Tangentially, I was chatting with the owner of my local pub in Boston recently, and apparently it’s become something of a game (?!?!?!?!?) to try to slip people mickeys around here. As in, just see if you can sneak it into the drink, with no real intent of abuse or rape or whatever - just to see if you can do it.
I fucking hate humans sometimes.
Is that what they say once they get caught, or do they tell that story just in case they get caught in the future?
No idea. If I caught someone doing it, I wouldn’t talk to them about what their rationale was. I’d throw my beer at them and then yell for the bouncer that some guy was trying to slip shit into drinks.
There are many more dumb assholes than rapists. I believe people who do this just for fun, not for rape, do exist. It's quite terrible anyway.
Tangentially, I was chatting with the owner of my local pub in Boston recently, and apparently it’s become something of a game (?!?!?!?!?) to try to slip people mickeys around here.
In some time periods in some places in the world, getting a hand cut off was punishment for theft. While that is a bit extreme, maybe assholes convicted of this should lose the final knuckle of their pinky finger as punishment for drugging people at bars.
There is a reason civilized countries don't do punishments like this any more - they don't work.
And you are never ever 100% certain they did it, even with eye witnesses.
So cutting fingers of innocent people is also a nono
I mean i could see this actually being a good stunt to raise awareness about it. Like use something fake and safe like a time release tablet that makes the drink fizz up suddenly 30 seconds later, or causes the whole thing to turn colour rapidly or something. But i doubt thats whats happening. Might make for a funny party theme with a close group of friends who are all in on it and targeting each other though.
Nah, plenty of SA happening in Boston bars, and has been for like 10 years now in this recent “wave” where incidents have been increasing.
Motherfuckers just never knew how to have a good time.
Oh cool. We're doing another needle panic
Britian went through this just three years earlier.
Their experiences were shared on social media, along with photographs of apparent puncture wounds. Groups were formed to warn of the dangers of needle spiking, politicians called for investigations, and by February 2022, over 1,300 reports of needle spiking had been made to police over the previous 6 months (Wynn-Davies, 2022).
...
Many victims claimed they only had a few drinks and were not drunk. However, an Australian study of suspected incidents of drink spiking found that self-reports of alcohol consumption are often unreliable. One 17-year-old girl was taken to hospital after having only one glass of vodka. However, on further questioning, she ‘remembered’ having beer and whisky. The study also analyzed the blood and urine of patients who presented at hospital emergency departments. Of 97 patients, none had traces of a sedative in their systems (Quigley et al., 2009).
People have different definitions of major incidents apparently...
"including a 17-year-old who was hospitalized after being found sitting on the street with stab wounds to the lower abdomen."
"The prefect of the Paris police, Laurent Nunez, said that "no major incident has been reported.""
A single person being stabbed isn't a "major incident" if you're the chief of police or whatever a prefect is.
I believe (and hope) that it's just ambiguously written, the first part is discussing incidents throughout the country while the prefect was obviously just talking about Paris.
A lot of oddly worded bits in that article.
Jfc what the fuck
Aside from the pricking scandal, what a fantastic idea.
On "Fête de la Musique" people are urged to play music outside.
Here my country is stuck with Christian holidays that noone remembers the meaning of.
It’s a GREAT festival. Super fun. Every neighborhood you can just walk around and there are little stages of groups or solo musicians performing. Free and just kind of everywhere. Good vibes. Very pedestrian friendly.
We also have those Christian holidays in France, and fête de la musique is just one evening, not a holiday. But it is on the longest daylight day of the year, so that's nice.
called for women to be targeted during the festivities
Do we know more? Was this supposed to just scare them or did they actually get injected with something?
Officials did not say if these were cases of so-called needle spiking with date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol or GHB
Some victims were taken to hospital for toxicological tests
investigations were opened after three people... reported feeling unwell.
after three people... reported feeling unwell.
Well that's fair enough at any rate. So maybe at least this didn't get anyone seriously injured.
Super frustrating article to read.
Fucking tell me about it 😂
Consent to cookies OR ELSE
10-15 years ago it was definitely a thing. I remember posts about it on reddit, back when reddit was good. Eventually after it blew up a lot of bars started doing the angel drinks or messages in the bathroom. Bunch of women were targeted
Yep. In the 2000s, my town had a serious scare. I lived in a small town at the time near a major music fest, and the town handed out flyers about watching yourself because we had a bunch of roofie incidents.
One festival mocked our town for it and called us assholes/cops. Because that festival were like pro date-rape or some shit? Festival doesn't exist anymore.
But I'll never forget how many naive tourist girls who would get the flyer, laugh, and go, "Why would anyone do this haha!" And don't take this stuff seriously.
I feel like social media has been a huge help at identifying shit behavior.
This is a panic that has come and gone multiple times even just during my lifetime. I remember the first time I heard about it was visitors to neighboring Tijuana with HIV infected blood on the 80s. Never once has it actually been confirmed to have happened.
These are 145 self reports. Nothing confirmed. No video evidence.
Of course the 145 police reports don't count. This is 145 women were talking about.
During the 80s example I gave it was men that were reporting it.
Anyone can file a police report. And if they believe they were a victim then they are more likely to do that.
