An update on Blogger X and the death threat

I blogged last Friday about a disturbing comment that someone attempted to post here the evening before.

In that post, I referred to Blogger X, a blogger who I think was trying to impersonate Blogger A. Blogger A and I have had, shall we say, differences in the past, but I knew Blogger A wasn’t the type to post the kind of comments that Blogger X did – which included incredibly vulgar language and, much worse, a death threat.

I contacted Blogger X’s employer last Friday (USIS) via both email and telephone, and got a call back from who I believe is the head of the IT dept there, who told me: “if this has come from one of my machines, the person is gone. This is completely unacceptable.” He alerted me that he would be getting back with me as soon as he found out who it was so I could have some closure. I am deeply grateful for how quickly USIS responded to this matter.

I received a call this morning from the same gentleman, who informed me that they had discovered who had written the death threat message. The head of the IT department said that the employee responsible was going to be relieved of his duties today. He also said it was standard operating procedure for threats of that nature to be reported to the local authorities, which they did. The Tulsa, OK police have my info if they need to contact me, but I told the IT dept. head that I didn’t wish to file charges because I don’t think Blogger X was serious about killing me.

All the same, I do think Blogger X is a highly warped individual who got off on posting a fake death threat included in a nasty message to me in someone else’s name, which is very serious business. No one should be able to post death threats whether in their own name or anyone else’s and get away with it. Not only did he write that message to me, but he continually harassed Blogger A at A’s blog daily for the last week – as well as starting a fake blog pretending to be Blogger A and writing unbelieveably disgusting things about Blogger A and A’s family and friends. This person wreaked emotional havoc on several lives and in the process inflicted temporary damage to my feeling of well-being over the course of several days. Attempting to rationalize with Blogger X would have done no good – the message he posted to me was an indicator of that, as well as the messages he continually posted at Blogger A’s. The man was beyond reason.

As to who Blogger X is, I cannot confirm if he is the person I believe he is. If Blogger X is not who I believe he is, I feel very strongly that the person who did this is affiliated closely with Blogger X as Blogger X was engaged in a bit of a blog war with Blogger A. Whoever it was knew how to start a blog, how to copy Blogger A’s template and sidebar info, and how to alter images – he used a photo of Blogger A on his copycat blog in a crude picture of two gay men arm and arm. Fortunately, the impersonator blog is now history.

I am content that this issue has been resolved, though at the same time I take no joy in the news that Blogger X (or his affiliate) received today. But this should serve as a warning: repeated online harassment including death threats – whether serious or not, whether posted by the actual person or someone impersonating them – should never be tolerated nor ignored and should always be taken seriously. The consequences of ignoring them could be tragic. I was lucky. Someone else may not be.