Slashdot Mirror
BBC Uses Skype Links In Murder Hunt
Nico M writes "The highly publicized UK murder hunt for the serial killer(s) of five young sex workers in Suffolk is using Skype to ask the public for information. BBC News is embedding freephone Skype links to both the police incident room and Crimestoppers UK. Is this the first time Skype has been used in this way?"
Sex worker, is that the PC term for prostitute?
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
Why yes it is. Becoming more and more prevalent as a recognition that there are apparently a lot of people that willingly choose that trade. Look in the back of your local "alternative" weekly, and you'll find many many ads for "sex workers" willing to assist in your every kink. And, of course, not all prostitutes are "sex workers". For example the average CEO...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Well although my nick is Puto, which is technically male whore in spanish, and for the umpteenth time I am not gay and I know what it means it some countries.
But when in the hell did hookers become "sex workers"? What happened to prostitute?
Whore, escort, streetwalker, lady of the night, etc. Sex workers?
I guess this is like the "sanitation engineers"(garbagemen) or "network engineers"(i got a website and a linksys router and have 15 workstations to manage at work.)
Puto
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
"And, of course, not all prostitutes are "sex workers". For example the average CEO..."
Or the average slashdotter...once they hit daylight that is.
This is probably not a good idea, because there is no anonymity with Skype. It is trivial to log the IP address of anyone calling. At least with a normal phone number, you can just use a public payphone and there is no real chance of being identified.
Anonymity is really important, especially if they want other sex workers to contact them. After all the recent "crack-downs" and "zero tolerance" policies, not to mention the bad reputation the police have, is it any wonder that prostitutes dont want to talk to them?
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Same here. No Skype links for me, with Safari and the near-latest Mac version.
Imagine if every anti-U.S. story on /. were tagged with deadiraqis. The /. left would be up in arms. Dead hookers is ok though. Because you know, they weren't human.
I wonder if the murderer was stupid enough to have a mobile phone with him when he dumped the bodies. All you would have to do is do a search of all mobile phones that have been in those particular cells at the estimated times of death of each victim. The bodies were dumped in the surrounding countryside so it might narrow it down to a few phones. Another possible line of attack is that the murderer's mobile phone would have been in the same cell as each victims mobile phone for some amount of time. Once you have his mobile number, the game is up. Even if it was not purchased in his name, the phone would spend most of its time where he lives, so it would be simple to narrow it down to the row of houses where he lives.
Agreed, but can you really help them if they don't want to go into drug treatment or maybe even don't think they have a problem? AFAIK, Britain has one of the best systems in this regard anyway, since they'll actively pay for drug treatment for addicts rather than just jailing them.
-b.
Which idiot wrote the headline without even looking at TFA?
Furthermore, are you implying that we are only allowed to care about a person's murder if we also took steps to improve their lot in life? I don't know about the UK, but in the US we have something called welfare that a woman could live in on instead of prostituting herself. We also have student loans to go to college (including extremely cheap community college) and free public education. Anyone who becomes a prostitute sure doesn't become one for lack of opportunity. He or she either makes a conscious decision to get some fast money and then gets caught up in the system of crime (or, perhaps in a few cases, just really loves sex), is forced into the system through slavery, or isn't told about FAFSA opportunities.
If it is slavery, we already have laws banning that, and there is enforcement of the laws in the US. Perhaps, because there is a lot of slavery and human trafficking we don't know about (and it is difficult to detect often), there is a lot of forced prostitution we just don't know about or cannot track down.
If it is for the love of sex, well, shouldn't a woman or man be allowed to make that decision for themself?
If it is for the lack of information about financial aid, I don't know how it could be improved -- every high school I've been to in the US has posters on the walls about the program. And "welfare" is a household word in the US.
If it is someone who got caught up in the system and is now trapped in the system, this is the same as the aforementioned slavery case, and all cases have now been reduced to two: slavery or willful participation. The only one we should care about remedying (excluding moral objections to prostitution -- which not everyone has, e.g. Las Vegas and the Netherlands) is slavery/human trafficking, and I think government already actively cracks down on that sort of thing.
