 posts)from a hospital to county detox. He claimed he was going to come back with some friends after he got out and "Put you in the ground"
That was nearly 30 years ago; I'm still here
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)So yeah, all the time.
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)My daughter was in an abusive relationship with a mentally ill person. He started calling my work and telling me I was going to die. The police called my daughter and the husband and told them never to contact me again or he would be arrested. I moved to a secure building apartment and spend a couple years looking over my shoulder. The kid never called me again and after 5 long years of being separated from her she divorced him and is rebuilding her life surrounded by her loved ones again.
quinnox
(20,600 posts)Some clown apparently does this on a regular basis. I took one look at it and deleted it, with a quick chuckle at how idiotic it was.
Probably the same clown. I reported it though.
StrayKat
(570 posts)My mother did though. One of her former coworkers had a mental illness that was well managed for decades, but his psychiatrist retired. The new psychiatrist didn't believe the extent of the illness and was uncooperative so took him off his meds. Without his meds, my mother's former coworker went way over the edge and made threatening phone calls at all hours of the night and day to some of his former coworkers including my mother. Even after he started making death threats to his congresswoman and the police were brought in the behavior continued for months because his paranoia sent him on the lam.
loli phabay
(5,580 posts)I am another who wont apoligise for carrying, or for my wife carrying also.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)MindPilot
(12,693 posts)Only one that concerned me enough to report it, and it was about something completely different. It was a phone message left at my home in response to an LTE of mine that was a bit unfavorable to the Bush administration.
VWolf
(3,944 posts)but I didn't take it seriously, and we shook hands after the final whistle.
He was just hyper-jealous of my awesomeness on the pitch.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)by mail. Letting me know I was a mongrel mudperson who would be executed when the race wars started. This was for writing a celebratory MLKJr Day article in my school newspaper that got the attention of neo-nazi scum who published my remarks online and posted my personal info.
cliffordu
(30,994 posts)death threats were part of the landscape, real or imagined.
And I did have a whole fucking army trying to kill me once. But that's another story.
My stepfather pinned me to the bed when I was 16 and said "I know who's really to blame for what's going on in this house" and that he was going to 'take care of the problem' and went back into the hall.
I heard him loading shells into the 30-06.
I went out the window and ran to a friend's house. Never went back.
That chickenshit son of a bitch killed himself 6 months later.
I've been strangely unaffected by threats since then.
BanzaiBonnie
(3,621 posts)We were working to get our 17 yo daughter away from him. He was 34 or so.
He then stalked us, poisoned our dog and enlisted another crazy meth addict to "hunt turkeys." I got a shotgun, sent our two younger daughters away for awhile, packed the gun around the house from room to room.
We sent the older daughter to a safe location and created a decoy environment by putting a blanket over the window of one downstairs room. The guy never figured out she was not here. I had the police on speed dial and they knew the story... night after night, as soon as I called 911, they knew to try and get the sheriff out here.
They finally caught him and his drug-addled buddy packing guns and knives and walkie talkies.
I ended up with a case of PTSD that still crops up from time to time.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)My glands swelled up and I was told to go to the doctor, who informed me that I had mumps. Believe me at my age I thought I was having an allergic reaction to something. I never imagined in a million years I would have had a contagious disease. She threatened to kill me if she got the mumps. I don't know if she meant it, but she was weird enough that I took it somewhat seriously. Fortunately, she didn't get sick.
Behind the Aegis
(53,959 posts)In the first case, I was put under FBI surveillance for two weeks, and was escorted to and from class, and had to notify the police when I left campus. The guy who hired the hitman was a total enema-nozzle though, so I just contacted his "superiors" and they called off the hit. The second was more serious, and several of us (university administrators) were monitored. The CIA was involved this time (which makes me think there was something else all together going on). The one who called the hit was captured and is still sitting in a federal prison.
Avalux
(35,015 posts)During her 7th grade year, she opened her locker to find an anonymous note had been stuffed in it, saying horrible things, but essentially that her days were numbered and she was going to die. She was terrified, I was terrified, we didn't know what to do.
Over the course of the next few weeks, several other death threat notes 'appeared' in various places, and we determined that someone in her classes who knew her well had to be doing it. The principal, counselor and school police were involved and the whole thing was, to put it mildly, incredibly stressful. An investigation ensued and eventually we figured out who was writing the notes. A girl who was supposedly a friend of my daughter's; but wanted to be her best friend (she was jealous of her other friends). She thought my daughter would confide in her about the notes and they'd get closer. Psycho.
