BBC Uses Skype Links In Murder Hunt 193
Nico M writes "The highly publicized UK murder hunt for the serial killer(s) of five young sex workers in Suffolk is using Skype to ask the public for information. BBC News is embedding freephone Skype links to both the police incident room and Crimestoppers UK. Is this the first time Skype has been used in this way?"
Sex workers? (Score:4, Insightful)
Dan East
Why yes... (Score:3, Informative)
Why yes...will grab for code. (Score:4, Funny)
Or the average slashdotter...once they hit daylight that is.
Re:Why yes... (Score:5, Insightful)
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I find this to be a very unfortunate comment, and a good example of a strong anti-business bias that seems all to common these days.
When I wrote the comment, I wasn't thinking specifically of CEOs. Pretty much every job requires the employee to sell part of themselves; their time at the very least and in some professions (certain branches of law spring to mind) their integrity and ethical standards. These, however, are not demonised nearly as much as prostitution.
Why do we, as a society, look down on those who sell their bodies, but not those who sell other aspects of themselves? Actually, we don't look down on all those who se
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What about the deep emotional center idea? Well, intense religious experiences have bee
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...who collectively feel like they deserve to be paid more than 400x as much as a regular worker [faireconomy.org], then outsource our jobs to India. But of course, you never see their jobs being outsourced, even though I'm sure China and India have plenty of business school graduates who could do the job for a hundredt
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Re:Sex workers? (Score:5, Informative)
I am amazed that so few slashdotters (reading the first 10 posts or so) are unfamiliar with that term. (Do you all live under rocks or something?)
Its basically a superset of prostitute - including people in the industry who don't actually fuck for money, ie strip dancers, porn stars, topless waiters, dominatrixes (sp?) etc.
Nothing PC about it.
Re:Sex workers? (Score:5, Funny)
What kind of boring non-fucking porn do you watch?
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Point taken, but there's plenty of solo/etc porn out there - and it was merely an example of non-fucking-for-money.
[ot your sig]
John Carmack fan, browsing at +5 since 1999.
How did you read my comment (rated +3 at time of writing)
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because it appears since you're subscriber
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Spanking, foot fetish, and Univision.
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They may not live under rocks, but it would be interesting to know where they do live.
Here in Australia, 'sex worker' is a fairly common pseudonym for prostitute.
> Nothing PC about it.
An ironic comment from someone with a web address of http://whineymacfanboy.googlepages.com/ [googlepages.com] !
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> Nothing PC about it.
An ironic comment from someone with a web address of http://whineymacfanboy.googlepages.com/ [googlepages.com]
I actually think it would've been more appropriate to link to my diary Why is Apple afraid of being PC
Re:Sex workers? (Score:5, Insightful)
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I presume you've never made a joke about any kind of military conflict, you never watched M*A*S*H for instance?
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I have a thicker skin than that, I would rather argue my point. I wholeheartedly agree that the slashdot editors have the "right to offend", and if they don't want to hear me complain they also agree they have a "right to censor".
"I presume you've never made a joke about any kind of military conflict, you never watched M*A*S*H for instance?"
Context and reality are the key concepts here, I watched most of the MASH episodes the first time round in black and wh
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Do you really think you should be legitimzing prison rape by forming a union?
Re:Sex workers? (Score:4, Insightful)
A lot of Slashdotters are American and the term isn't really used in the USA, probably since prostitution is illegal in most parts of the country (excepting Nevada but not Las Vegas city). So terms that "legitimize" it are less likely to be used.
-b.
Re:Sex workers? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously? Illegal? (not just regulated?)
Why is it illegal to sell a (much in demand) service in the land of the free?
Re:Sex workers? (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah, illegal, except for "rural" Nevada. Enforced to various degrees depending on where you are, and there are always loopholes for people setting up brothels ("it's a massage parlor, dammit!"). As to why - probably due to religious taboos to a large extent. After all, the USA *was* founded by Puritans.
I hate to say it, but better illegal than legal *and* legally recognized by the State as a "normal" profession like in Germany. There was the recent case of an unemployed lady there who was refused continuing unemployment benefits because she didn't take a job as a "sex worker." (Cite: [telegraph.co.uk]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/ne ws/2005/01/30/wgerm30.xml [telegraph.co.uk] ) I'd be ok if it were legal for the purpose of harm reduction but not overtly encouraged by the State.
-b.
