rape
Latest
Former New Delhi Uber driver convicted of rape
A former Uber driver has been found guilty of rape in a case that caused New Delhi to ban the ridesharing service. Shiv Kumar Yadav was convicted of rape, kidnapping and criminal intimidation and now faces a maximum life prison term, according to Reuters. The driver somehow slipped past Uber's safety and background driver checks, despite the fact that he was on bail for a separate 2011 assault. Uber India President Amit Jain said that "sexual assault is a terrible crime and we're pleased he has now been brought to justice."
Uber drivers in India will start collecting area data to improve safety
Uber's connecting with a crowdsourced safety app and, eventually, local government to help improve conditions in New Delhi, India. The company announced a partnership with SafetiPin, a firm that collects location-based info and offers a "safety score" for a given area. The idea is that Uber's "partner-drivers," as the company calls them, will start collecting nighttime safety information throughout the New Delhi area -- a city where an Uber driver was accused of rape last year. Since those allegations surfaced, the company has announced various efforts to improve passenger safety in the Indian capital. In fact, Uber's partnership with SafetiPin closely follows the company's addition of an in-app "panic button" for the area earlier this month.
Woman in India rape case sues Uber
A woman who claims she was raped by an Uber driver in New Delhi last month has filed suit against the US-based car-sharing company. In a civil complaint filed yesterday in California, the unnamed woman, who's referred to as "Jane Doe," said the company put its bottom line ahead of ensuring rider safety -- especially its female passengers.
India's capital city bans Uber following sexual assault
Uber is no longer allowed to operate in New Delhi, India's capital city, after a woman was allegedly raped by one of its drivers. In an interview with India's Economic Times, local transport chief Satish Mathur says that the company misled customers by using vehicles with the wrong permits and has never applied for permission to operate in the city. A common complaint about the ride-sharing service is that it neglects safety-and-background-checks for its drivers. That appears to be the case here, since the alleged offender was working while out on bail for sexually assaulting a woman in a cab he was driving in 2011. In a statement, Uber CEO Travis Kalnick says that the company will do everything to support the victim and "bring this perpetrator to justice."
Teenage killer confesses crime in World of Warcraft chat, sentenced to life in prison
Two teenage boys who raped and murdered a fellow classmate in Victoria, British Columbia recently received a sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole for 10 years. They weren't very smart about covering it up, however, as one of the killers confessed his crime to a guildmate in World of Warcraft chat. He did so because he assumed that those chat logs were less likely to be saved. Kruse Wellwood and Cameron Moffat spent time planning the assault beforehand, and Wellwood even mentioned his desire to do the crime to a guild friend in WoW. Following the 2010 crime, Wellwood logged back in World of Warcraft to talk about the murder to his online girlfriend in Halifax, sending her links of the news reports as proof of his story. Amazingly, his girlfriend mildly chided him to "just don't do it again." The in-game chat logs were part of the mountain of evidence collected by the police. The pair pleaded guilty to the crime.
An open letter against a dysphemism
Elizabeth's post about getting the word "gay" out of the game got tons of feedback from you all (some comments more intelligent than others), and now a poster on WoW Ladies has another language sensitivity that I agree with. The word "rape" is used by some players in game for all kinds of things, and most of the time it's used without thought to what the word really means.Personally I don't use it (not because I have a specific abhorrence of the word, although the act itself is pretty abhorrent), but every once in a while you'll hear things like "boy, our guild raped Hakkar last night," or "stupid elite Son of Arugal just came out of nowhere and raped me." The word for this kind of usage is actually "dysphemism," the opposite of euphemism, in which you specifically use a harsh word in the place of a more polite one.And that's the problem-- just like "gay," it's not polite to use, not least of all because you may hardly know the person that reads it or their situation. In some cases, the word can be downright offensive. Fortunately, I don't know anyone (that I know of) who's experienced real-life rape or abuse, but especially in an MMO situation, there's no reason to use the harsher word, especially if, as Elizabeth said about "gay," it costs you respect (and possibly your account).As the WoW Ladies contributor says, "realize there are a lot of women in guild, as well as a lot of married members and members with children. Realize that 1 in 6 women are raped in the US. Realize that each person in the guild is either female themselves, and/or has multiple loved ones and friends that are female. Realize that rape is a deeply traumatic experience, for the victim and their loved ones." Even if you're joking, or even if you didn't mean it that way, it's just not worth saying.
Saved by the Bell's Screech mugged
Dustin Diamond, aka "Screech" from the "hit" television series Saved by the Bell is going through some tough times. He hasn't had a "career" since his teen acting days, he's losing his house, and now... he's lost his precious PSP games (to quote "good games.") According to his account on a Florida radio station, a woman broke into his hotel room with some mace, grabbed his PSP games and ran out. He tried to stop her, but she yelled "rape" and ran away.If you feel sorry for the guy, go and buy a t-shirt from him.(This incredible non-news story was brought to you by our sister site, TV Squad. Let's never do a crossover with them ever again.)
Joystiq readers critique Hitman advertisement
Our inaugural weekly feature asking readers to dissect advertising was a hit, generating 110 comments (and counting). Readers eloquently debated the merits of the controversial Hitman advertisement that featured a scantiliy clad woman shot through the forehead and subsequently carefully arranged on satin sheets in a sexually suggestive pose. Our discussion of the controversial Hitman advert drew the attention of MSNBC's Newsweek Blog Watch columnists, who expressed surprise at the quality of discussion here on Joystiq. Hey, we're not billed as the "games blog with an IQ" for nothin'. Still, even we were impressed with the quality and quantity of responses, a few of which follow after the "continue" link.
