TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

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  • Webcam Lawlessness

    Webcam Lawlessness

    Young Turn to Web Sites Without Rules:

    This is an article from the New York Times that talks about new websites that are social sites, sort of like MySpace. However, they allow live cam to cam chat between users sometimes without any moderation or enforceable age restrictions.

    Popular Web sites like YouTube and MySpace have hired the equivalent of school hallway monitors to police what visitors to their sites can see and do by cracking down on piracy and depictions of nudity and violence.

    So where do the young thrill-seekers go?

    Increasingly, to new Web sites like Stickam.com, which is building a business by going where others fear to tread: into the realm of unfiltered live broadcasts from Web cameras.

    The site combines elements of more popular sites, but with a twist. In addition to designing their own pages and uploading video clips, its users broadcast live video of themselves and conduct face-to-face video chats with other users, often from their bedrooms and all without monitoring by any of Stickam’s 35 employees.

    Well, if that doesn’t have predator haven written all over it, I don’t know what does. It’s almost like the owners of the site see a hornet’s nest and decided to whack it with a stick. Once the first lawsuit comes, they’ll probably change their minds.

    What makes it even worse is that the site’s owners have the unabashed arrogance to say their site is safer than MySpace…

    Mr. Kihioka of Stickam said that in some respects, his site was actually safer than other social networks. Live video feeds let users ‘know who they are talking to,’ he said. ‘Unlike MySpace, it is hard to disguise yourself.’ But he added that his company had the same concerns about child safety as MySpace and was working on an automated system that would monitor live video feeds for indecency.

    Here’s an idea, Sparky. How about getting that little bug straightened out before going live?

    Not only that, but think of how many sites have gotten in trouble for unmoderated cam to cam chats or unmoderated webcams. Yahoo, I’m looking at you.

    Considering the site’s feature has been banned by MySpace itself, that should tell you something about the relative safety of its features.

    Thanks to Jessica for the link.

  • Matthew Bergeron: Manchester Molester

    Matthew Bergeron: Manchester Molester

    Man charged after MySpace hookup with girl, 12:

    19-year-old Matthew Bergeron of Manchester, New Hampshire was arrested for sexual assault after meeting up with a 12-year-old girl on MySpace.

    Matthew Bergeron, 19, was arrested Saturday on three counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, five counts of felonious sexual assault, one count of indecent exposure and one count of use of computers prohibited, police said.

    Here’s the thing. I found two MySpaces for a Matthew Bergeron of Manchester. They’re definitely two different people. Rather than posting both and risk branding an innocent man as a predator, I decided not to post either of them until someone can send me some confirmation.

  • The 2006 Trenchie Awards

    The 2006 Trenchie Awards

    Back by popular demand, mostly from my wife again, I present to you the 2006 Trenchie Awards.

    Best Movie: Clerks II. I went into this movie with low expectations, but I was extremely surprised by how good it was. I may even dare to say that it’s better than the original, but I know that’s heresy.

    Worst Movie: Since Clerks II was basically the only movie I saw this year, I defer to my wife for this category, and she says that the worst movie of 2006 was a straight to video horror abomination called The Graveyard. When I asked what was wrong with the movie, she said, “Name it and that’s what’s wrong with it.”

    Best Album: No album kicked as much ass this year as the self-titled album from Ripper Owen’s solo project Beyond Fear. Honorable mention goes to Dio’s Holy Diver Live.

    Worst Album: You’d have to try really hard to have a worse album than the disappointing Operation: Mindcrime II by Queensryche. And Iron Maiden did. A Matter of Life and Death has no good songs whatsoever. It should be called A Matter of Suck and Blow.

    Best TV Show: Heroes. It was the one show I made sure that I was home to watch. House had a few missable episodes. If you’re wondering why not 24, it’s because 24’s jersey has been retired to let others have a chance.

    Worst TV Show: CSI. I got hooked on it last season due to my abandonment of Law & Order. Last season was interesting and kept me glued to my seat. This season was boring at best.

    Best Wrestling Moment: I haven’t actually watched a lot of wrestling this year. I mostly only watch TNA. In my opinion, it’s the closest they can get to the original ECW. Anyway, the best moment of the year was when Kurt Angle came to TNA and headbutted Samoa Joe.

