"Quincy mother allegedly fled with 5 children, police say" by Aneri Pattani, Globe Correspondent March 10, 2015
Police are searching for a Quincy mother and her five children who apparently left Massachusetts shortly before the state’s child-protection agency tried to step in to assure that the youngest child received necessary medical care, officials said Tuesday.
Authorities in two states are looking for Yurong Wu, who may have taken all five of the children to New York City. Wu is facing charges of parental kidnapping and child endangerment, but officials said the goal is to ensure the safety of the children, not imprison Wu.
Wu allegedly fled with Yu Fan Mei, 10, Kelly Mei, 8, Kethy Mei, 6, Kate Mei, 2, and Kalen Mei, just over 2 months old.
Kalen Mei’s health was the primary concern for the Department of Children and Families, officials said. Kalen’s medical condition was not disclosed.
Cayenne Isaksen, a spokeswoman for DCF, would only say that the agency “is grateful to law enforcement for their ongoing efforts to locate the Mei/Wu family. We will continue to cooperate with law enforcement in their search and investigation in any way that we can to ensure the safety and well-being of the children.”
Wu’s husband was questioned by Quincy officers, but he allegedly refused to tell them where his wife and children were, leading to his own arrest on charges of child endangerment and misleading a police investigation, said a Police Department spokesman, Captain John Dougan.
Bail for Jackie Mei, 51, was set at $1,500 cash at his arraignment Friday. He posted it Tuesday and was released on GPS monitoring.
Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office is assisting the DCF and New York authorities in the search for Wu and the children....
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Another Wu:
"Brianna Wu makes stand at PAX East; Game developer defies threats by shadowy group" by Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff March 08, 2015
There was plenty of simulated digital violence at the PAX East gaming convention this weekend. But happily, that was as real as it got. A defiant Brianna Wu, the Arlington video game developer who has received dozens of death threats from a shadowy movement called GamerGate, safely kept her vow to appear at the convention.
I don't play video games. I decided to do stupid things like read new$papers and books.
Last month, Wu announced that Giant Spacekat, the video game company she cofounded, would not set up a display booth at PAX East, one of the nation’s largest gatherings of game fans. The reason: fear for the safety of her employees.
“I’ve had 48 death threats now in six months,” Wu said in an interview Friday. “To stand up to GamerGate, that’s my choice. I can’t make that choice for the women I work with.”
But Wu made two public appearances at the convention, including a Friday night live edition of the gaming podcast Isometric. Even though the GamerGate controversy has made national headlines, Wu’s appearance did not attract a large crowd. The podcast took place in a room designed to hold hundreds, but about 70 turned out. These included two plainclothes security workers, gruff and denim-clad, who cast suspicious eyes toward anybody who got near the stage.
But Wu could not entirely avoid hostility. While she was on the exhibition floor at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center Saturday, she posed for a photo with someone who posted it on Twitter. That soon elicited a tweet that said in part, “YOU COULDA WENT IN FOR THE KILL.”
In private twitter messages to the Globe, Wu ackowledged seeing the threatening tweet, and added, “This is my life now. It’s constant. It’s exhausting.”
This is my life, and it sure is.
In her Friday interview, she discussed the months of death threats, saying, “The ones that just say, ‘I’m going to kill you,’ I just laugh them off. But when they say who, when, where, why, and how they want to kill me, I take that seriously.”
A Boston Police Department spokesman said Saturday evening that police were aware of the threatening tweet, but deemed it “not credible.”
“We work very closely with this event,” Lieutenant Michael McCarthy said. “We have officers on scene and will respond to any credible threats.”
Wu’s travails began last October, when she posted a Twitter message making light of GamerGate, a movement that describes itself as an effort to fight corruption in video game journalism. But some who associate themselves with the movement have also criticized efforts to increase the number of women working in the game industry, and to include more female characters in games.
After Wu criticized GamerGate, the threats began.
While Wu agreed that video game journalism is in need of ethics reform, she had nothing but contempt for GamerGate. “It’s a pretext,” she said. “This is an actual hate group . . . they’re upset and threatened by women who are being very outspoken about feminism.”
Oh, this is all more divisive, agenda-pushing crap and who knows what else.
Backers of the GamerGate movement say the behavior of a few extremists is being used to smear their entire movement.
Welcome to the world of Muslims through the pri$m of the jew$paper.
“You can’t say that all people who support GamerGate hate women, just because one person in GamerGate might really hate women,” said PAX East attendee Andrew Sampson, a 20-year-old software developer from Atlanta.