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I hate to say it, but better illegal than legal *and* legally recognized by the State as a "normal" profession like in Germany. There was the recent case of an unemployed lady there who was refused continuing unemployment benefits because she didn't take a job as a "sex worker." (Cite: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/ne [telegraph.co.uk] ws/2005/01/30/wgerm30.xml ) I'd be ok if it were legal for the purpose of harm reduction but not overtly encouraged by the State.
That seems like a much better argument for "legal but voluntary" than "illegal". The police in the US must waste so much time trying to stamp out something that is never, ever going to go away. Here in New South Wales (the most populous state in Australia), prostitution has been legal for decades. It's not like there isn't still a social stigma attached, but I find it hard to see how throwing criminal sanctions into the mix is helpful.
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Agreed about the "legal but voluntary" part. As far as US police, I don't think that they try *that* hard. They may run an occasional sting operation in some cities to look like they're doing something or if the residents of the neighborhood complain, but the law isn't enforced all that severely.
-b.
Re:Sex workers? (Score:5, Insightful)
The big advantage of having prostitution legal and recognised as such is that you can require regular checks for STD's, as well as enforce standards for working conditions.
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http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/brothel.asp [snopes.com]
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http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/brothel.asp [snopes.com]
Re:Sex workers? (Score:5, Informative)
Note there are no names or dates in that stpory. It's an urban legend. Never happened. http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/brothel.asp [snopes.com]
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Read the Snopes article, it explains what seems to be the history of the story. Note that no version of the story names the woman who was supposed to have been forced to work in a brothel, or gives any other verifiable facts. Once a story gets on a wire service, it will go everywhere. The newspapers just cut and paste them to fill required space.
Like a lot of "it could have happened" stories, you have to think that if it did
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Abestos removal. You can do it yourself, but you can't do it for other people because of the danger involved with comming in contact with that stuff too much. Also prostitution is often something that people get into without understanding the consequences and often there is a lot of coersion involved too.
San Francisco... (Score:2)
Anyway, I think its sad how afraid of sexuality we are and I don't see a lot of good coming out of it. America was in many ways founded by missionaries and fundamentalists. Bad combo.
If anything feeds vice its repression and shame. There are certainly some things we should protect (c
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Thats probably the difference then. In the UK, being paid for having sex is not illegal, although some of the other aspects of working as a prostitute are.
Can't quite understand it, myself. Why would the US make prostitution illegal? It's just supply and demand. I
Re:Sex workers? (Score:5, Funny)
No. The term you're thinking of is Penile Stimulation Engineer, or something to that effect.
Mike.
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No, it is the respectful term. (Score:2)
But there are always some people intent in hurting and moralizing about what others do, I'll assume you don't belong to this group of bastards and that you ask driven just by natural curiosity.
sex workers? (Score:3, Insightful)
But when in the hell did hookers become "sex workers"? What happened to prostitute?
Whore, escort, streetwalker, lady of the night, etc. Sex workers?
I guess this is like the "sanitation engineers"(garbagemen) or "network engineers"(i got a website and a linksys router and have 15 workstations to manage at work.)
Puto
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Although I must admit, doubleplussex worker has a nice ring to it.
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"Sex Worker" is a pretty descriptive term and useful as a generic category.
No one is calling them "Happiness Workers"
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As an aside, this *is* happening with the IT staff and is
You guys in the US.... (Score:2)
All the terms you are mentioning are clearly derogative, do not tell us you did not know that as well.
I don't know about you, but if I were doing that activity for a living I would want to be referred as with a respectful term. Sex worker is the accepted term for people that use their sexuality to make a living, but refers more particularly to people that are paid to have sex with clients.
Is the term "deadniggers" offensive? (Score:2)
Exactly! And illustrates the point I tried to make elsewhere about the "deadhookers" tag! Imagine if the story was about a series of race related murders, would the story be tagged as "deadniggers" or "deadgooks"?
My "moral compass" tells me it is just as offensive to dehumanise prostitutes as it is to dehumanise any other group. If anyone in this case could be considered "less than human" it wou
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This is probably a really bad idea (Score:5, Informative)
Anonymity is really important, especially if they want other sex workers to contact them. After all the recent "crack-downs" and "zero tolerance" policies, not to mention the bad reputation the police have, is it any wonder that prostitutes dont want to talk to them?
Re:This is probably a really bad idea (Score:5, Informative)
1) They have a normal number in addition to the skype links.
