I Called the Cops About a Comment on Medium

Men threaten violence against women every day. I hoped to prevent it from really happening.

Art created with Canva.

“You are in so many ways less than a man.”

The comment above didn’t surprise me. I write about feminist issues, so I’m used to making men angry. Most of the time I don’t bother reading the pissed-off rants they leave all over my articles or tweets. I block, delete, and report when necessary.

But this time? Well, this time was different. The comment left on my Medium article was longer and more personal than anything I had previously seen. The phrasing was threatening and smug as he implied what he thought should be done with women like me — feminists who think we’re equal.

I felt alarm bells ringing in my head. I wanted to make sure this guy didn’t live near me, so I did a little internet-sleuthing. It wasn’t hard to find his Facebook page. He didn’t cloak himself in anonymity like most of the trolls I deal with. He used similar usernames and photos of himself across multiple social media platforms, and he always listed himself in the same location.

When I scrolled through the public posts on his Facebook page, I felt sick to my stomach. One folder contained dozens of cellphone videos and…