"Intentional" Gas Leak Injures Furry Convention Attendees

[MPerce]

Daaaaaaaamn, someone went to A LOT of effort to hurt some people who are into stuff he/she doesn't like.

Silver lining: maybe this'll remind some people that furries are people too, and don't deserve the particularly vile harassment the Internet tends to fling at them.

 

[AJ_Lethal]

Whoa, the Edgelord Uprising of 2014 finally kicked in?

In all seriousness: gassing a furry con, of all things is just sad.

 

[Creator002]

First thing I thought was "lol, furries", then I read "gas leak." I feel terrible now.

This is ridiculous if it was intentional, extremely unfortunate if not. I understand furries are the "in-thing" to hate right now, but terrorism is not the right way, or even a slightly productive way to deal with that. Hope the fuckwit gets some justice if it is intentional and the attendees recover quickly.

 

[Something Amyss]

Hate crime wouldn't apply unless you somehow tied furries under sexual orientation. I mean, I can see HOW you could do it, but whether anyone would actually give enough fucks about furries to do so is entirely another matter.

Unless I'm trying them in court or saying they should be tried in court, a hate crime applies, as it applies to people being targeted for their membership of a social group. Since I'm not a lawyer and have been warned in the past against trying people on the streets, I think I'm on safe ground. Keep in mind that the term "hate crime" was used to describe attacks on homosexuals before sexual orientation was added to the list of legally recognised groups and it's still used to describe attacks on trans individuals despite the lack of legal recognition in the states of gender identity as a protected group. Also, this varies on a state level, so I don't know what applies in any given state.

Simply put, they appear to have been targeted for who/what they are. I don't care if you consider furries a sexuality, gender identity, race, religion, or disability, the term as is used applies. Terrorism usually comes down to the intent of terror for some end. This may or may not apply, but it seems less likely. It seems like someone just wanted to kill some furries.

Daaaaaaaamn, someone went to A LOT of effort to hurt some people who are into stuff he/she doesn't like.

It's kind of a shock to think that they went from "fire alarms pulled" to "chemical attack." From dick move to attempted murder. It's like something you'd see in a TV show where you have that one guy (I call him Farva) who doesn't just go too far, he goes waaaaay too far. Except it's real.

 

[Chessrook44]

That said, neither CNN nor MSNBC have reported on the incident yet.

Actually, they did. Or well.... tried to...


As for on-topic, I consider myself part of the fandom and glad to see that everyone was alright. Most of what I'd say here is pretty much a repeat of what people have said here before.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

That said, neither CNN nor MSNBC have reported on the incident yet.

MSNBC have now [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llmgFZz3Iio]. Albeit a little less professionally than Fox.

OT: Glad to see that people are alright. No one should face this kind of treatment.

Actually, they did. Or well.... tried to...

Your video embed's borked.[footnote]I presume it is the same video I'm linking.[/footnote] See here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.850242.21004302] for how to do it and other things.

 

[direkiller]

That said, neither CNN nor MSNBC have reported on the incident yet.

MSNBC have now [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llmgFZz3Iio]. Albeit a little less professionally than Fox.

OT: Glad to see that people are alright. No one should face this kind of treatment.

Actually, they did. Or well.... tried to...

Your video embed's borked.[footnote]I presume it is the same video I'm linking.[/footnote] See here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.850242.21004302] for how to do it and other things.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/07/us/illinois-furry-convention-evacuation/
CNN has a report aswell
There is a rather jarring half truth in it but, it's at least done strait.

 

[Reasonable Atheist]

This strikes me as very.... peculiar. Im not reffering to furries here although yeah that too. What i mean is, chlorine gas, and the worst that happened is some people felt nauseous? If it was really a chemical attack people would feel their lungs burn from the inside out and suffocate while desperately gasping for oxygen.

Something not quite right about this story, least thats what my gut tells me. But maybe the psychopath is just real incompetent as well, in that case crucify them for attempted mass murder.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

This strikes me as very.... peculiar. Im not reffering to furries here although yeah that too. What i mean is, chlorine gas, and the worst that happened is some people felt nauseous? If it was really a chemical attack people would feel their lungs burn from the inside out and suffocate while desperately gasping for oxygen.

Something not quite right about this story, least thats what my gut tells me. But maybe the psychopath is just real incompetent as well, in that case crucify them for attempted mass murder.

Hazmat teams found the source of the chlorine in a stairwell on the ninth floor of the Hyatt Regency O'Hare.

They left it in a stairwell, probably a decent distance away from the convention it's self. The attacker maybe didn't want to actually kill anyone and probably meant it as a joke all in all, however it's a very sick and dangerous joke that could've gotten someone killed (in a very slow and painful way) had they ventured into that particular stairwell and did make several people sick even from a distance.

 

[Reasonable Atheist]

This strikes me as very.... peculiar. Im not reffering to furries here although yeah that too. What i mean is, chlorine gas, and the worst that happened is some people felt nauseous? If it was really a chemical attack people would feel their lungs burn from the inside out and suffocate while desperately gasping for oxygen.

Something not quite right about this story, least thats what my gut tells me. But maybe the psychopath is just real incompetent as well, in that case crucify them for attempted mass murder.

