The thing that keeps getting lost in the kerfuffle
I've been watching the Lefton party response play out, and I keep thinking the same thing over and over: the stink about cops is a derailment of the very necessary discussion of an incredibly serious problem that happened at the party, which is that David Judah Sher, a known rapist/abuser whose MO includes picking up people at parties just like that one, was invited and present for a considerable length of time, certainly long enough to find a new victim who we might not have the ability to warn via the missing stair method.
Can we talk about that part please? Can we think about specific pieces of this problem such as how we can disseminate this sort of information so it actually might get to everyone who needs it*? Can we use our massive brains to come up with strategies for keeping known predators from our parties in the future? (Can we listen to the people who have already done this work and adapt that information for the needs uncovered by this discussion rather than reinvent the wheel?)
Can we actually talk about how to keep our community safer from predators who aren't socially awkward already?!?
* Such as sending a message to your general invite list (and on any relevant social media, e.g. the FB page for an event) that it has come to your attention that this person (include full name and any known nicknames) has a history of committing rape/abuse (and in this case you can include links, preferably with trigger warnings), they are banned from all future parties, and if there was anyone you know was at the party but might not be on the general invite list they should be given this info ASAP. I can't say that this is the best solution, it's just one I came up with after I asked this question to myself - which is why I was these questions to be discussed.
Can we talk about that part please? Can we think about specific pieces of this problem such as how we can disseminate this sort of information so it actually might get to everyone who needs it*? Can we use our massive brains to come up with strategies for keeping known predators from our parties in the future? (Can we listen to the people who have already done this work and adapt that information for the needs uncovered by this discussion rather than reinvent the wheel?)
Can we actually talk about how to keep our community safer from predators who aren't socially awkward already?!?
* Such as sending a message to your general invite list (and on any relevant social media, e.g. the FB page for an event) that it has come to your attention that this person (include full name and any known nicknames) has a history of committing rape/abuse (and in this case you can include links, preferably with trigger warnings), they are banned from all future parties, and if there was anyone you know was at the party but might not be on the general invite list they should be given this info ASAP. I can't say that this is the best solution, it's just one I came up with after I asked this question to myself - which is why I was these questions to be discussed.