Slashdot Mirror
Britain's First "Web-Rage" Attack
brown-eyed slug writes "The BBC is reporting what is claimed to be Britain's first "web-rage" attack. A man drove seventy miles to assault his victim with a pick-axe handle after they exchanged insults in a Yahoo! chat room." From the article: "Det Cons Christopher Creagh, of the Metropolitan Police, said: 'This is the first instance of a web-rage attack.' Det Sgt Jean-Marc Bazzoni, of Essex Police, added the case demonstrates the importance of protecting one's identity on the internet. 'Mr Jones had posted pictures of his family on the web and had chatted to Gibbons on an audio link,' he said. 'It demonstrates how easily other users can put two and two together and also shows how children could also find themselves in danger.'"
That is why I do not give my home address here :-)...
Regards, Johan Louwers.
This doesn't have as much to do with the internet as they'd want you to think, I mean the guy drove 70 miles with an axe, obviously he wasn't stable to begin with.
In a world of acronyms, the words are the real victims.
"It demonstrates how easily other users can put two and two together and also shows how children could also find themselves in danger." ...which, in turn, demonstrates why children should not be allowed unfettered access to the Net. Of course, it's probably just easier to pass legislation than to watch what your kids are doing - that makes it somebody else's problem.
The only surefire protection against Microsoft infections is abstinence. - The Onion
He travelled 70 miles to Mr Jones' home in Clacton, Essex, and beat him up with a pickaxe handle in December 2005.
You've got to hand to the guy for travelling 70 miles just to beat someone up.
I can't wait for news about someone travelling to the other side of the globe just to beat someone up because they kept fragging them / stealing their gold / beat them double perfect in Street Fighter...
Summation 2
On one hand, I find it sad that a network with the potential to unit the world, and bring us all closer together became the catalyst for such a sick, frenzied and unnecessary attack.
On the other hand, I am happy that my TCP-enabled pickaxe handle may have a market.
Police report that this guy owns not just one, but several ax-handles! He's an ax-handle nut! I wish the ax-handle lobby would own up to the fact that these things are not just dangerous, but potentially DEADLY!
Effective ax-handle control legislation is long overdue! Think of the children!
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
You're right. Sadly, misguided politicians use unfortunate incidents like this to hammer through legislation. This has less to do with the internet than one might think. Assault has been illegal long before the birth of the internet.
Raj Against the Machine! http://social-butterfly.appspot.com/
"Psycho attacks man over perceived slight" is the dog bites man story no matter how you wrap it up for media consumption. The man bites dog story would be "Psycho drives 70 miles to clean man's snowed-in driveway with a shovel after an online exchange."
He's psychotic, what did you expect? Him to drive up with a bouquet of fresh flowers for the women of the family and a bottle of Dom Perignon for the gentlemen to savor over fine Cuban cigars?
This is one reason why I plan to live in the South as long as I live in America. Most of the South is still relatively sane. Someone comes at you with any sort of axe, ice pick, knife, etc. you're going to be hard-pressed to find a jury that will convict you for blowing their head off.
I read stories online all the time about youths beating up or murdering people in Britain and the police harassing the 50 year old Brit who asked them to just be quiet. Who are the psychos? The punk youths, the British cop and the institution he represents. I thought the definition of psychosis is a pathological inability to tell right from wrong, and last time I checked, state power harassing law-abiding British subjects set upon by violent punks is the definition of injustice--right and wrong!--making the British legal system technically psychotic.
I think the case demonstrates that the internet is no different than the real world. Trade insults with a guy you just met (online or not) and he may be a violent person that will come over to your house with his buddy and kick your ass. I'm glad he wasn't killed and I hope he'll completely recover but I don't have too much sympathy.
Too many people use the supposed anonymity of the internet as an excuse to be asshats. Always remember...the other guy could be a bigger asshat.
Some of what I say is fact, some is conjecture, the rest I'm just blowing out my ass...you guess.
these kinds of "rage" attacks are definitely on the increases p
t ml
WRONG
http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/output/Page63.a
(And thats before taking Victorian London into account)
with binge drinking also increasing
LOL ! Getting shitfaced is obviously a new phenominon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin_Lane
Even take violence at football games - yes, it's decreased here in the past 20 years but only because there are so many police
Nothing to do with the rise of MDMA in the late 80's & early 90's then?
http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v04n1/04122mdm.h
Stop reading the News of the Screws / Daily Hate and get a grip.
Anyone quoted by a reporter knows how little they understand
Don't believe what you read is the truth.
Okay class, this concludes today's example of Social Engineering.