So, I took a short vacation from blogging; but will be back fairly soon. The breaking WCJD news and the end of White Boy Summer seemed a good time for a respite. There hasn't been any updates on WCJD yet, we'll keep following the story, though. One thing that's been clarified is the timeline has to when everyone was notified. As we now now, WCJD was identified months ago but her parents have asked for privacy. Carl Koppleman said on the FB page yesterday that the parents weren't notified until shortly before we were. I should have suspected that when he said in the initial report that "not all of her relatives have been notified."
It's not normal police procedure to postpone notifying the family like that; but---well, let's just say that there was a reason why we were attempting to get the Investigative Jurisdiction changed. Maybe in hindsight, our post before the announcement had an impact after all?
WCSO Deputy: "Hey Boss! This guy just said that he was going to take us to Court!"
WCSO Sheriff: "Oh, that's right! We haven't notified anybody yet. Better get on that today. Hyuk-hyuk-hyuk-hyuk."
Ahhhhh...Just the thought of never dealing with those people again makes me want to take another vacation.
Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Social Media trolls. There are other stories besides WCJD's that we're involved in; and stories like these seem to attract people like that. I haven't closely followed the Gabby Petito Case, but if you read the MSM, you can't escape it. To sort of summarize: Gabrielle Petito and Brian Laundrie were a couple of Zoomers who decided---without much forethought---to take a roadtrip from Florida to someplace. The trip was fraught with a lot of drama and finally ended up in the Grand Tetons when Laundrie returned home minus the damsel. He disappeared shortly thereafter himself, and Gabrielle was found deceased in the mountains.
That's as much as we actually know; but that hasn't stopped armies of Cyber Bullies from jumping into the whole situation and disrupting things as much as possible. They're even pushing Gabby Petito merch; they'd surrounded and besieged the home of Brian Laundrie's parents; tying up police resources; getting into fights with the neighbors; and at last report were marching on his grandparents' home in North Carolina. That ridiculous character Dog the Bounty Hunter has even grabbed a spotlight and it's all very shameful that this happens. We're not talking about nice people here.
It's just an unfortunate fact of our postmodern Culture that there's no good way to deal with these people if you're unlucky enough to get on their radar screens. In the pre-Internet days, they were there too; it's just that editors and producers in the Legacy Media back then knew who the cranks were and could filter them out. Today, they can form their own communities and go on the offensive. If you try to ignore them, they get louder; if you confront them, they get encouraged. Humor seems to work against them with some effect, since that's a character trait that most trolls lack; but again, in some situations, humor isn't an appropriate response either.
I only that WCJD's family isn't discouraged from disclosure because of some of the online treatment their daughter received. Not all of us were like that, there were people who cared for her gravesite; worked on the case, and volunteered their talents, like Carl, by making new composites at their own time and expense. Others even took personal risks; tips came in, for example and her killer(s) have never been found---those people could be reading those very tips and take a dislike to someone saying things too close to the truth.
Friend of our blog, vlogger and novelist Bjorn Bull-Hansen posted a 15-minute video recently on the subject of Cyber Bullies and it's worth watching.
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