2) You can anonymously use skype from an internet cafe (most have it installed, with mic + headphones these days)
3) Its for convenience sake, so someone who doesn't think it's worth calling (for the little thing they remember seeing walking past) will just click on the link when reading a story.
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Notwithstanding your other points, if I were concerned about anonymity/privacy, I wouldn't be blabbing about this kind of stuff in an internet cafe.
- RG>
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Actually, they don't. If anyone had cared to RTFA, they'd see only normal numbers. Unless you've installed a Skype toolbar and imagine the links it makes are actually on the BBC site. Hint: Look at the source HTML. Just numbers, no links at all.
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First time for what? (Score:5, Funny)
Mobile Phone Tracking (Score:4, Interesting)
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Shhhhh!! The public are not meant to know that their every move is logged. It's only now and then that they accidentally let this method be known. The last instance I remember was the Lord Hamilton sexual assault case, where they actually used it to prove their innocence.
In addition to the privacy implications, I'm sure this is kept quiet as it would cease to be useful and potentially bad should criminals realize a mobile left at home can be an alibi.
There are NO SKYPE LINKS in TFA (Score:5, Informative)
Which idiot wrote the headline without even looking at TFA?
Re:There are NO SKYPE LINKS in TFA (Score:5, Informative)
Story is false (Score:5, Informative)
Guys, this story is false. I see no Skype links. Do you see any Skype links?
Slightly Offtopic (Score:3, Funny)
Interviewer: There's been a massive public response to your request for information hasn't there, how are you coping with the sheer volume of information you are getting ?
Police: Obviously we're very pleased with the positive response and we're working through everything we receive.
Interviewer: A lot of its very helpful but you were just telling me you're also getting a lot of calls about peoples dreams and what cards or dice have told them ?
Police: Er, yes we are. That sort of information isn't a high priority
Interviewer: Clearly you're being polite, it's just a waste of your time isn't it ?
Police: We would rather concentrate on serious information
Interviewer: These people are just getting in the way of your investigation by phoning up with this, frankly, nonsense aren't they ?
Police: Well yes, we would rather they didn't bother us with superstious nonsense.
Slashdot's most offensive moments (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, these women may be prostitutes, but the key facts are: 5 people were murdered in a market town in the space of a couple of weeks. These people were people; daughters, mothers, sisters. They were all, I believe, hooked on drugs. And one day they may have got off drugs and enjoyed a normal life. Not now. The fascination some
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Oh, and for the record, I tagged this article 'deadpeople' and (since this is sla
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There are too many people on this planet, we don't have time to save the wretches who have nothing to offer our future generations. Your duty is for the FUTURE, not the present.
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There was an extremely insightful and pertinent comment from a media observer here in Australia recently, pointing out that the popular media had moved from being a source of information to being a source of outrage. The prevalence of "Current Affairs" type programs, with their emotionally b
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Someone posts a non story about dead hookers and you think its perfectly acceptable to make declarations about drug users?
The fascination some slashdotters (ie you) have show^H^H^H trolled for the "drug angle" makes me worry about who I am associating with here, and says far more about the write^H^H^H^H trolls than the victims.
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Someone with mod points nuke this please.
advertising (Score:2)
To the point where kids TV show "Blue Peter" would have handcraft items on making things out of old packaging, any branding or logos on the packaging had to be blacked out.
No way should the BBC be promoting skype - blatantly or otherwise. Brits, ask the BBC for your license fee back.
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No doubt at all. Click on the BBC link. Then you find a web page without any mention of Skype.
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Nonsense! That's not advertising. Are you suggesting that in the BBC staff canteen the Nescafe has the name blacked out? Using a product and advertising it are entirely different things.
Quick, grab your pitchforks, we're marching on Google. The BBC uses Google Earth imagery regularly, a
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Should we be asking "serious questions" about the fact that the BBC makes footage available via Real Player, and has its podcasts available via iTune, as well?
Offensive tag (Score:2)
Murderers MySpace Profile! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Murderers MySpace Profile! (Score:4, Insightful)
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Sex and Womens rights (Score:3)
Here in the UK, I was reading a Littlewoods mail order catalogue (just for christmas gift ideas) and came across a new toy for young girls.
It's a *POLE DANCING* kit !
What is wrong with this picture ? I mean, have the womens liberation movement ceased to exist ? I mentioned this to a friend of mine and he replied that he already knew about it, and that his daughter had been doing it as a course at school ! WTF.
