I’ve seen several calls for a blogger set of ethics, which sounds great, but the kind of people making these threats aren’t going to honor a code of ethics. I don’t think forcing people to step in front of anonymous usernames is the answer either.

Sadly the thick skin approach might be the only real answer here combined with prosecution when things do cross a certain line. Sadly depending on where you live or what jurisdiction would preside it may or may not even be against the law. My research was admittedly limited and I don’t profess to understand the US legal system, but from what I found it seems like death threats aren’t against the law in all states.

It’s true we don’t know how this all started and what caused things to get out of hand, but still there’s a point where things cross the line. My guess is this is one person or a small group of people who decided to attack Kathy. It’s possible early on she said a few things to generate a negative reaction, though I don’t think anything she said deserves the response she’s gotten.

It sounds like Kathy did ignore things for awhile and it wasn’t until she started seeing things on the other blogs that she got scared. Hopefully she’ll be able to get past her fear and go back to life before the incident.

The only thing that bugs me is whether this is multiple people or not. If it is multiple people behind this, it probably means that something was done or said by Kathy to precipitate it. Usually things like this are the result of escalated behaviour on two sides. I don’t see anything on her blog to suggest that she would do that, but she seems to be a woman that has some very strong opinions (which can lead to trouble.)

If it’s one person, though, it’s probably some sick twisted random idiot out there. I’ve had that happen. Some guy about 4 years ago left me a voice mail telling me what he’d like to do involving my mouth and a razor blade. Just random idiocy, though. You learn to ignore it.