Hiv Needles Urgent.read

[Guest guest]

Dear devotees,

 

A couple of days ago I got this e-mail from a devotee saying that a few weeks ago someone in a movie theatre felt something poking her from her seat. When she checked the seat she found a needle with a note attached to it saying"You have just been infected by HIV". The Disease

Control Center (in Paris) reports many similar events in many other cities

recently. All tested needles were HI V Positive.The Center also reports that needles have been found in cash dispensers at public banking machines. Everyone should be very careful when going to sit in public chairs/seats. Can you all please pass this message to other family and friends so they can be very aware of this huge problem. KEEP SAFE

[rand0M aXiS]

 

Dear devotees,

 

A couple of days ago I got this e-mail from a devotee saying that a few weeks ago someone in a movie theatre felt something poking her from her seat. When she checked the seat she found a needle with a note attached to it saying"You have just been infected by HIV". The Disease

Control Center (in Paris) reports many similar events in many other cities

recently. All tested needles were HI V Positive.The Center also reports that needles have been found in cash dispensers at public banking machines. Everyone should be very careful when going to sit in public chairs/seats. Can you all please pass this message to other family and friends so they can be very aware of this huge problem. KEEP SAFE

That is an urban legend my friend. Check out http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/pinprick.asp :

 

Origins: The <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="8"><tbody><tr><td>

</td></tr></tbody></table> important news first — this isn't happening. In the seven years we've been tracking this legend since its first appearance, no AIDS-laden needle attacks on moviegoers have been reported in Bombay, Hawaii, Dallas, Paris, or anywhere else in the world. We know of only two related incidents, neither of which proved to involve any deliberate intent to infect an innocent victim with HIV: A Louisiana man sat on a needle in a theater in Baton Rouge in December, 1996, and sued the facility over the incident, but there was no note welcoming him to the world of AIDS or any indication of his contracting any infection. An <nobr>October 2005</nobr> report from Athens, Georgia, involved a woman who said she sat upon a needle that had been duct-taped to a movie theater seat, but since then she also has evidenced no symptoms of HIV infection. (In the latter case, although the syringe contained a substance that appeared to be dried blood, it was too small a sample for police to be able to determine what it was or whether it carried a disease.)

 

One of the many versions of this warning claims to be one circulated by the Dallas Police Department. Not only didn't that institution originate the warning, but since its appearance officers there have been kept busy fielding inquiries about this hoax: "It's all false," said <nobr>Sgt. Jim</nobr> Chandler, a Dallas police spokesman. "This has not happened, and we would ask people to stop forwarding this message to their friends because it's creating situations where police departments and emergency personnel are having to respond to inquiries to a situation that has not happened."

What we have here is an urban legend trading on our fears of catching AIDS. Cautionary tales about hapless bystanders contracting an infectious disease became all the rage in the 1990s. Another such scare has to do with addicts leaving HIV-contaminated needles in the coin returns of pay phones. See our <nobr>"Slots of Fun"</nobr> page for more about this related legend.

 

This particular pin prick story is a version of the better known "AIDS Mary" legend. (In <nobr>"AIDS Mary,"</nobr> the "Welcome to the world of AIDS" communication is typically imparted either through a gift emblazoned with that message being left for the victim or found scrawled in lipstick on the bathroom mirror.)

 

AIDS Mary has been scaring the bejeebers out of us at least since the early 1980s. The pin prick legend, however, isn't all that new either, with the HIV version of it having its roots in an 1989 incident in <nobr>New York</nobr> City. The legend in its current incarnation (teenage girls in darkened theaters jabbed with needles) dates back to a much older <nobr>non-HIV</nobr> story, one rampant in the New Orleans area in the 1930s. Toothsome young girls were told to beware of Needle Men. Young ladies were strictly instructed to sit at the end of the aisle in moviehouses, not in the middle, lest they attract the attention of white slavers working in pairs who would sit down beside the girl, one on each side, inject her with morphine, and carry her out of the theatre and into a life of shame.

 

The New Orleans Needle Men rumor circulated in another form besides the "white slavers after young girls" — others feared these syringe-armed fiends were in fact medical students harvesting cadavers for dissection. Women jabbed by them would quickly succumb to the poison contained in those needles, with their lifeless bodies soon afterwards delivered to a local teaching hospital. Such deadly attacks were said to take place in theaters, but also on the street.

 

Though "Needle Man" scares rippled through New Orleans at various times in the 1920s and 1930s, each time sending women into hysterics, there was never any credible reason to believe such men existed. Women weren't disappearing at a furious rate, nor were gals who'd fallen into lives of prostitution afterwards asserting they'd been overcome via injection and abducted.

