True Tales From Craigslist Casual Encounters

nytimes.com:

This is probably not the hedonistic situation most people envision when they think about Internet hookups. Nor was it a violent encounter that makes headlines, like the murder on April 14 in a Boston hotel room of a 26-year-old woman, Julissa Brisman, who had placed an ad for masseuse services on Craigslist, or the killing last month of George Weber, a radio news reporter who was stabbed in his Brooklyn home, police say, by a teenager who apparently answered a Craigslist ad seeking a sexual partner.

Reactions to Mr. Weber's murder among a number of people who regularly use Craigslist in search of casual sex ranged from mildly concerned to indifferent. Melvin called it a "shame" and reiterated his safety policy, adopted after his close call with the obese woman in her darkened apartment. "That's why I'm always cautious, always meet in public," he said.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[jugganaut]

Oh shoot, I thought this article was going to have testimonials.

[oregonbird]

Ah, yes. The story about the woman who turns violent after smoking a joint. *That* story.

Not recounted by anybody "interviewed" by this story's writer, of course. Just a "well-known" cautionary story such as grandma might offer. Or Spitzer. Or, hey -- it turns out, a supposedly reputable news source.

Of course we'll ignore the fact that cannabis diminishes aggression, rather than causing or increasing the likelihood of violence. And surely the writer has some actual shred of evidence that explains why in this story it is a woman who reportedly becomes violent during a casual meeting. After all, an honest reporter would have some reason for making such a statement in a story presented as a fatual rendition of a Craigslist encounter. Given the actual crime statistics which put male against female violence at something over 90%.

HuffPo, you need to choose your articles with more attention to their integrity. We can find this sort of thing in any 1980's pamphlet turned out for teen "health". It's government-issue social studies. And entirely duplicious.

I wonder, who wants to shut Craigslist down? There's such a lot of rhetoric against it, all of a sudden.