Hazmat teams found the source of the chlorine in a stairwell on the ninth floor of the Hyatt Regency O'Hare.

They left it in a stairwell, probably a decent distance away from the convention it's self. The attacker probably didn't want to actually kill anyone and probably meant it as a joke all in all, however it's a very sick and dangerous joke that could've gotten someone killed (in a very slow and painful way) had they ventured into that particular stairwell and did make several people sick even from a distance.

I never met anyone who thought chemical weapons were funny, I cannot imagine a mustard gas joke. Well shit maybe I can lets try it. "How do you spice up your sandwich in 1915 Belgium? (intentionally poor taste joke was in too poor taste even for me, deleted punch line in edit)" ..... just does not work

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I never met anyone who thought chemical weapons were funny, I cannot imagine a mustard gas joke. Well shit maybe I can lets try it. "How do you spice up your sandwich in 1915 Belgium? (intentionally poor taste joke was in too poor taste even for me, deleted punch line in edit)" ..... just does not work.

That's because you're mature and level-headed. In today's day and age, tons of idiots with zero maturity would look at this thread and chortle without having the decency of going "God, I'm so horrible for laughing", like most people have in this thread. Don't forget: smack-cams are a thing, now, where two decades or so ago they would've been really stupid attempts at humor you send to Bob Saget in VHS format.

I don't have too much trouble imagining a moron with about two seconds' worth of research on the effects of chlorine under his belt prepping up his little scare because "lulz, furries, man". I have even less trouble imagining some foaming bigot doing the exact same thing because he perceives that subculture as being unnatural.

 

[Vigormortis]

Actually, they did. Or well.... tried to...

MSNBC have now.

Oh, I had assumed they would eventually. But at the time of writing my post, they hadn't reported on the story on either of their respective sites.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Before you decide to post a joke or laugh at this:

Chlorine gas enters the lungs via the victim's airway. On contact with water, the chlorine forms hydrochloric acid, HCl. Victims feel excruciating pain as acid is generated inside their lungs, throat, and mouth. The chemical reaction is also exothermic, and can burn victims to cause additional tissue damage.

Think for a minute about this before you decide to laugh or make fun of these people.

You should see the comments sections of the YouTube videos covering this. They are 90% anti-furry bile with a suspicious number of up-votes.

So have they decided upon whether this was attempted meth production (and thus a really bad accident) or have they settled on it being domestic terrorism yet?

 

[maneyan]

Jesus fucking christ. This is terrifying. And the thing is that recently during a feminist meetup in sweden they had hired a movie parlor to show this movie which had abortion as a central theme. In the middle of it someone kicks up the door, tosses in a smoke grenade screaming "this is a bomb!". This is the hatred that breeds these days, people are actually TARGETED like this and I don't give a shit if it's a "joke" or not (like SWATting!), this needs to be stopped. I don't know how, but somehow we have to put a stop to these things.

 

[Sable Gear]

chemical weapons are not EVER a valid response to fandoms you don't like.

...

I agree with you, but it just struck me that this is something that actually needs to be said.

Thats attempted murder times 19, plus a literal terrorist act. This idiot is going to jail the moment hes stupid enough to brag about it online. Because you know those idiots tend to do so just to talk how bad ass they are for picking on a culture they think is beneath themselves.

To join the chorus: Thankfully no one was seriously hurt.

This kind of hate is atrocious no matter who its directed at, there is no justifying it.

Sort of a minor bright side, though; to me the whole thing smacks of amateur hate-crime, I get the feeling whoever is responsible will be slipping up and getting caught. All I can ask is that nobody take this to a revenge level. Let the law do what it's meant to do and let the jerk(s) involved serve their time. The last thing the community needs is to drag this out, because if someone attacks the perp personally, there's bound to be a risk of backlash and an even worse strike against the Furry community.

 

[Azure23]

Oh shit, I hope The Dropout Dragon is all right!

Furries being the butt of internet jokes from silly uninformed people is common enough but this? Hope they catch the fucker.

 

[Lieju]

I never met anyone who thought chemical weapons were funny, I cannot imagine a mustard gas joke. Well shit maybe I can lets try it. "How do you spice up your sandwich in 1915 Belgium? (intentionally poor taste joke was in too poor taste even for me, deleted punch line in edit)" ..... just does not work

People are idiots, and don't understand how dangerous chemicals are? I see enough of that kind of stuff in different contexts where people think safety equipment is 'ridiculous'.

Also you'd be surprised how many people think 'mustard gas' sounds like something akin to fart gas...

 

[Valkrex]

I would just like to say thank you Escapists for the positive response to this. Its rather unusual for me to see support for my favorite fandom online, and it means a lot that even those who don't get the whole furry thing are showing their support and best wishes.

Props to you Escapists!

 

[Chessrook44]

Your video embed's borked.[footnote]I presume it is the same video I'm linking.[/footnote] See here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.850242.21004302] for how to do it and other things.

Fixed it. Turned out I had linked the wrong one anyway. I could never figure out the YouTube embeds...

 

[Someone Depressing]

This is really, really sad. I'd be a little disappointed in humanity, but my empathy is boring me.

But seriously, this is going to make a hilarious headline when the police investigate it further.