 

A slightly different yet inexplicably more frightening version of the pin prick legend began circulating in the early spring of 1998. According to it, young people partying in clubs or at raves run the risk of being jabbed with an HIV-loaded needle and then afterwards finding a "Welcome to reality — you now have AIDS" message stuffed into a pocket or affixed to them by way of a sticker. This warning has so far circulated in Philadelphia, <nobr>New York</nobr> City, <nobr>San Diego,</nobr> Oakland, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Mexico, Australia, Ecuador, and Germany, each time passed along as something that had already happened to others locally: [Collected on the Internet, 1998]

 

Do you any of you guys like to go clubbing? Well you might want to think twice after this message. Just in case you don't already know, there is a certain group of people with stickers that say "Welcome to our world." Once this sticker is stuck on you, you contract the AIDS virus because it is filled with tiny needles carrying the infected blood. This has been happening at many dance clubs (even DV8 and Beatbox) and raves. Being cautious is not enough because the person just chooses anyone, and I mean anyone, as his/her victim. So you could just be dancing the night away and not even realize the sticker had been stuck on you. It sounds too demented to be true, but it's the truth. In fact my sister's friend knows someone who just recently contracted the virus in this manner. The world isn't safe anymore. Please pass this on to everyone and anyone you know.

Wherever this rumor goes, it has a significant impact on the local bar scene. In August 1998 one popular Toronto nightclub estimated its business to be down by 50%. In March 1998 a popular dance club in <nobr>San Diego</nobr> was similarly affected when the story swept through there. People hear this story and stay away in droves.

 

Police in each of these cities have investigated the rumors and found nothing. The clubs named in the rumors similarly report they know nothing of any attacks.

 

Okay, so this isn't happening in movie houses, at popular dance clubs or at raves. Where did this HIV-loaded needle story come from?

 

Keep in mind that although there have at various times been random attacks with needles, none have resulted in infection being passed to victims. That part is myth. Now for the truth of it:

 

For a few weeks in the fall of 1989, a group of Black teenagers (mostly girls) scared the pants off the denizens of New York City by running about jabbing pins into the necks of <nobr>41 random</nobr> white females. Media coverage escalated the general public's fears as it was repeatedly stated the pins were tainted with AIDS. Within a week the kids responsible were found and arrested, and it was at that time police discovered there was no basis to the reports of the AIDS virus being part of these attacks. The hooligans responsible admitted it was just a fun game to them, run up to a white woman, stick her with a pin, see her reaction, then run off.

 

Possibly inspired by the 1989 panic in New York City, for three weeks in 1990 a Black man terrorized white and hispanic women in that city by hitting them in the legs and buttocks with dart-like missiles fired from a homemade blowgun. More than <nobr>50 women</nobr> were hit in this fashion before the man responsible was caught. When asked why the attacks, the assailant made a rambling statement to the effect that short skirts were immoral and "people from the islands shoot women who wear provocative clothing with darts to punish them <nobr>. . .</nobr> they also throw them sometimes into volcanos." (Good thing this nut didn't live in <nobr>Las Vegas,</nobr> else the volcano at the Mirage would have been standing room only.)

 

Kids have since gotten the idea this is a cool game to play. In 1995 a 13-year-old boy brought a hypodermic syringe to Mount Pleasant Area Secondary School (Pennsylvania) and proceeded to jab <nobr>28 classmates</nobr> with it. The boy was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment and possession of a weapon on school property and was turned over to juvenile authorities pending a hearing.

 

In 1997 two teenage lads at Exeter-West Greenwich (Rhode Island) jabbed <nobr>32 other</nobr> students with a medical lancet. Meant to be a "playful prank" (stabbing someone with anything isn't considered playful in my book), the state Health Department took the matter very seriously, ordering blood tests and vaccinations against <nobr>Hepatitis B</nobr> for all the victims. The boys responsible were suspended and criminal charges were brought against them.

 

Earlier in 1997, <nobr>18 Lecanto</nobr> Middle School (Florida) pupils were attacked by five schoolmates wielding lancets. The perpetrators were suspended for ten days and medical tests were run on their victims. Again, it was only a meanspirited prank — no viruses were communicated in the attacks.

 

Robberies have been carried out by syringe-wielding robbers who claim to be armed with the AIDS virus and willing to stick anyone who gets in their way with the infected needle. It has to be stressed that though various robbers and muggers have claimed to have been so armed, thus far this has never proved out to be anything more than an empty threat. All syringes so employed have tested out as perfectly clean. Even so, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that claiming to be armed with an AIDS-tainted needle would generate a lot of cooperation from the people you're trying to rob. Expect to see this "weapon" become even more common as time marches on.

 

It's not all sweetness and light, however. On <nobr>20 May</nobr> 1999, WBFF/WNUV of Baltimore, Maryland, reported on a midday attack upon an unnamed Towson, Maryland, woman. She had been checking her oil at a gas station when she was approached by a man who asked her for money. The victim described what happened next: I said I didn't have any money. I said I only had a dollar. He said that would do. He put one arm around me and kissed my cheek, he put another arm around me and stabbed me with a needle, and said welcome to reality you have HIV.

The victim's description led police to a panhandler known to frequent the area. He was found with a syringe on him. (Click here to read WBFF's report about this incident.)

 

In January 2000, the attacker earned a three-year prison sentence for his crime. The victim is not HIV-positive.

 

There has been at least one verified HIV-positive syringe attack of the non-random variety. It happened in Australia in 1990, with the victim being a prison guard at Sydney's Long Bay Jail. Gary Pearce opened a security gate for an inmate known to be HIV-positive and in doing so turned his back for a second. He felt a jab in his buttock. He turned to knock a blood-filled syringe away just as the inmate, Graham Farlow, shouted "AIDS" and ran off.

