girljanitor:
autisticallythor:
frauluther:
I am so creeped out. I am trying to think how they are coming up with the numbers of disability recipients per neighborhood for these threats. It’s not public information so there are a few possibilities I can think of (assuming they aren’t just bluffing/pulling the numbers out of thin air):
-snooping in mailboxes to see checks and government correspondence (or they are a mail carrier…YIKES)
-hacking or spying into records somehow. Maybe a DHS or Social Security employee?
-hacking into bank records? That seems like a lot more work since people use tons of different banks.
-assumptions based on something else? Like watching who gets on the bus and shows an “honored citizen” pass but doesn’t look over 65?
I’m not even sure…if the numbers are authentic and they really have names like they threaten, my guess is they must be some kind of government employee or hacking into government records somehow. It’s organized by neighborhood so I am guessing whatever information they are using must be indexed by ZIP. Terrifying.
(THIS IS IN REFERENCE TO THE FLIERS IN THE PORTLAND, OREGON AREA SHAMING AND THREATENING THOSE WITH DISABILITIES WHO RECEIVE PUBLIC ASSISTANCE.)
I’m going to go with a government employee or services provider, if this wasn’t made up out of whole cloth. As many PWD know, a lot of these people who are supposed to be looking out for our care are like, actually evil.
So far I’ve generally found the disability services I’ve used here to be more helpful than I expected, but I’m also someone who very much fits the mold of the kind of mentally disabled person they want to help - I’m young, I’m white, I’m usually capable of passing as neurotypical, and I needed help finding an entry-level retail job, not a proper career. I also live in a household and can survive on a minimum wage job because I’m not relying solely on my wages for rent, food, electricity, and water. It’s entirely possible that a disability services provider is the one threatening to release records, particularly if they’re a white cis man and the disabled people whose records they want to release are queer and/or women and/or people of color. Another possibility is that they’re a member of Portland’s very large anarchist community who considers themselves a sort of sleeper agent because they work for government services, and who wants to release disability services records as part of some plan to turn people away from taking advantage of taxpayer-funded government-provided services - “Artemis of the wildlands” sounds like the kind of shitty codename someone like that would use.
OP’s comment on the “honored citizens” ID cards has me considering another possibility, though - “honored citizens” is the official term for the ID cards given to senior citizens and people with disabilities that allows us to get reduced rates on bus fare and train tickets. I have one that I actually got through voc rehab - I took an approval paper from the human services office down to the TriMet office in Pioneer Square and handed it in in exchange for an ID card I show bus drivers when I board to get a reduced rate on tickets (though I’m always careful to hide it with my hand when I show it to bus drivers so the other passengers can’t see it, because I certainly don’t look 65 and I don’t feel safe if I think someone else on board suspects me of having a disability). I’m thinking that it’s possible a TriMet employee with access to the honored citizens records might be going to use them to release the information of disabled people by checking to see who’s 65 years old and who isn’t. I also think it sounds very likely that they might be a mail carrier, since the threat is specifically based around people with disabilities who receive Social Security payments and other forms of government-issued financial assistance. If the police are really serious about finding who issued these threats (which I doubt, since Portland police are as shitty as most police forces), than they’ll question the mail carriers who work in the neighborhoods where the threats were found.