The passage of the reauthorized Violence Against Women Act caused this space to focus on cyberstalking and the plight of fashion model Liskula Cohen. But Cohen has what could arguably be called a modern day comparable: Melissa King.
Melissa King is the now-former Miss Teen Delaware, who was said to have appeared in a sex tape video that everyone’s rushing to see, even though the word is that the sex in it is boring, and causing her to resign her post as the reining young beauty queen in that state.
Where Melissa King is like the older Liskula Cohen is that both exposed their bodies before electronic recording devices without giving a single thought to how the image was going to be distributed, or if it was going to be sent out at all.
There’s been a lot of coverage in this space about what Ms. Cohen experienced in being cyberharassed by Rosemary Port. But what has not been talked about is the photos that Ms. Cohen took that became the focus of Ms. Port’s very biting blog about the Vogue cover model.
Rosemary Port Showed Photos Of Cohen With Black Man
The photos that Rosemary Port ran and were the catalyst for her anonymous name-calling, and that you see here, show her in some, er, funny, positions with a skinny black guy wearing a ‘wife-beater’ t-shirt. Why show those photos? Was Rosemary trying to say that Liskula was a “skank” because she was with a black guy?
The problem started because Cohen and Port were, er. friends, and Cohen has told her then-on-off-boyfriend Daniel Dimin that Port kept company with an “unsavory” crowd.
So, in retaliation, Port used the photos of Cohen with the African American man she either knew or met at a private party, and the used them as the basis for her calling Cohen a skank and other names – that’s purely racist.
Would Port have made the claim if the man were white?
Melissa King’s Sex Tape Made Without Info On Distribution
In Melissa King’s case, the sex tape was made because she needed the money, she says, but she never considered what may be done with it after it was made.
The name calling to Ms. King came fast and furious when the sex tape surfaced. In that case, like that of Liskula Cohen, Ms King didn’t know who it was that sent out the tape, and arguably set in motion the events that caused her to be cyberstalked and cyberharassed – something that continues to this day on her Twitter account.
Considering some of the tweets tossed at Melissa King….
@melissa_m_king hey just tweeting you from Ireland to say your a stupid girl. I’m the same age but what you did was just immature.
— Sean O Hare (@TheSeanOHare) March 8, 2013
The real… look, she has a 10” dick in her mouth! it’s her, the real Miss #GDP 2013, @melissa_m_king, former Miss Delaware Teen… @pleasanton_
— NotZnany (@NotZnany) March 7, 2013
@melissa_m_king is it true that based on your performance in the fuck tape you got a job as a zombie in the Walking Dead? #worstfuckever
— Ooga Booga (@TimConklinCA) March 7, 2013
…and so on, she has a great case to claim that she is being cyberstalked under the reinstated Violence Against Women Act.
This: ‘‘(2) with the intent to kill, injure, harass, intimidate, or place under surveillance with intent to kill, injure, harass, or intimidate another person, uses the mail, any interactive computer service or electronic communication service or elec- tronic communication system of interstate commerce, or any other facility of interstate or foreign commerce to engage in a course of conduct that—
‘‘(A) places that person in reasonable fear of the death of or serious bodily injury to a person described in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) of paragraph (1)(A); or
‘‘(B) causes, attempts to cause, or would be reasonably expected to cause substantial emotional distress to a person described in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) of paragraph (1)(A),
shall be punished as provided in section 2261(b) of this title.’’.Section 226:
‘‘(2) with the intent to kill, injure, harass, intimidate, or place under surveillance with intent to kill, injure, harass, or intimidate another person, uses the mail, any interactive computer service or electronic communication service or elec- tronic communication system of interstate commerce, or any other facility of interstate or foreign commerce to engage in a course of conduct that—
‘‘(A) places that person in reasonable fear of the death of or serious bodily injury to a person described in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) of paragraph (1)(A); or
‘‘(B) causes, attempts to cause, or would be reasonably expected to cause substantial emotional distress to a person described in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) of paragraph (1)(A),
shall be punished as provided in section 2261(b) of this title.’’.
Stay tuned.
Bill Carroll