This is a real phenomenon, first widely reported in 2022. Due to some reason, it has resurged.
Arrests in France after scores report being attacked with syringes at street music festival
Millions of people took to the streets across France on Saturday evening for the Fête de la Musique, with authorities reporting “unprecedented crowds” in Paris. The feminist influencer Abrège Soeur warned online before the festival that calls had been made on social media for women to be targeted with syringes. It was not certain where such posts would have been made or by whom.
The interior ministry said 145 victims across the country had reported being stabbed with needles during outdoor music events across the country. Paris police reported 13 cases in the capital. Officials did not say if these were cases of so-called needle spiking with date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol or GHB, used by attackers to render victims confused or unconscious and vulnerable to sexual assault. “Some victims were taken to hospital for toxicological tests,” the ministry said.
In Paris, investigations were opened after three people, including a 15-year-old girl and an 18-year-old male, reported being stabbed in separate incidents across Paris, prosecutors said. All three reported feeling unwell. Across France, 12 suspects have been arrested, the interior ministry said. Among them were four people in the south-western city of Angoulême suspected of having targeted about 50 victims, a police source said.
/.../ There was a wave of reports in 2022 about alleged syringe attacks against women and men in clubs, bars, music events and even theatres. The government put out messages at the time for people going out at night to be vigilant and advising them that they should go immediately to the police and also have a toxicology test if they thought they had been drugged by a syringe prick.
Since another person linked to a story about this on Twitter, of all things, I did some background checking. Does not look like a "panic", but a new genre of crime.
The mayor of the city of Metz, identifiable, writes on social media (Instagram) confirming the occurrence. Confirming that arrests have been made. Other sources (among them old media outlets like the Guardian, see above link) report about it.
Incitement allegedly occurred over social media. It will be investigated where it occurred. Victims have been sent to toxicology. It will be investigated what was injected, if anything. Some victims reported feeling unwell.
Guess: in a crowd, it is relatively easy to anonymously attack someone and hope to leave little evidence. However, this time, it has been claimed that some assailants were detained on the spot. There will be information confirming or denying this pretty soon.
Confirming that arrests have been made.
Very easy for police to grab random people out of a music festival and throw them in jail.
These social panic stories, in which unnamed sources make nonfalsifiable claims that result in some number of uninvestigated allegations and a series of possibly unrelated arrests stinks of Satanic Panic or Razorblades In the Halloween Candy or Haitian Immigrants are Eating Our Dogs, or any number of other news stories built on gossip.
Wait, are you trying to tell us that this is not true because there is no video evidence? Just hundreds of women being in panic? Wtf
I'm saying that in the past every incidence or this has been alleged turned out to be mass panic. And at today's age of constant video surveillance there would be evidence, not just reports. So either this is the very first case in the world where this is actually true and we will find that out through the evidence or we're going to find out that it's not true and then it matches all the previous events. But police reports do not make something real.
I'm asking people to look at the evidence.
145 women speaking up is evidence of this happening
145 people that think something happened isn't evidence. Every case in the past had lots of people absolutely convinced it happened.
So let's take this to the next step. There is video surveillance because every venue does these days. They pull the video. They watch the video. They follow the movements of every person. They see who bumped into who. If the video shows one or more people ranging too far to too many people and getting close when there is plenty of space and shows them dumping the evidence then we have actual proof that backs up the claims. Toxicology tests were performed. We find that there is something in the blood that shouldn't be there.
You and each of the others here that are absolutely convinced that this time is the one time in history that this actually happened get vindicated.
But what if the video doesn't show it? What if the toxicology is completely normal? Are you going to regret being so absolutely sure? Are you going to come back here and say "okay, I was wrong."
I'm asking that you wait until the evidence is evaluated to make a decision. Reports aren't proof. Evidence is proof. And given the history of this type of claim a little proof before judgment is absolutely warranted.
This also happened in France in 2022. People were detained, preliminary charges filed. And then the cases vanished. Not great reports of convictions. No "there is nothing to worry about, the criminals have he brought to justice."
In this current case they have arrested maybe a dozen. If they are guilty then throw the book at them. But the guilty should come only after the evidence has been evaluated. And a report is not evidence. That's suspicion.
This is a good response. And I did read the wiki you shared. In regards to video evidence, this festival had a lot of non-venue performances, I just don't know where the people were when they said they'd been poked. Also, it's easier to prove this than disprove it. For example if the tox report is negative then maybe theres something that wasn't texted for, or maybe the point is fear. People could be going around with pins rather than syringes. Of course no evidence means no conviction, and some people doubting what they thought they experienced. For me 145 people claiming something happened is evidence that something happened. (Ranging from 145 hallucinating or colluding all the way to 145 being targeted by a nefarious needle gang.)
You're not a scientist aren't you?
😁 Nope
Jesus Fucking Christ, Paris
This could literally have happened anywhere
(This literally does happen everywhere)
Could someone please shoot whoever wrote the headline?
The people planning this and walking around doing the pricking...
There's a classic death metal song by Cannibal Corpse called "Hammer Smashed Face".
And that 145 is just those who noticed. I regularly have to self administer injections and they're often nearly painless once you're used to doing it, especially with small gauge needles.
A community for discussing events around the World
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/