The Brutal Reality of Online Hate

CNET Launches iHate Series: First, a refresher. It was just about six months ago that Abq Jew earned his echoes - by being the recipient of two odious online hate messages* directed at him, his family, and the Albuquerque Jewish community.

Shortly after that, Abq Jew was "featured" (can we really call it that?) in Anna North's Hateful Threats Against a Jewish Blogger, an early part of The New York Times' This Week in Hate series.

If you missed them the first time, you can catch up with Abq Jew's blog posts You've Got Hate Mail! and Documenting Hate. And Love Trumps Hate: 24 Hours and We're OK, Ken O'Hara. And, most recently, The Tragedy in Portland.

Everyone hoped (everyone always hopes)
that that would be the end of it.

Vandals targeted the mailbox of Shoshana and Ari Simones' home while the couple, who are Jewish, were on vacation. (Photo: Sean Logan/The Republic)

But of course it was not. It never is.

When CBS Interactive / CNET's Terry Collins contacted Abq Jew back in February, they spoke for more than an hour about Abq Jew's experience of online hate - and its effects.

And (of course) Abq Jew talked about Mikey Weinstein - the founder and leader of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) - who responded quickly and forcefully when Abq Jew was attacked.

Abq Jew told Terry Collins -

For Abq Jew, online hate was a one-time thing
(although Abq Jew did not know that at the time).
For Mikey Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), it's all day every day.

Terry Collins has just published Here's the brutal reality of online hate - the first article in CNET's new iHate series.

Terry "features" Mikey, and tells Mikey's story with blazing clarity.

Here's the brutal reality of online hate 

WARNING: The themes of the following story are disturbing. The language includes racial and religious slurs. CNET has edited some of the wording because of its ugly nature but preserved the intent to present a clear picture of attacks on real people. 

Mikey Weinstein knows about online harassment. He also knows what it's like when digital threats cross into real life. 

About 10 years ago, someone shattered the windows of his suburban home in New Mexico. Twice. He's found a swastika and a cross painted near the front door. 

But Weinstein says the decapitated rabbits are the worst. On one occasion, somebody dropped a severed rabbit's head in his driveway. Last year, a gutted bunny appeared by his front door. 

Police say they've been called to the Weinstein residence many times over the years. 

Weinstein doesn't scare easily. Yet the Air Force vet and former Reagan administration attorney has hired armed bodyguards after enduring years of vicious emails, hateful social media posts and hostile phone calls related to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, the nonprofit he founded in 2005 to protect military members regardless of their faith.

You can read Terry's full article here,
and more iHate articles here.

And if you would like to see what Abq Jew's two hate messages said, go ahead and click the asterisk.
CAUTION! Extremely offensive language!