    Worst Wrestling Moment: WWE’s continued defiling of Eddie Guererro’s corpse.

    Best Videogame: Suikoden V. A little slow in starting, but once it got underway it had me hooked. The fishing minigame is addictive as hell. The best one since II.

    Worst Videogame: Final Fantasy III. Not a horrible game, but as with most games, it didn’t live up to the hype and wasn’t worth the 15-year wait.

    Dumbass of 2006: All the dumbasses that committed various crimes to get their hands on a PS3. Get a life, people.

    Most Inane Political Agenda of 2006: The Wrong Reverend Fred Phelps who in just one of his may asshatted statements of 2006 said after the Amish school shooting in Pennsylvania his “church” planned to protest the Amish girls’ funerals saying that the Amish “don’t serve God, they serve themselves.”

    Biggest Jackass Celebrity of 2006: The skank party crew of Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears. ‘Nuff said.

    That’s it for 2006. I hope to see you here again next year for 2007.

  • James Lewerke pleads guilty

    James Lewerke pleads guilty

    Lewerke pleads guilty in slashings:

    James Lewerke, the Indiana teen who was arrested for a 2004 slashing attack against his classmates, has pleaded guilty but insane to his charges. Under the plea, he could face a maximum of 10 years. Lewerke was to be tried as an adult when his trial was supposed to start next week. The sentence will be determined on February 23rd. Hopefully, the judge will take leniency on Lewerke because, in my opinion, he is one of the few cases where the suspect is legitimately mentally ill.

  • People in glass houses

    People in glass houses

    Craigslist exec strives to keep the Internet neutral:

    Jim Buckmaster is the CEO of craigslist. He’s concerned about Net Neutrality. Basically, proponents of Net Neutrality want the government to step in and prevent ISP’s from creating tiered levels of service, with the premium-priced tier providing faster service to highly trafficked websites. Personally, I’d prefer the government to stay out of the internet, but that’s neither here nor there.

    Mr. Buckmaster would like the government to get involved.

    I guess I would say I’m cautiously optimistic that lawmakers will do the right thing, although it seems in a lot of cases that these things get decided according to who puts forward the most lobbying and the most campaign contributions, he said. Since the phone companies have played this game for decades, they certainly have an advantage there.

    Mr. Buckmaster should be careful in invoking the name of our government and should be more concerned with cleaning up his own house. MySpace has already felt the wrath of state and federal governments due to the controversy that surrounds it. With craigslist’s reputation for drug dealing, prostitution, robberies, and assaults, it’s only a matter of time before someone in the government decides to regulate craigslist.

  • craigslist babysitter was a level 3 sex offender

    craigslist babysitter was a level 3 sex offender

    Neighbor catches sex offender seeking babysitting job on Craigslist:

    Gather ’round and listen to the tale of John Gilbert Gray. A level 3 Washington State sex offender who thought he was pretty slick. His original crime was for the sexual assault of a 21-year-old woman. When he got out, he told authorities he was homeless. In actuality, he was living with his wife in an apartment. The reason was that if he reported as homeless, a sex offender notification would not be distributed around the neighborhood.

    And he would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for those meddling housewives. And the fact that he took an ad out on craigslist for BABYSITTING!!!

    But a young mother in Gray’s neighborhood, who fears retaliation and wants to remain anonymous, says she was checking Craigslist, and found an ad for babysitting that made her suspicious.

    “We decided out of the blue to check it up on Washington State sex offender’s list and lo and behold there was his face,” the mother said.

    In the neighborhood, the woman says Gray went by the name “Logan”. She says she and other mothers were alarmed to realize Gray is a level three-sex offender — the highest risk to re-offend — and that he and his wife were advertising to babysit.

    So she reported him.

    For his efforts, Gray is looking at a year in the pokey.

    I really wonder what made him think that babysitter was the logical career choice for a sex offender trying to hide from authorities. Did he think that no parent would do any kind of background check on him? Not to mention the fact that hiring a babysitter from craigslist is not the most logical choice for a parent.

  • Louisiana MySpace sting

    Louisiana MySpace sting

    Santa’s Helpers child predator operation:

    This is a story about an internet sting that took place recently in Louisiana.

    In Acadia Myspace.com helped the Acadia parish sheriff’s department and the Attorney General’s office take alleged child predators off the street.

