Thanks to the hacktavist group Anonymous, the Internet Troll that was Todd’s primary harasser has been outed as Vancouver-area man. Since no charges have been filed, although police have been searching for a man, this blogger will not release his name. But this ugly practice of tormenting young girls online is finally being challenged. Gawker blogger Adrian Chen outed a man named Michael Brutsch, who was known as Violentacrez on Reddit, and posted what are called “creepshot” photos. He defended his actions, saying that he was just trying to “rile” up people online by using racist and sexist terms and images.
Given his targets, Amanda Todd was a perfect victim for Michael Brutsch, even if, thankfully he never had a chance to harm her.
If you don’t know the story of Todd, it bears repeating.
15-year-old Amanda Todd said she was tormented since the 7th grade, when she was asked by an unidentified man to expose her breasts online via webcam. Then, she got a note from another unknown man, an Internet Troll, who said he would send the photo of her around to friends and family if she did not give him a show.
Then, Todd changed schools in an event to start a new life, and get away from the torment. But a man posted the photos again, and she “Cried every night, lost all my friends and respect people had for me… again… then nobody liked me,” as she said in her video.
She changed schools, but was “found out” again and sadly beaten up by a group of girls, who reportedly filmed the crime.
Eventually, last Wednesday, Amanda could not take it anymore and killed herself. Some have taken issue with my saying that Todd was raped, but in a way she was. The definition of rape is “Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse.” Note, a type of sexual assault. What these men did in bullying Todd sexually was a form of rape.
I stand by my video comment.
She posted this at YouTube:
I’m struggling to stay in this world, because everything just touches me so deeply. I’m not doing this for attention. I’m doing this to be an inspiration and to show that I can be strong. I did things to myself to make pain go away, because I’d rather hurt myself then someone else. Haters are haters but please don’t hate, although im sure I’ll get them. I hope I can show you guys that everyone has a story, and everyones future will be bright one day, you just gotta pull through. I’m still here aren’t I?
Amanda Todd Known, Shania Grey Not So Known
While Amanda Todd is well know, Shania Grey is not so well known. But the story is no less sad. In fact, it’s downright awful. Here’s what the Daily Mail posted:
A man facing charges of raping a teenage girl two years ago murdered the 16-year-old last week so that she could not testify against him in his upcoming sexual assault trial, said police.
Franklin Davis, 30, of Irving, Texas, confessed to shooting dead Shania Gray after he was arrested on unrelated driving offenses on Friday and police began questioning him about the girl’s death.
Davis allegedly raped and sexually assaulted Gray in 2010 when she babysat for his two children. In July 2011, he was charged with four counts of sexual abuse and was released on bail the following month.
On Thursday, after Davis allegedly set up a fake Facebook profile pretending to be a teenage boy in order to lure Gray into seeing him, Davis met up with the schoolgirl, drove her to a remote park and killed her, police said.
Now, some say that the reason Amanda Todd’s getting so much more attention than Shania Grey is because Grey’s Black. I think there’s something to that, but in a different way: it’s because Grey did not take to YouTube and make a video telling the World what Franklin Davis did to her. That would have done it.
It’s not that African Americans don’t vlog – but my hypothesis is that Grey wasn’t aware of the idea to do this. YouTube would have proved this wasn’t a race difference; Grey would have gained as much talk and content as Amanda Todd.
Stay tuned.
Bill Carroll