The girl was expelled and sent to alternative school. A couple of years later, she came back to the high school. My daughter saw her every now and then but fortunately, nothing happened.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)He called me every name in the book, but the thing that really ticked me off was he claimed he was a "civil rights activist. "
Anyway things got heated, I had enough and sent him my phone number. He said to call him, so I did. The site used our real names instead of user names. It was not a political site, but allowed heated political discussion.
He said he was going to blow my head off, break my neck and other BS, next time he was in my area of country.
I admit I woke up for a few weeks expecting a burnt cross in my yard.
H2O Man
(73,558 posts)I'm a grass roots activist/community organizer. I've been involved in environmental conflicts that have gone to the top state court, and to federal court; and also done advocacy/support work on cases where racial hatred has fueled violence. Over the decades, I've had threatening phone calls, letters, and in-person threats (once had a board broken over my head).
It sometimes frightens my wife and children. I accept it as part of trying to do what is right. Also, I tell my wife that I'm never worried about the anonymous threats. It's the people who are silent who might potentially pose a real threat.
Also, one fellow I encountered in forensic social work has stated that when he is released from prison, he will kill me. We'll see, I guess.
LaydeeBug
(10,291 posts)He was on something.
We never had ill words before then either.
I haven't seen him since either.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)No, just kidding - dry humor is my thing.
Seriously, I'm glad he's nowhere near you, LadydeeBug!
rustydog
(9,186 posts)It is : "If I ever see you on the street, I'll fucking kill you!"
or " I will find out where you live, kill you and your whole fucking family!"
Once a guy actually found me and recognized me in a bar after being arrested for interfering with a healthcare facility. I knew the bouncers there are simply asked them to remove the ass-wipe. They did without question.
Another time a guy with psych issues threatened to kill me and my family. He actually bumped into me when we (wife and kids and I) were enjoying the annual local parade. He bumped into me, said "Sorry, Hey, don't I know you?"
I said :" No buddy, you don't." and as he walked away, I gathered the clan and we disappeared into the crowd.
OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)I discovered this had happened when I started getting threatening communications from his more "passionate" fans. Not fun.
tularetom
(23,664 posts)I was threatened with death if I said a word about it to dad.
Of course I never had any intention of doing it, but she didn't have to know that. She had just gotten her driver's license and for the next few months I could get her to take me anywhere I wanted to go.
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)I worked the late shift.
Weird thing was - he was not an inmate. His wife was a deputy and she called me one day to see how I was (we went through training together). He heard her talking to me and was the jealous sort. Beat her up after the call (nothing sexual, just catching up on things since the academy). Got called into to see my sgt who, weirdly enough, was pissed at me for talking to her and basically blamed me for him throwing her down the steps.
He tried to follow me and another deputy home (I was getting a ride). We pulled over and called the city cops on him (not our area).
Several other people over the years as well (one was a neighbor).
libodem
(19,288 posts)Has Glenn Beck, trotted out his 3, New Black Panthers, again?
Sheesh, Glenn, get a life.
You are scaring the weakest, most impotent, inept, ineffectual, candy ass, crybaby wanker, in, Florida. Stop it.
You KNOW how easily he starts that screaming.
Just Saying
(1,799 posts)But my husband has. He does snowplowing in the winter because it's off season from his job. You wouldn't believe the things customers say to him in bad weather including death threats.
At one time he owned a pizza shop and had a guy threaten to come down there and kill him I think because his pizza was late.
People are nuts!
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)One threatened me with a razor, but I could see that he didn't know how to hold it (he would have done zero damage and then I would have been mean to him), so I was not worried. He backed down.
Second one was a shmuck at my girlfriend's sorority's party that was making people uncomfortable so she asked me to get rid of him. When I asked him to leave, he said he had a knife and would kill me, I was hammered too so I told him to make my day... Tense stand off ensued but he finally backed down and left with his friends. Of course my girlfriend wouldn't talk to me for days, she was so mad that I did what she asked... Can't win...
rurallib
(62,420 posts)One guy called and I kept him talking long enough that he gave me his name.
others sent through the mail. One guy sent it with his email address on the back of the paper.
Another sent it from his company's email.
They weren't Einsteins.
Skittles
(153,169 posts)a written note from someone upset because the cat had peeped in their window