Sometimes, you just have to fight back. This is a personal note that goes along with the recent news of the bullying of Dr. Susan Crockford and Dr. Judith Curry.
Thanks to the Chico Police Department and officer Jim Parrott, I learned today that we were able to shut down a person living in Windsor Ontario who has been serially harassing me and threatening me and my family for over a year. He was doing this because of my views on “climate change” and my website: https://wattsupwiththat.com
Officer Parrott reached out to the Windsor Police Department (Constable Strong in the WPD Major Crimes Unit) and provided him all the research I’d gathered (including setting up an Internet “honeypot” to trap him) and today we get word back that the suspect has been identified, and has had police officers show up at his front door.
This particularly malicious troll is one of the “Arctic sea ice zealots” that inhabit Jim Hunt’s “Great White Con” website on sea ice. Both Jim and this troll were long ago banned from WUWT for serially bad behavior breaking our commenting policy multiple times, but this one troll couldn’t let it go. He escalated, and continued to do so.
Of course, the troll embraced the crazy and patently wrong views promoted by Dr. Michael Mann and many others that I’m an “agent of the Koch brothers, and on the take to run WUWT”.
As I’ve said many times in the past, I’ve never taken a dime from the Koch’s; they don’t even know who I am. WUWT is entirely supported by advertising and donations.
My opinions published here and the opinions of guest authors is entirely our own, and not “for hire” as some weak-minded people assert. One of these days, Dr. Mann is going to find himself on the wrong end of a lawsuit for promoting these falsehoods that incite people like I’ve had to deal with for over a year. In fact, this particular troll claimed he had enlisted Dr. Mann as part of his plan to “expose me” (the troll’s words). He also said he’d enlisted Sou aka Miriam O’Brien of Hotwhopper in his cause against me. Of course, it turned out to be nothing but bluster, but wow, this guy had quite an imagination and hatred for me in his heart.
Thanks to the work of the Windsor Police Department and the Chico Police Department, this malicious Internet troll won’t be bothering me again.
Thanks also to a number of bloggers who helped me zoom in on this guy by sharing information. Thanks also to “Poptech” whose research was very helpful. Great thanks to our own “Charles the Moderator” who helped me stay calm and focused on the “long game” rather than let this toad get under my skin.
Its quite a feeling of satisfaction to [get some action on] this case, especially since this dirtbag had assumed multiple identities, used fake emails, and other techniques to hide his identity. Much like some of the other trolls we deal with here daily, but this one stepped over the line, time and time again.
For example here are excerpts from a long rambling email I received (along with Charles the Moderator who was helping me) Tuesday, November 07, 2017 4:28 PM
Great news perverted WOMEN HATERS;)
(Saul pulled it off and remained invisible, aren’t you impressed, my two little twinkies? Hehehe, just 11 followers)
NOVEMBER 12th 2017
This is just one of dozens of crazy emails with threats I received over the last year and a half. Some contained thinly veiled death threats, some like this one were irrational rants, some were incomprehensible references to things he “knew” but I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. The reference to November 12th in this email was a “drop dead date” for an extortion attempt (I was supposed to donate to the Canadian organization Medicine Sans Frontiers aka doctors without borders to avoid my exposure of “Koch dollars”). Of course, I’m not easily extorted, because I knew this jerk was just making things up out of his own Koch-fueled imagination.
My mistake was originally treating him with respect over a complaint he had about WUWT, and replying using my personal email. That was a dumb move of trust on my part that I won’t repeat again.
So, we nailed him. Despite his cowardice and shapeshifting, we prevailed, and we used his own stupidity against him to trap him in the “honeypot” so a positive ID could be made.
I won’t share the technique I devised, but it’s safe to say he had no idea what hit him when officers showed up at his door in Windsor. While it is very very tempting to share the file I have on him thanks to the police, I’ve learned long ago that “discretion is the greater part of valor“. I’ll just keep it handy, just in case I need to exercise my rights further.
Right Thomas? aka “Lawrence Martin”, aka “Reggie”, aka “Reginald Perrin” aka “Saul from Montreal”, aka “Solomon Gursky”, aka “Master of Space and Thyme” among others… here’s a partial photo of Thomas the troll from the file:
In the meantime, potential dirtbags that might be thinking of threatening me or my family or any other climate skeptic should think again. We won’t tolerate it. Climate skeptics are fed up with the threats and smears as we’ve seen against Dr. Curry and Dr. Crockford, and we aren’t going to take it anymore.
So, in closing…
Troll, troll, troll your boat gently down the stream…
Merrily, merrily, merrily merrily, anonymity is but a dream.
UPDATE:
BTW, I forgot to add this note. There’s precedence for arresting Internet trolls in Canada, such as this notorious one who got 16 counts and a psych evaluation:
https://pandasthumb.org/archives/2011/08/prolific-intern.html
nice going team wuwt. i have to echo the comments regarding mental illness,no sane person would type the above diatribe.
hopefully medical assistance will be of help, without it i doubt the troll in question has much of a future.
Congratulations to this victory over the troll, Anthony!
Just donated CAD $133 (sadly only $100 USD) in gratitude for your excellent and ongoing battle for truth and against politicized science. It has taken your particular case for me to understand the full gravity of online bullying and threats. I hate the idea of governments regulating the internet, but I suppose given human nature that the need truly exists. Good luck in getting full justice re. this wretched Canadian.
A word of caution: our Canadian court system is strongly skewed to the left, and tends to reward or ignore the transgressions of SJWs, while applying different standards to those on the wrong side of political correctness.
Thanks for informing us about this, Anthony. Should be a lesson for all of us about the vulnerabilty of the internet…and the “Lunatic Fringe.”
Red Rider
https://youtu.be/sTFVMMCwsss
Wikipedia:
What the heck is wrong with the Koch family??? Nothing!!!
They are not left-wing socialist/globalists…….. that is what is wrong with them . 😉
Kudos! Much gratification for ALL your efforts on behalf of real science and reasonable people.
Living in Canada could prove to be a real problem for this troll . No benefit of the 1st Amendment there. A real pity.
Can’t be a recent mugshot. That supercilious smile would have been wiped of his face well and truly by now.
The weakness of Michael Mann’s ridiculous hockey stick arguments are underlined by his having to resort to trollerie; why is he so intransigent. From the outset my knowledge of radiation from non luminous gases made a CO2 led man made global warming a non starter, so I was never a skeptic as the concept has always been ridiculous. Well done Anthony for promoting reasoned argument with WUWT.
Well done Anthony. The work you are doing here has embedded itself into the craw of the CAGW movement. I applaud your efforts in keeping WUWT alive and well, while allowing healthy debate on such a complex subject.
I’m no climate expert, just a lowly engineer, so this and a few other sites are essential places to get alternate views and information not readily offered by mainstream media. It’s a shame so many lay people have made up their minds based on media headlines without so much as a cursory glance behind the curtain. For example, my wife, a PhD research scientist herself, leans toward AGW though has yet to spend a single minute looking into either side of the debate. Now we have to help 2 kids navigate through the inevitable indoctrination of HS science with an open mind. I foresee some rigorous conversations brewing in my own home in the next few years, though it won’t get as nasty as anonymous posters on blog sites or internet articles. 🙂
Anyway, keep up the good work.
This fruitcake looks like a real sweetheart from the nose down. A little tight-lipped, but.
BTW, gracious host, the plural of “Koch” is “Kochs”, not “Koch’s”.