craigscrimelist

Yesterday morning I appeared on a Canadian Broadcasting Company radio show called The Current.

You can hear it by using the flash player below.



Thanks to The Current, guest host Duncan McCue, and the CBC for having me on.

Going Postal: Soiled mattresses on Craigslist, tortured lobsters and one dumb would-be mass murderer:
I just wanted to thank Zosia Bielski of Canada's National Post for giving CCL a little link love about the post I did about the sex club mattresses for sale on craigslist.

All this love from Canada is greatly appreciated.

I'm Canada famous...like Chilliwack.

Craigs crime scene:
This is an awesome article about the crime problems on craigslist by Patrick White of the Globe and Mail. Why is it so awesome? Besides the fact that Mr. White is an incredible journalist it also features yours truly.

In the United States, Craigslist-related crimes have become so commonplace that one blogger has launched an entire site devoted to them. Up until last August, Trench Reynolds had been posting Craigslist news items on his main site, mycrimespace.com, "but the Craigslist stories got so big they were taking away from all the other stories on the site."

Now he posts a story or more a day at craigscrimelist.org.

In the nine months since the site went live, he's seen his share of bizarre and sad stories.

One of his early posts covered a Minnesota man who allegedly lured a babysitter to his house through a Craigslist posting and killed her.

Law-enforcement officials in Canada agree that Craigslist is not the problem; "It's the people using it who are," Cpl. Robertson said.

But not everyone is so quick to let the company off the hook. Mr. Reynolds recently used a new classifieds site, Flugpo.com, that has more anti-crime measures in place, including a complete ban on erotic-services ads.

"Why couldn't Craigslist follow suit?" he said. "That would go a long way toward eliminating crime on the site. Right now, it's like the Wild West on there. Everything is anonymous and anything goes."

I'm Canada famous now. Just kidding.

Anyway craigslist mouthpiece Susan MacTavish Best had her usual non-response.

"Craigslist is an unwise choice of venue for committing crimes, since perpetrators inevitably leave an electronic trail to themselves that law-enforcement officers can follow," Ms. MacTavish Best stated in an e-mail. "Our staff actively works with police departments, and we even help train officers in using Craigslist."

How about taking the anonymity away and doing away with the erotic services section? If you did that I would guarantee you that inquiries from law enforcement would virtually disappear. And then craigslist might become respectable again.

Tim White started Craigslist Blog not too long ago. I see it as a craigslist fan's blog. It's not half as harsh against craigslist as I am but Tim pulls no punches when it comes to posting craigslist stories that show craigslist in a bad light. Just recently craigslist started their own ugly and non-functional blog. So now they're threatening Tim with legal action by none other than Jim Buckmaster himself.

I love it how craigslist acts like a small mom and pop company with only a handful of employees when it suits them. Now they're acting just like every other internet based corporation.

And Tim brings up a great point. This blog has been around since August of last year. I know for a fact that people from craigslist have seen it. How come I haven't been threatened with legal action? Especially considering how I'm not a fan of craigslist at all.

3 men arrested in Web-linked heists:
This is actually an article about three suspects who were arrested for robbing various people in Illinois by placing ads on craigslist seeking items like cell phones and computers. Then when the sellers would meet their would-be buyers they would get robbed.

But we get a little mention at the end of the article.

There is a Web site devoted specifically to crimes committed through Craigslist. The Web site, Craigscrimelist.org, claims no affiliation with Craigslist.org.

Thanks to the Chicago Tribune for the love.

Thanks to Gothamist for the link.

Craigslist or Crimeslist?:
I have to thank Jim Redden of the Portland Tribune for featuring this humble site in his article about craigslist crime in the Portland, Oregon area. It's a great article and brings up some great points that I'll discuss later. But now it's late and for now I just want to brag a little.