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Yup. And there have been death threats, not only against him but others not involved as well. :shock:
Citing death threats, police won’t identify officer in Michael Brown shooting | myfox8.com
Despite cries of a cover-up, there’s good reason for the silence, local officials say. Since the shooting Saturday, police have received death threats against the officer, and it’s spread from there, Ferguson Mayor James W. Knowles said Wednesday on CNN’s “New Day.”
“Hackers have tried to find personal information and display it online on social media, asking people to target myself, council members, the police chief,” he said. “The county police chief’s own home was put on Instagram, and people (were) asked to go there and assault him.”
We are living in a world quite different that the one we had even 10 years ago.
With the general availability of social networking and the perceived anonymity of digital communication people are much less hesitant to express outrageous opinions than they have been and the instantaneous digital feedback of participating in outrageous acts has caused people who might have stood on the sidelines before to jump into the mix. This can create dangers we haven't had to deal with before.
The quality of information made public in the digital age is often suspect but it's also acted on before the quality can be fully assessed. This can easily result in innocent people being put in harms way through no fault of their own. Heck, even the cops are known to act on whatever the computer spits out instead of real, boots on the ground, investigation. We have also, in my opinion, become somewhat detached from the reality of interpersonal interactions. There is less inclination to actually understand the individual behind these "viral" scenarios and people are quick to act on scant information.