Sampson insisted GamerGate isn’t a war on women, but on corruption and dishonesty in video game journalism. “Video game journalists for the longest time have been colluding together,” said Sampson. “Basically taking bribes, taking offers to publish positive reviews.”
I was told corruption is good for the game, and where can I get a doughnut?
According to Sampson, pressure from GamerGate has already caused some game publications to revise ethics policies.
PAX East attendee Cortney Zamm, 26, a sales engineer from Norwalk, Conn., has mixed feelings about the controversy. “As a woman, it’s a little bit difficult to talk about it without getting angry,” she said.
While she’s repulsed by the threats aimed at Wu and other female game developers, Zamm agrees with GamerGate backers about ethical problems in game journalism. She complained that a solution is nowhere in sight. “It’s a lot of people yelling and not enough listening on both sides,” Zamm said.
Wu would welcome a truce. She said she’s met with a prominent GamerGate supporter, seeking to understand their viewpoint, but she doesn’t believe they’ll ever find common ground. “These people are not interested in that,” she said. “They cannot be reasoned with. They’re extremists and they’re sexists.”
For Wu, the solution is simple — start throwing some people in jail. “I have spent so much time trying to get the FBI to arrest some of these people,” she said. “I’m working my butt off to get consequences added to the equation. . . . Once people go to jail for doing these very illegal things, it may wake some people up.”
Wu also expressed admiration for a different kind of gamer, former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. Last week, after a flood of harassing Twitter messages were aimed at Schilling’s daughter, Gabby, Schilling struck back by tracking down the identities of the senders. One of them, a community college student, was suspended, and another, a part-time employee of the New York Yankees, was fired. In addition, Schilling has threatened to file lawsuits against all those who sent the messages.
Ah, the agenda to limit free speech rears it's ugly head.
Related: Curt Schilling responds to offensive tweets about daughter
As Schilling, others have noted, sexual threats are not free speech
Curt Schilling slays the trolls
I neither give nor receive comments; this is an informational and educational website.
Wu praised Schilling’s response. “He took law enforcement out of the equation, which hasn’t been working, and he appealed directly to their employers and their universities,” she said.
I actually feel sorry for Schill now.
But Wu didn’t say whether she plans a similar counterattack. For now, she’d be content if the bullies would simply stop. “This has been six months of pure hell for me,” she said."
Can't we all just get along?
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So do you want to play a game?
No disrespect intended; however, I can see why no one wants to f*** her.
It was game over for me a long time ago (wink).
UPDATE:
"Quincy woman charged with kidnapping her 5 children" by Aneri Pattani and John R. Ellement, Globe Correspondent | Globe Staff March 13, 2015
QUINCY — The search for a Quincy woman and her five children who left the region when the state’s child protection agency started investigating her family ended early Friday when she and the children returned to their home.
Yurong Wu, 41, was charged with custodial kidnapping and child endangerment, said Quincy Police Captain John Dougan. After receiving a tip from a neighbor at 4:30 a.m., officers found Wu and her five children back at their home on Yardarm Lane, he said.
The Department of Children and Families took custody of the five children, Dougan said.
Police Chief Paul Keenan said all of the children are healthy, including the youngest, whose medical condition had initially sparked DCF’s concern.
“They are in good shape,’’ he said. “They are safe.’’
Keenan said Wu apparently fled shortly before DCF tried to step in to assure that the baby, just over 2 months old, received necessary medical care. The baby was born prematurely in December, and a doctor who later examined the infant concluded the child was not thriving, triggering the agency’s attention.
Keenan said school officials had noticed that the older children were not attending class, and asked police to investigate on Feb. 27. Wu and the children, the oldest of whom is 10, were not home then. On March 4, local and state authorities and their New York counterparts sought the public’s help in securing their return.
Wu’s husband, Jackie Mei, was questioned by Quincy officers, but he allegedly refused to say where his wife and children were, leading to his own arrest on charges of child endangerment and misleading a police investigation, Dougan said.
Bail for Mei, 51, was set at $1,500 at his March 6 arraignment. He posted it Tuesday and was freed on GPS monitoring.
Wu appeared Friday in Quincy District Court, where she pleaded not guilty and bail was set at $7,500, according to Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office.
If she posts bail, she would also be required to wear a GPS bracelet and adhere to DCF requirements set by the court, Judge Paul J. McCallum said.
Wu cares?
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