I am all for liberisation etc, but surely this is a bit over the top. I mean, do they teach these children what the fucking pole represents ?
I tried to get to Littlewoods website to find a link, but the net is slow here right now, google has some good links to a story on it though, as it appears Tesco [google.co.uk] had a similar product. I remember a time when women got pissed off if you bought a young girl a pram and a doll, now apparently we can train them to be erotic dancers, at public expense ! Jesus H Christ, on a bike. What's next, My Little Pony Fuck 'n' Suck outfits, Crotchless panties (age 5 to 6), Leather gear for the discerning 8 year old ?
Amazon have the same product [amazon.co.uk] and it even includes toy dollars ! They also have a toy lapdancing kit, which seems to have the words "not a toy" hastily tacked onto the description.
Sometimes you do actually have to think of the children.This toy was for for adults (Score:2)
Now put your dick away and consider that this is a tragic story about murdered drug addicts and not an excuse for pedophile ravings.
Nail (Score:2)
Re:i cant see them (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah .. hilarious (Score:4, Insightful)
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This is nothing but hypocricy. Nobody cares about all the prostitutes who die every day just from doing what they do. Nobody cares about the prostitutes who are alive and suffer. Nobody would care about a single murdered prostitute, but when suddenly several o
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Yes. Exactly. Making fun of the recently deceased, especailly those who were murdered by a psychopath, leaving their familes in shock and mourning, is forbidden in any civilised society. Regardless of whether you think they were saintly or not. And if you want to "pierce the hypocricy, and remind people that normally they don't give a hooker a second thought", well, think of a way to do it that actua
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Now replace "hooker" with "nigger". Still laughing?
Re:Yeah .. hilarious (Score:4, Funny)
Baby jokes never get old...
Aisle seat please.
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A: I don't cry when I chop up an orange.
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Agreed, but can you really help them if they don't want to go into drug treatment or maybe even don't think they have a problem? AFAIK, Britain has one of the best systems in this regard anyway, since they'll actively pay for drug treatment for addicts rather than just jailing them.
-b.
Not quite that good. (Score:2)
Is a fact, recognized by this government, that drug addicts get little or no help while they are in jail.
Having said that, if you want to quit they provide you with some help, but, foolishly, drug addicts don;t seem to be anybody's priority (if the government was any wise drug addicts should be a helat priority since a big percentage of petty crime is related to drug addi
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You seem to be implying (albeit unintentionally) that our only justifiable course of action is to continue to ignore their plight. Also, if you think that police have not cared about the murder of prostitutes before, I'd like to direct you to information about Jack the Ripper [wikipedia.org], who killed exclusively prostitutes in the late 1800s.
Furthermore, are you implying that we are onl
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I don't know about the UK, but in the US we have something called welfare [wikipedia.org] that a woman could live in on instead of prostituting herself. We also have student loans [wikipedia.org] to go to college (including extremely cheap community college) and free public education. Anyone who becomes a prostitute sure doesn't become one for lack of opportunity. He or she either makes a conscious decision to get some fast money and then gets caught up in the system of crime (or, perhaps in a few cases, just really loves sex),
In the UK we also have state aid that they can live on, and student loans and even grants for totally free higher education in certain cases. These are not the problem. The 'problem' is that these women are selling a renewable resource for significant sums of money that places their income quite high in relation to the alternatives. Quite simply, the vast majority of them see the reward outweighing the negative side. If they want to do that, good for them.
Re: Why do people suddenly care? Answer & Cont (Score:5, Insightful)
The answer: This case involves a large number of murders within a short space of time in a quiet semi-rural area where murders are exceptionally rare and crime very low.
Let's not kid ourselves that anyone (significant) cares about prostitutes, especially not drug-addicted ones. This is about five murders within a fortnight in a middle-class provincial town (100,000 folks). Ipswitch [wikipedia.org], contrary to London-based journalists misunderstanding, doesn't have a "red light district". It has a corner of a road near a truck stop. Not even one whole street. Think almost the furthest town you can imagine from The Bronx. Think Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple".
To give context, the town is only a few miles from where Constable painted The Hay Wain [wikipedia.org], possibly the most famous English countryside scene of all time. Imagine five naked dead women on the banks of that painting- the bodies were found in similar locations. THAT is why people suddenly care, because it is so incredibly unusual given the semi-rural location.
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It seems to me that the problem in this world is there are too many people, not that a few are murdered.
The problem in this world is there is not enough death, and soon enough this reality will destroy us all.
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