Don't Shoot the Messenger

If you pay attention to the news on TV, you might believe that totalitarian dictatorships like North Korea are the only places where writers are threatened because of their work. But as I learned today, it happens in Welland too.

Now, this blog has been controversial in the past. In particular, my post about the giant TV screen on city hall caused a bit of outrage on Facebook, as did my post about the existence of activities for youth in Welland. That controversy led me to write about Chalkdust, the calypso singer who courted controversy for years with his lyrics. But none of that could prepare me for the aftermath of this morning's post about the pregnant 13-year-old girl.

Should I have expected controversy? Yes, I knew it was coming. But I expected the outrage to be directed elsewhere - perhaps at her parents for allowing it to happen, perhaps at the system that seemingly failed her. I didn't expect the outrage to be directed at me. 

People ripped into me on Facebook for writing the post, despite having no idea who it was about, or for that matter, who I am. I've been called every name in the book in the last 12 hours, and accused of a myriad of crimes, most of which aren't even actual crimes. Some of them threatened to call the police on me and have me charged with harassment. They said the cops would be at my door within minutes unless I took down the post. So what did I do? I refused. After all, republishing public information is not, and has never been, a crime. The post stayed up.

Then a real nutball got on my case. It started the same as all the others - the police would be called and I'd be arrested, et cetera - but then it got worse. And this person, whom I believe is the same age as myself or even younger, said that he would do something to me if I didn't take the post down. No, he didn't work for the Italian Mafia (they only operate in the Falls around here.) He just wanted to come show me what's what and have a fight, probably so he could go viral on YouTube. I bet that video would have gotten more than 10,000 views. Still, I told him off and the post stayed up.

Then, the subject of the post reached out to me. She told me to take the post down.

So I took the post down.

Now people are asking why. Well, for starters, she was much more polite than any of the other keyboard warriors who came after me. She only threatened to call the police once. But in all seriousness, I didn't write the post to offend her. Sure, I meant to incite controversy, but I don't want to give a pregnant teenager any more stress than they already have. So I took the post down out of courtesy.

So now that it's all over and done with, can someone please get these online thugs out of my hair? If they don't leave me alone, I might have to call the cops and have them charged with harassment. I hear the police will show up in record time...