Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Radio Amateurs and Cyber Bullying - Part 2

Quite a while ago, Shortwave America made a commitment to help stop cyber-bullying. On November 6th, 2011, we brought you the #OccupyShortwave and #OccupyRadio movement as a way of getting back to real radio; radio that focuses on being family friendly and inclusive of all members of the public on an international basis.

As part of this focus, Shortwave America wants to uncover the worst of cyber-bullies in amateur radio, shortwave radio, and other radio related circles. If radio is ever going to get back to where it needs to be, we have to start acting as a rational community. Acting as a rational community means we have to do some house cleaning based on common sense contemporary community standards.

The group at Hamsexy obviously cannot be allowed to be a part of amateur radio or other radio communities. A detailed investigation of their site, practices at their site, their forums, and the behavior they allow their users to engage in would concern even the most open-minded and reasonable of people in the world. Shortwave America has done tons of research on the effects of cyber-bullying in the amateur radio, shortwave, and other radio related circles.

This includes having met with sworn law enforcement professionals, and in-depth review of the work of psychological, social work, and psychiatric professionals on this topic. You will notice that Shortwave America was recently rated as a "Safe Site".

On June 16th 0f 2010,  Hamsexy published a piece called "Just When You Thought The Ham Badge Was Lame". This was a rather long-winded piece that attempted to make Hamsexy the victim rather than the offender of a rather violent, disturbing crime for which responsibility should be taken. To wit: this portion of the posting which Hamsexy makes an admission of their disrespect for the well-being of others:


The use of racial mention here, along with admitting to their attorneys having cease and desist letters, death threats being made, and so on would tend to point to obvious wanton provocation of one or more persons and then crying "victim" when someone acts. In most U.S. states, this is actually illegal in the criminal sense.  Hamsexy members are hardly victims. They are today's worst offenders in respect to cyber bullying.

The use of a claim that everything they do is some sort of "joke" is laughable from every angle one could spin it in. Even someone with the darkest sense of humor would not see any "joke" in the practices at Hamsexy.

Uses of sexual innuendo of a repeated nature have happened at Hamsexy on several dates: June 1st 2010, when they featured a photo of men's underwear with the RACES, ARES, and ARRL logo on them without any official authorization for its intended use. Other dates are too numerous to list here.

Openly hateful or discriminatory pieces or mentions of overweight individuals on the following dates: 15 February 2010 as submitted by Bryan - VE6HBD at a motel said to be in Sawyer, Michigan. This was a picture of a large shower stall with derogatory comments aimed at overweight people. 25 January, 2010 when they posted a photo of an overweight individual playing an airsoft game as part of an article about radio amateurs from the Dominican Republic who traveled to Haiti to help provide emergency communications during the widely known Haiti disaster of this time.

17 January 2010, when Hamsexy posted an article about a radio jammer taken off the air with the opening comment: "Aside from certainly having the rotund body of an amateur radio license holder, the only tunes 14-year-old Jayhaed Saadé will be spinning will be on his daddy’s ipod."

Here is a photo of some of the Hamsexy group who think so highly of themselves as criminal offenders in context of going undetected under today's cyber-bullying laws. This photo was taken at what they called "Hamcom 2008" which was held at a place they said was called "Bonedaddies". A photo Shortwave America will not feature here from this event depicted a brunette haired woman dressed in a fashion that was seriously distasteful in the fashion they used it in. Today, this woman is featured in the right side of the site in a way so as to portray the sexual objectification of women.

On August 10th, 2007, Hamsexy again half-disavowsbeing the cause of problems, telling only part of where their responsibility lies in being the cause of great offense to the public:


And again playing the victim on the same day in the same article:


 Further evidence of Hamsexy's attitude towards certain legally protected social classes of society can be found in "The Foy Manifesto" published on March 23rd 2007.


                                                                           

Where there is bullying and hate, the question gets begged in regards to what members of sucha group must think about themselves. Turns out that there is indeed some hypocrisy going on, as a few of the Hamsexy members are overweight themselves. Photos: KA8YPY, Group Photo, VE3UDP, VA3AGF, N3JFW with VE3XLS, and still, they insist on making fun of a wheelchair bound person who is overweight from being stuck in his chair as a result of his disability.

Further back into Hamsexy's history in 2006, October 26th to be exact, Clyde McPhail posted THIS GARBAGE calling for a shaming of an ARRL Official Observer who made a few simple mistakes. On September 18th 2006, for an unknown reason, K7VO's alleged sexuality or sexual status came into play when criminal accusations were made in regards to an alleged scam. Isn't sticking to the story about the criminal allegations the entire point?

Shortwave America will end part 2 of the series here. Part 3 will be here soon enough.

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