I don’t think we deserve the kudos that Antonius Block and several others of you have heaped upon us.
Our excoriation of Bill wasn’t a tenth as vigorous as it should have been, and frankly that was because he made us all nervous; he’s a big fellow. I don’t mean fat big, either, I mean muscular. The most vehement thing any of us said was “Don’t be making jokes like that”–there was no overt denial of his thesis. (Note how formal my language becomes when I’m describing myself acting like a pussy.) I think Bill left feeling that he was the Alpha Male in the group, that he was the only one with the courage to say what all men truly believe (untrue) and that with his size and aura he could cow us into silence anyway (at least partly true). So I’m not all that happy with myself this moment.
Anyway, here’s what I plan to do. First I’m going to pay a call on the woman who organized the event yesterday; she’s lived her much longer than I (20+years) and knows the people hereabouts better, so she’ll be more likely to know Bill’s last name & marital status. Second, I’m going to check the sex offender registry. Third, I know a couple of the cops who patrol our neighborhood well enough to say hello to; one of them generally cruises by me when I’m catching the bus to go to church on Sunday morning, so I’ll ask her opinion.
I’d say you do nothing except be aware that there’s an idiot in your neighborhood. My guess is that the guy is simply a loudmouthed jerk that likes to make himself appear to be a macho-man.
I don’t know crap about the psychology of rapists, but I doubt that they go around making themselves obvious targets of suspicion.
There are roughly 300 million Americans. That’s ~150M males. Factoring out the elderly & pre-pubescent, there are very roughly 75M males with the age & vigor to rape women if so inclined. If only 1 in 10,000 males have Bill’s attitude, that’s 7,500 Bills nationwide.
We know from the number of rapists in prison that not only that attitude, but the proclivity to act on it, is well in excess of 7500 nationwide. Per the FBI, there were 62,800+ forcible rapes reported nationwide in 2005.
So the prevalance of that attitude may well be more like 1 in 1,000 than one in 10,000.
The Metro Memphis area has a population of 1.2 million at the last census. One in 1,000 males implies that metro Memphis has about 600 Bills living in it.
Whereever you live now has a similar percentage.
Whether or not you’re near Bill is immaterial; he’s a drop in the bucket.
And, FTR, IMO Bill’s attitude is reprehensible.
I’m simply arguing that given even a low rate of prevalence for that attitude in society, sheer numbers mean there are Bill-equivalents near whereever you are right now. So for Dopers nationwide or worldwide to concern themsleves with trying to avoid Bill himself is statistically irrational.
I checked the sex offender registry for our zip code, and he’s not in it.
I spoke with the organizer of the event, and she said that Bill has given her the same squicky feeling on approximately 123934858 occasions, but never approached her in an unseemly fashion. She added that he’s only lived in our neighborhood for six months–not much longer than me.
I can think of so many bad repercussions to that, and so few reasons that a mod would allow the link to remain viable, that there seems no point in bothering.
Sorry, I did not mean here on the dope. There are some great sites that allow a person to do just that. Share pictures and information about perverts for others, that is.
While most of us don’t live near this person, there’s no way of knowing if he’s on some dating site pretending to be normal or some such. Nice to have a way to weed the weirdos out, let alone the out and out dangerous ones.
Here’s the problem with that, though–apart from the statistical reasons given earlier in the thread.
One, if I were to post such a picture on my web page and tell you guys where to look for it on the Dope, I think the mods would still be obliged to delete the info, because I’d be drawing a real-world dispute into the Dope.
Two, I don’t actually KNOW that this guy is a rapist; I only know that he is a churl. I can’t help but think that I’d be opening myself up to allegations of libel if I were to post his picture with a warning that “this man thinks it’s okay to rape women” with no more proof than the story posted in the OP. (If Oakminster or Bricker or one of our other lawyers knows any differently, I’d love to hear from them; I don’t think this should count as legal advice, as I’m not going to post the picture away; they’d only be proffering an opinion about a moot issue.)
Third, what if he’s just a jerk rather than a rapist, but someone saw such a picture and decided on some preemptive vigilante justice? Wouldn’t that be more responsibility?
I’ve obviously had a little time to think about this since my original post.
The correct term for your neighbour is “Creepy jerk to be avoided if at all possible”.
Free speech is free speech, and until the guy actually does something inappropriate, the best thing to do is just to keep out of his way and advise anyone you consider to be vulnerable to do the same.
I understand that part, and agree with it. But I think his attitude alone is enough to have some sort of consequence which results in girls being warned about his attitudes. It’s hard enough to find good men out here in dating land. This type seems to be the sort that is a good actor and charming enough to cover up his heinous ideas long enough to fool a girl into dating him.
It’s just too bad that you’re not in a position to do that, that is warn potential daters of this man.
Heh You have, it’s easy to see! :). Even if he’s “Just a jerk”, which he may very well be, I think it’s a damned shame that unwary females out in the dating arena don’t have the opportunity to be warned about him.
Oh well. You’re right, and it was just a wistful thought for me, and my fellow single girls.