Thus, it seems that the US government (I cannot vouch for the UK government, as I do not know what the UK does for human trafficking within its borders) does, in fact, care about these woman (perhaps not personally, but as a whole) with regards to public policy decisions and legislation.
(I posted this further down as a reply to an anon comment, so it got buried.)
Guys, this story is false. I see no Skype links. Do you see any Skype links?
There was a great interview with one of the Chief Constables involved in this case about the number of calls they were receiving from the public
Interviewer: There's been a massive public response to your request for information hasn't there, how are you coping with the sheer volume of information you are getting ?
Police: Obviously we're very pleased with the positive response and we're working through everything we receive.
Interviewer: A lot of its very helpful but you were just telling me you're also getting a lot of calls about peoples dreams and what cards or dice have told them ?
Police: Er, yes we are. That sort of information isn't a high priority
Interviewer: Clearly you're being polite, it's just a waste of your time isn't it ?
Police: We would rather concentrate on serious information
Interviewer: These people are just getting in the way of your investigation by phoning up with this, frankly, nonsense aren't they ?
Police: Well yes, we would rather they didn't bother us with superstious nonsense.
So, someone posts a non-story about Skype being used by the police and bbc to report infomration on murdered women. Slashdot users don't discuss the fakeness of the story, or the skype marketing angle, or the future of telecoms. They feel it appropriate to make declarations and guenuinely offensive 'humour' about murdered women. /.ers have shown for the 'sex angle' makes me worry about who I'm associating with here, and says far more about the writers than the victims.
Seriously, these women may be prostitutes, but the key facts are: 5 people were murdered in a market town in the space of a couple of weeks. These people were people; daughters, mothers, sisters. They were all, I believe, hooked on drugs. And one day they may have got off drugs and enjoyed a normal life. Not now. The fascination some
pembo13: Why do people suddenly care?
The answer: This case involves a large number of murders within a short space of time in a quiet semi-rural area where murders are exceptionally rare and crime very low.
Let's not kid ourselves that anyone (significant) cares about prostitutes, especially not drug-addicted ones. This is about five murders within a fortnight in a middle-class provincial town (100,000 folks). Ipswitch, contrary to London-based journalists misunderstanding, doesn't have a "red light district". It has a corner of a road near a truck stop. Not even one whole street. Think almost the furthest town you can imagine from The Bronx. Think Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple".
To give context, the town is only a few miles from where Constable painted The Hay Wain, possibly the most famous English countryside scene of all time. Imagine five naked dead women on the banks of that painting- the bodies were found in similar locations. THAT is why people suddenly care, because it is so incredibly unusual given the semi-rural location.
Andrew Oakley - www.aoakley.com
The murderers myspace profile is here. Found it after reading this article
Here in the UK, I was reading a Littlewoods mail order catalogue (just for christmas gift ideas) and came across a new toy for young girls.
It's a *POLE DANCING* kit !
What is wrong with this picture ? I mean, have the womens liberation movement ceased to exist ? I mentioned this to a friend of mine and he replied that he already knew about it, and that his daughter had been doing it as a course at school ! WTF.
I am all for liberisation etc, but surely this is a bit over the top. I mean, do they teach these children what the fucking pole represents ?
I tried to get to Littlewoods website to find a link, but the net is slow here right now, google has some good links to a story on it though, as it appears Tesco had a similar product. I remember a time when women got pissed off if you bought a young girl a pram and a doll, now apparently we can train them to be erotic dancers, at public expense ! Jesus H Christ, on a bike. What's next, My Little Pony Fuck 'n' Suck outfits, Crotchless panties (age 5 to 6), Leather gear for the discerning 8 year old ?
Amazon have the same product and it even includes toy dollars ! They also have a toy lapdancing kit, which seems to have the words "not a toy" hastily tacked onto the description.
Sometimes you do actually have to think of the children.