    Christopher Patton, Mark Whitney, Troy Kimble, and Robert Brenneman were arrested during the sting, which involved setting up fake Myspace profiles of underage girls to which the suspects allegedly responded and set up meetings.

    “There are a number of statutes that play. The person who exposes himself on his webcam has violated the law. The person who arranges to meet a child for sex is breaking the law. The person who asks for child porn has violated the law. The typical has violated all three.

    And it just wouldn’t be Christmas without the MySpace profiles of at least some of the suspects.

    I was able to find the MySpaces of Patton, Kimble, and Brenneman.

    Thanks to Kirk M. for the tip.

  • ‘Tis the season to get robbed on craigslist

    ‘Tis the season to get robbed on craigslist

    CRAIGSLIST SHOPPER MACED AND ROBBED OF $2,000:

    Is anyone else besides me starting to notice a pattern here?

    Fremont police hope to take a pair of would-be entrepreneurs into custody for using the popular classifieds Web site Craigslist for a robbery ruse, police reported today.

    An unidentified victim answered an ad on the Web site for a 46-inch television on Wednesday. The sellers brought the television over to his house on Grimmer Blvd. and immediately set it up to prove that it worked, according to Fremont police.

    The victim told police he went straight to the bank to take out $2,000 to purchase the television. When he came back, however, the suspects attacked him with mace and took the money and the television.

    Yet, you never hear of any proposed legislation for the safety of craigslist users. I wonder why that is.

  • One media outlet picks up on craigslist crime spree

    One media outlet picks up on craigslist crime spree

    Craigslist Criminals: The Site’s New Danger:

    Finally, someone in the media recognizes the dangers of craigslist.

    PORTLAND- Craigslist, the fee-free website based out of San Francisco, allows users to post items they wish to buy and sell without providing identification, a policy that is beginning to cause problems.

    Portland Police say thieves are using the site to sell stolen goods. They warn: if the price is too good to be true, it probably is.

    Myles Wright has been searching for the thief who stole his $4,000 handmade trailer. Someone took it from his yard several months ago. Wright had been checking Craigslist to see if anyone was trying to sell his trailer and networking with others selling trailers to see if they had any information.

    His research paid off. Police arrested Forrest Green in connection with the theft. Green has allegedly been stealing trailers and using Craigslist to sell them. Wright’s trailer has not yet been recovered.

    Except they’re only scratching the surface. Stolen goods are only the tip of the iceberg. Let’s not leave out prostitution, rape, child molestation, robbery, and drug pushers.

  • Christopher Penley’s father files lawsuit

    Christopher Penley’s father files lawsuit

    Slain boy’s father says he plans to sue Seminole sheriff’s office:

    For those of you who may have forgotten, Christopher Penley was the Florida teen who was shot and killed by police for brandishing a pellet gun in a threatening manner at Milwee Middle School. At the time of the shooting, police were not aware that it was a pellet gun as it was altered to look authentic. An investigation by the state ruled that the shooting was lawful.

    Now Christopher Penley’s father, Ralph Penley, has filed a lawsuit in hopes the SWAT officer Lt. Michael Weippert will be fired. Weippert was the officer who shot and killed Penley.

    “The guy that murdered my son is still on the sheriff’s department squad,” Penley said, choking back tears in a telephone interview.

    “We’re gonna pursue this now because I’ve waited a long, long time,” he said.

    The civil lawsuit alleges that Weippert, the SWAT team member who shot Christopher Penley, violated the boy’s civil and constitutional rights and acted with premeditation, Keith Parker, a private investigator for the family said last week.

    “(Weippert) was not reacting to the assailant. He had already plotted out that he was going to shoot him,” Parker said. “They had that bathroom surrounded. They had enough fire power to start a war. That kid wasn’t going anywhere.”

    The family is also suing for one count of negligent retention, claiming Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger should have known that Weippert allegedly has a mental condition from past shootings and should not have been allowed to remain on the SWAT team, Parker said.

    I know that grief can cloud your judgment, so I’m not trying to condemn Mr. Penley, but this lawsuit is clearly in the wrong. None of this would even be an issue if Christopher Penley had not brought the pellet gun to school, taken another student hostage, barricaded himself in the bathroom, then threatened police with the weapon. The only person responsible for Christopher Penley’s death is Christopher Penley.