Phoenix Calida (April 9, 2018)
Have I ever told y’all about my Jack the Ripper stalker on twitter?
Yeah. Some dude was using Jack the Ripper as a handle. He would tweet pics of ripper victims at me and ask if I was a street sex worker, and where I could be found.
People online thought it was hilarious watching these interactions. They’d egg him on, make “jokes” and say things like “I bet you never forgot your first time” People would laugh when he asked I bore any physical resemblance to ripper victims
It went on for months. I’d block him, he’d make a new account, tweet more dead sex workers at me. He’d even send pics of modern day London, all the places ripper victims were found. Pics of “Jack the ripper tours”. Pics of old school surgeon knives. It was terrifying.
The worst part was because Twitter is public, everyone could see it. All people thought it was funny. People would retweet his tweets of dead bodies to me. One guy told me I should be flattered because the only way whores get famous is by murdered by serial killers
I was scared as fuck . And then thru him stalking my social media, he found out I was black and my grandfather was Jewish. It went from Jack the Ripper references to Holocaust pictures and plantation rape jokes
He even went so far as to guess where I was from in Chicago. He told me he wanted to visit, and play a game of slave catcher. And of course, his followers thought it was funny. Because dead hookers, lulz. Instead of ripper victims, now it was murdered American Sex workers
Fortunately, my friends kept me sane. And helped me learn how to screen and monitor other people’s social media better. I’m not saying that guy found me…. I am saying that by learning from my friends, I passed a potential date that looked like Mr. Jack the Ripper
By using available sources to screen, I quite possibly avoided something truly terrible. And now that SESTA/FOSTA has passed… those screening tools are gone.
This situation happened a long time ago. But if it started again right now? I don’t know what I would do.
That story has been in my head ever since this #SESTA #FOSTA bullshit has gone down. Was it really him? Was he going to kill me? Will he ever find me again? Do his followers still think this is a joke? If he did kill me, would anyone even care? Has he killed/hurt others?
This isn’t a game. Sex workers will die because of these laws. what side you really on? If you aren’t supporting team sex workers right now, I can’t fuck with you. Not when men on the internet openly fantasize about killing sex workers. Fin.