 

Pearce rushed to a nearby office where the wound was sterilised. To no avail however. Despite the <nobr>1-in-200</nobr> chance that a stick injury from an HIV-infected needle would produce a positive result, he tested HIV positive two months after the attack. Pearce died on <nobr>30 August</nobr> 1997 of an AIDS-related illness. Farlow had died in 1991.

 

This attack plus a spate of supposedly HIV-loaded needle robberies (the robberies at needlepoint were real, but the HIV part was never proved), prompted the Australian government to introduce legislation covering such offenses. Since the victim didn't die within a year and a day of the pricking, the attacker couldn't be charged with murder under the old laws. That changed in 1990. Now robbers using syringes filled with AIDS-infected blood as weapons face up to <nobr>25 years</nobr> in jail in New South Wales state.

 

British police would like to have something a lot closer to what the Australian legal system provides for. In 1994 they unsuccessfully called for a crackdown on HIV-loaded needle threats, claiming the harm done to victims necessitated both harsher penalties than currently legally available and voicing the need to be able to charge someone in possession of a syringe with carrying an offensive weapon. At present, the psychological damage caused by the threat to inject someone with an HIV-infected syringe is classed in Britain as actual bodily harm, and an attacker can be charged with grievous bodily harm if an injury is sustained. Is that really enough, or are the British police right that this doesn't go far enough?

 

The AIDS pinprick legend's popularity stems from our fear of contracting AIDS. Even if we take pains to avoid engaging in high risk activities or strive to do so in as safe a fashion as possible, we're all too aware we're still vulnerable, and this legend speaks to that awareness. Though in the early days of this disease, the average citizen felt perfectly safe from its ravages, AIDS is now no longer perceived as something only other people will catch. It's now seen as a danger to all of us.

 

This sense of being at risk, coupled with ongoing fears of the madmen who walk among us, has given birth to this bit of scarelore. Credibility is further supplied by news stories about kids jokingly stabbing classmates with needles and robbers threatening victims with "loaded" syringes. Mix a bit of truth into an existing bit of scarelore, and it becomes powerful medicine indeed.

 

The typical college girl victim is a metaphor for us. By casting the one pinpricked as one of tender years, the undeserving nature of the victim is underscored. She's seen as both young and untouched by the world, therefore completely undeserving of this terrible fate. (As, by implication, are we.) Her gender also comes into play as "college girl" is a shortform in the world of urban legends for sexual and social innocence. Her fatal infection is made to appear doubly tragic in that it doesn't seem to us, the audience, she would otherwise have come in contact with this illness. Indeed, no more "innocent" a mythical victim could be created.

 

She's a lot like us, in other words. The terrifying aspect of this bit of scarelore is we see ourselves in her place.

 

Barbara "your place or mine?" Mikkelson

 

Additional information: <table cellspacing="10"><tbody><tr> <td> </td> <td>Are these stories true?

(Centers for Disease Control)</td> </tr></tbody></table>

Last updated: 9 March 2006 <!-- 3/1/2001: Added Montreal version 6 August 2002: Added Melbourne version 12 February 2003: Added info about "needle men" 5 October 2005: Added info about Athens, GA, attack 1 November 2005: Needle in Athens contained blood 9 March 2006: updated Athens case -->

 

[Whitelotus019]

Hmm..Well glad thats not true. I was very scared since I had gotten that e mail because I often go to the movies. Thanks for posting that message.

[Trixie_Napoleon]

Urban legends can create so much fear.

[theist]

The thing is the fact that such ideas exists already in thought form as a concept is scary enough. And worse is already happening daily.

 

I believe this nightmare on earth is going to get worse real soon and at an accelerated rate. Killing millions of human unborn every year, billions of innocent animals every year not to mention everything else creates heavy reactions that always return like a boomerang. So it's best to keep heads up.

 

"Heads up" means heads bowed to Sri Krsna as our only shelter.

 

Krsna consciousness is the only safe position. A Krsna conscious person is not disturb even at the universal destruction. He may or may not notice the event but he won't feel threatened by it.

[Trixie_Napoleon]

Yes, it is scary that people even come up with these ideas. Even children! Recently on the news there was the story of some children that found a needle on the street and stabbed another little girl with it telling her that she was going to die now.

[Guest guest]

i heard that the air was full of microscopic bees that sting your lungs when you breathe. everyone be afraid now cause when you breathe, the bees might sting you! seriously, this is the kind of stuff that keeps people from cultivating a stong sense of peace. i think its called propaganda or social engineering or something. keeping people afraid means keeping them from krsna consciousness. we need to be strong enough and intelligent enough to ignore stuff like this. in my opinion anyways....

[Whitelotus019]

 

"Heads up" means heads bowed to Sri Krsna as our only shelter.

Krsna consciousness is the only safe position. A Krsna conscious person is not disturb even at the universal destruction. He may or may not notice the event but he won't feel threatened by it.

I strongly agree with you. This world is getting so crazy:wacko: