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To be perfectly clear, all stories previously posted that were written by me (Philip Sandifer) are fiction.

This story is not fiction. For obvious reasons, I am editorializing minimally about this. I expect that you can guess as to my opinions on the situation.

On May 12, 2006, I recieved an e-mail from a member of the departmental administration at the University of Florida asking for my contact information. I supplied it.

Later that day, I recieved a voice mail message from the University of Florida Police. That message can be found here.

I called them back from Bradley International Airport, in Hartford, CT, and found out that somebody had "expressed concern" about my writing on the Internet. After some conversation, I was able to determine that the site in question was this one. Since I have never updated this journal using any University of Florida computing resources, I expressed my belief that this was not the University of Florida's business, and noted that I did not want to come in to talk to the police. The detective, Susan Sanders, said, "Well if you won't talk to us about this, we'll deal with this some other way," and hung up on me.

I then e-mailed my Director of Graduate Studies, Kenneth Kidd. That e-mail, sent the evening of May 12, 2006, is behind Kenneth:

I'm just sending this to you at present. If you think it should be
forwarded to Dr. Leavey or anybody else, you have my full permission
to do so.

I just got a call from the University of Florida Police Department.

Apparently somebody expressed concern to them about something I had
posted somewhere on the Internet. After some discussion, I was able
to figure out that it had to do with a LiveJournal account I use
occasionally to post short fiction pieces. The account can be found
at http://pulpdecameron.livejournal.com if you want to look at it.

The detective (!) was not inclined to provide details about what on
Earth is wrong with that site over the phone.

I have never updated that LiveJournal using UF computer resources,
and since even if I had nothing on that LiveJournal comes anywhere
close to violating the law or campus policy. Frankly, nothing on that
LiveJournal comes anywhere close to violating anything of interest
anywhere. I was, for relatively obvious reasons, uninterested in
going and discussing my writing with the police outside of an actual
claim that I was doing anything wrong, both because it seemed to be
none of UFs business, and because of that whole First Amendment
thing. When I expressed this opinion to the officer, she said "Well
we'll handle it some other way," and hung up on me.

At this point, it struck me as the sort of thing I should let you
know about.

I am 99% certain that this involves a harassing user I was involved
in banning from Wikipedia some time ago. In order to block him
effectively, we had to block the entirety of the University of
Northern Iowa. This block did not make UNI's IT department happy, and
they contacted Wikipedia. We told them that if they stopped the user
in question from editing Wikipedia, we'd unban them. This was a week
or two ago, and something like calling UF in retaliation is, frankly,
completely in the MO of this guy.

What should I do here?

Best,
Phil Sandifer

(Note: The claim that it was a specific Wikipedia user was made before I was aware of a whole thread on an anti-Wikipedia messageboard about this journal. So while I was right that it was a disgruntled Wikipedia editor, there is more than a 1% chance that it was not the one I initially thought.)


The e-mail was forwarded to my department chair and to the professor who sent me the e-mail requesting my contact info.

Today (May 16, 2006), two University of Florida police officers came to my apartment - Detective Sanders and a male officer I do not recall the name of - and asked if they could come in to talk to me. I allowed them entry. They asked about the nature of Pulp Decameron, and I explained its original purpose. They then presented me with a printout of one of the earliest Pulp Decameron stories, I am Ready to Serve my Country. Highlighted were the sentences "For the past four years I have meticulously watched the same woman through my telescope." and "A month ago I went out and found a homeless man. I lured him to the railroad tracks and garroted him. The police have yet to name a suspect. I am confident that they never will. The experience was exhilarating, but not so exhilarating that I would consider myself a psychopath. I am confident I can keep my random murders down to one a month with minimal effort." (Ironically, this was the story that Eric Burns posted to Websnark, in a move that got me about half of my traffic).

I explained that the story was fictional. They asked me where I got the idea. I declined to answer. A discussion ensued about the importance of following up these things after Columbine, when there is a complaint. I pointed out that there is nothing illegal about writing and posting fiction.

At this point, I shared with them my suspicion that the incident started when someone I had banned from Wikipedia had retaliated by contacting my administration to complain. They did not seem interested in following up on this, beyond saying that the e-mail did not indicate that it was the person I had thought it was, though they conceded that it is easy to send anonymous e-mails.

They then noted that I seemed suspicious of them and hostile, and asked if I had had previous bad experiences with the police. I noted that my unwillingness to cooperate was based on philosophical issues, not personal ones.

They then said that one way to make this all go away would be to compare my fingerprints to Federal records. I indicated that I did not consent to be fingerprinted in this matter. They asked if I had been previously fingerprinted by the University. I said I had not. They conceded that they knew this already.

They informed me that the complaint was coming from high up in the University, and that they really wanted to be able to say that I had cooperated fully. I repeated that this did not seem to me to be their business.

They asked explicitly if I would be willing to be fingerprinted. I repeated that I was not, and asked them to please leave, saying that I did not want to talk to them further without a member of my department present. I had to repeat this request three times.

As they left, they observed a number of prescription pill bottles on my desk (Empty ones I had failed to throw away), and asked if I took a lot of prescription drugs. I reiterated that they should leave, and they did so, saying that I should set up an appointment with a member of my department and contact them to let them know.

At this point, I called Kenneth. He suggested, after consulting with the department chair, that I contact Student Legal Services. Unfortunately, since it's UF Police, they were unable to help. He also noted that the police had already been in contact with the department, and that the department had indicated to the police that this was not worth following up on. Since Student Legal Services is unable to help, I arranged, as previously planned, to meet with Kenneth and the police on Thursday, at 3:30.

I will post more updates on this situation when there is new information.
 
 
 
 
 
 
yikes. that sounds scary and odd. i hope everything works out ok... *prayers*
(Deleted comment)
Sorry, links work now:

"Snowspinner"/Phil Sandifer is no innocent, this is simply bad karma coming back to bite him in the ass...
It's all very easy to go "look at this guy he's been abused by the authorities he's standing up against the Man!" - but when you know what he's like you wouldn't. He *is* The Man on Wikipedia, and is responsible for a hell of a lot of corruption and nastiness there.

Things "Snowspinner"/Phil Sandifer has done, and actions against him:
"This page exists to keep tabs on Snowspinner's (mis)behavior.":
[[User:Mirv/Snowy]]

[[Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Kelly_Martin/original#Users_who_oppose_this_summary]]
[[Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee_Elections_January_2006/Vote/Snowspinner#Oppose]]

[[Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Snowspinner_1]]
[[Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Snowspinner_2]]
[[Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Snowspinner_3]]
[[Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Snowspinner_4]]

[[Wikipedia_talk:Requests_for_de-adminship/Snowspinner]]
[[Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Requests_for_de-adminship/Snowspinner]]
screw you, troll. i'm not even going to bother arguing with you as you're clearly not worth the time. and i'm christian; i don't believe in karma.
Dude, you are an idiot. Snowspinner is a great contributor to many things. I don't know the guy personally, but I think he is on point with his Wikipedia contributions. And, just for the record, I'm one of those conservative right wingers, and Snowspinner I would say, stereotypically, is not, but I can appreciate what he does nonetheless, even when we disagree. You should find something more productive to do with your time.

Peace,

KaBar's Edge
None of which has the slightest thing to do with the issue of him being harassed by the police for a short story. Go away, troll.
Oh it is very relevant. We need to point out that Snowspinner is no victim, and that police had very valid reasons for suspecting him. Deleting truth equals censorship. That is not trolling.
Sorry, but a flame war over an Internet site does not in any way constitute probable cause in a murder investigation.

You're a troll, and a cowardly one. Go away until you're willing to be an adult and use your name.
You are a fucking idiot, little anonymous boy. I smack down brats on the Warcraft forums, does that mean I dhould be harrassed by the police? None of what you posted has ANY relevance. If you posted evidence that this guy was unhinged, or that his stories were based on truth, then it would have relevance. But giving us evidence that he thinks you're a little shit does not imply that he would murder anyone.

PS- Post with a name, coward.
Holy hell.

Harassment, indeed. No charges, no crime, no warrant. (Personally, I think allowing them into your apartment was a mistake, but I completely understand the hope that if you were cooperative then the whole thing would blow over more easily.)

Good luck defending your 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendment rights. (Freedom of speech, probable cause warrants for search, due process in prosecution, and being informed of the nature and cause of an accusation against you and the witnesses thereof...) I think the Constitution's pretty firmly on your side.
Since it's campus police and not real police, I'm not sure what rights change. I don't actually know what UF's campus police's powers are - i.e. if they can make arrests.
If it's a publicly funded campus, then your rights shouldn't change. If it's a private school, then you have problems. Your constitutional rights don't protect you against private agencies. Actually, they don't even necessarily protect you against state authorities (as opposed to federal).

I agree with Darthparadox; never ever ever let the police inside. Once you do that, they are looking for anything that even remotely looks suspicious. Now that they've seen your pill bottles, it's a short leap to getting a warrant to come back and search your apartment and examine your prescriptions.

With the police, being civil and always being in a hurry to go somewhere else is a good plan.
That said, I doubt they would do anything to you. It sounds like they're just covering their asses and being standard asshole detectives. Their job is to find out what you've been doing wrong, so they'll coerce you any way they can. If pretending to be friendly doesn't work, they'll be hostile. I think they're probably just following up on a complaint so that if anything does show up, they'll have done their job.
All of the big, important rights that I can think of at the moment that would be applicable in this instance were incorporated through the Fourteenth Amendment and do apply to the states. The breadth of interpretation may vary -- but state constitutions these days are usually interpreted to protect more rights than the federal one.
UF Campus police are equivalent to State Police. Specifically, to FDLE officers.
wow. that's not good at all. i hope that's the end of it. hopefully, its some sort of situation with the police where they feel they need to come harass you, so that if you do turn out to be garroting people, they can say "well, we followed up on it, but he was a cool character."
That's deeply horrifying, and also scary. Good luck getting the police to see reason.
You mean, that was fiction?

And the zombies and the vampires, too?

My opinion of you just lowered.
___

(In all seriousness, people don't seem to get those who cling to this antiquated notion of civil liberties. My condolances and hopes to a speedy end to this all.)
That's what you get for providing free entertainment, you pinko.
hope you'll be allright in all this...to counter you should definitely present them some of your (imho) greater works including the cowboy stories and the one about aliens turning into sex slaves. Magnifique. Im sure they'll understand after those works.
So, you wrote a short story that kind of says that people who like to stalk and strangle other people might not be the ones we want defending the country.

Then the police make the natural extension that maybe people who like to stalk and strangle, shoot, handcuff and harass other people might not be the ones we want defending "public order."

They get mad at you, and you're surprised?
Absurd. But my experience with campus police has been that they act like asses to make up for the fact that they aren't as powerful in their reach as the city police.
I wish you all the luck and this seems silly to me (as well, you hardly seem the serial killer type), tho I guess there are crazy people out there and they are just covering their butts and all. Still, very silly and I'm sorry you have to go through this. Miss talking to you.
He may not kill much cereal, but he sure can mangle French toast.
The Police Department at UFL has an online survey of satisfaction of the people who encounter the police. It's at http://www.police.ufl.edu/
I take it that your response will not be very "warm and fuzzy"?
I have different suspicions for who it may be (another banned user); ping me sometime if you'd like to know who and why.
Do drop me a line on this too.
Hello Phil. I thought it was fair to you to show to you how this all started, on Wikipedia Review. The post is located here: http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=1116 . As you no doubt know, you are regarded as number 2 in the Wikipedia cabal, behind Slim Virgin, and hence the 2nd worst member of Wikipedia. You can see that there was a lot of disagreement about whether or not what you said was serious. In the end, most likely someone called police in relation to that post (presuming that what you are saying here is true - it seems to be a little difficult to trust you). I have never talked to you, so I don't really have an opinion on you, however I accept the evidence of others that most likely you are indeed a high ranking member of the Wikipedia cabal, and hence also involved in the Wikitruth project to take over Wikipedia.

I think that you are a very bad person, and that what you are doing on Wikipedia and all of the lies that you tell, and the changing of history is horrible. However, while you are a great power tripper, I do not think that it is likely that you are a murderer. I think that you are someone who thinks that they are above the law and will never see justice. But I do not think that you are a murderer.

I also object to "thought police". You did not murder anyone and even if you did plan to do it, it doesn't make you a murderer. I am sure that most everyone has at some stage had a dream about killing their most hated teacher, especially in high school. But we don't go through with it. Even if we wrote it down, it does not make it real. Actually performing the act is a long way away from thinking about it.

I am not sure if you should have been investigated or not. Maybe it was best just to be sure, but maybe it was pretty obvious that it wasn't serious.

All things considered, I think that your crimes on Wikipedia are far worse than that entry, and I think it is cowardly to go after you for such a thing just because we cannot get you to face justice over your Wikipedia actions.

Feel free to comment on the article that started it all.
Wow.

Cowardly much?
This comment seems like part of a carefully orchastrated "get Phil" plan. Seems like it is designed to harrass him into silence, or distract him from posting on wikipedia.
What is phil's username on wikipedia? I would like to see his contributions. I would like to do some detective work of my own and find out what person or group is out to get him, and why.

What has he done recently on wikipedia that is controversial? This is a pathetic attack and abuse of the legal system. Reminds me of some of the "Scientology dirty tricks" campaigns I have read about on the internet. Hey, Phil, I hope you can parlay this attack into profit!

:) Snuggles
is that you are dealing with people who interrogate from a position of strength even when they have nothing on the suspect. if they admit that they have no idea who the hell "tipped them off" or that they don't know how to set up a hotmail account and claim to be "joe", then they certainly can't get you to confess to your horrid crimes.

you should have written something uplifting like kill bill or last man standing...then all would be well with the world.

the day owl,

bc
I worked for the University of Florida for many years. I recently left due to the cultural changes that have been happening at the University. Specifically, the focus of the public university on technology transfer to the private sector, its focus on business incubation, and the widespread deployment of ICARUS and other monitoring and restriction technologies. I was also uncomfortable with the University's desire to influence the City of Gainesville's laws on alcohol sales, local governance in Alachua County, and restrictions on local individuals' freedoms and liberties in general. I'd strongly advise you to consider dropping out of the University of Florida and going to another school with a better culture. A great number of my friends have also left UF and Gainesville for similar reasons. The University and the city are in decline.
As a fellow English student at UF, you have my sympathies. Do they intend to go after every person who wrote a murder novel? What about scriptwriters for movies and television shows where someone is brutally killed? What about video game writers/programers? Yeesh.

(Not that I know anything about lawyers but) I wonder if you could get a free consultation with a lawyer? Or maybe a law professor at UF? At least a consultation would let you know what direction to take since Student Legal Services seem to be lukewarm on the subject.

Why can't they just stick to giving out speeding tickets?
It's blatantly obvious that the campus police are attempting to intimidate you into providing fingerprints and DNA. The attempt to coerce you by saying that "if you have nothing to hide, you'll be proved innocent" is a total crock. The main point is, you have the right to refuse, especially since they are fishing for resolutions to (what it sounds like are) various unsolved crimes.

I can't wait for them to start interrogating screenwriters about horror movies (such as SAW or The Ring) because there might maybe be some possibly similar links in some various unsolves cases.

The main concern I have is, according to the constitution, these rights (free speech, etc etc) are not GIVEN by the constitution, they are INHERENT from birth. The constitution has simply put them in writing to prevent scummy (someone else used that word, and I like it!) government officials (state or federal) from trying to take away these rights and/or intimidate you into compliance. This leads to oppression. We're not a dictatorship. They're fully in the wrong.

Good luck.
Looks like you are the victim of some very hostile, scheming Wiki people.

A few years ago I joined Wiki, but it quickly became clear to me that any future energy and efforts might just be utterly wasted by the type of situation you presently find yourself in at Wiki--though I never imagined it could take such a vindictive quality--and I just didn’t have time for that.

For whatever it may be worth to you, I’ve found your pulpdecameron--the name itself is a delight--microfiction most amusing and at times even quite original. That your evident sincere efforts at and for Wiki should lead to such twisted, conniving results have me speechless. I am afraid, however, that it once more reflects what I’ve sadly observed to be a general malaise, even decay, in and of American culture, i.e. a decline in debate and dialogue, going hand in hand with a degeneration of journalism, and a brisk rise of quarrelsome, insulting blurts passing as talking points, airing jeering nonsense as news, and celebrating swindlers, crooks and other assorted white collar criminals as unfortunate “entrepreneurs” or “patriotic” politicos under partisan attack, et cetera. It all seems the logical result of a society, which in many ways seems to have embraced “might is right” and “if you’re so smart how came you ain’t rich” as national mottos to be minted/printed on future tender, that doesn’t value its very foundation and fails to realize that such depreciation sub- or consequently announces its own demise. But I’m digressing.

I do wish you courage and strength and only hope that this whole affair won’t have too much of an affect on you and won’t effect your future, presumably academic career.

Good things to you!
As a fellow writer, I find the police actions in this matter to be deplorable. They should be ashamed of themselves for wasting valuable resources investigating a f$%#ing piece of fiction posted on a personal blog no less. Stand up to them and fight with every bit of energy you have, because the rest of us support you 100 percent.
Just a couple observations - your email displayed in your profile is a student address. Police are basically simple-minded when a student posts content reguarding violence.

Next time they ask you where you got the idea from, either cite military recruitement videos, a famous author, or "COPS" television show!

Oh, and never allow entry into your apartment or step outside. Inside, they can use anything they see (like video games) against you and outside they can arrest you without a warrant.
Small consolation, but at least it was campus police and not real police.

If it was real police... Man, I don't even want to think about that.
wow, that fucking sucks

i can't imagine why anybody would be out to get you, you've always been such an upstanding guy, not someone who would



do anything creepy or something
There are hundreds of examples, but I'll just post one:

http://belle-souhait.livejournal.com/

as featured here:

http://www.kpua.net/news.php?id=6515

Specifically these entries:

http://belle-souhait.livejournal.com/59792.html#cutid1

and

http://belle-souhait.livejournal.com/58420.html

So, let's get this straight. Our dear friend the teenage baby killer posts fiction on their Live Journal which is directly related to her killing a baby, and police use that. Yet when Snowspinner posts some fiction on their Live Journal talking about murder, then police are not allowed to investigate?

It's not police harassment for police to do their job. Police have a duty to check out these things. Especially when, just a year ago in that same university, 10 people were murdered.

Snowspinner might not have done it, but it is negligent for police not to investigate, when they have that kind of evidence.
Why, yes. It IS harassment in the absence of even a scrap of evidence that this gentleman has so much as a parking ticket.

Not only are you a troll, you are utterly ignorant of competent police work. Go away.