General News Gas leak puts sudden end to furry convention in Chicago

ummm

 

Poisonous gases can do quite a bit of damage if they go undetected. The important thing is that they were able to sniff it out in time. We must be dealing with one sly fox here.

"Boo! You'll never be as good as Kaiser! Give it up already!"

 

Gen can you nOT

 

The headline is too tame given the severity of what actually happened. There are 19 people hospitalized as a result, the 'gas leak' came from a broken glass container of powedered chlorine in a stairwell (which brings me to...), and the police described the leak as "consistent with an intentional act." This was a full blown chemical attack and a hate crime. It is disgusting.

 

I think this a very insensitive, indeed inappropriate post, particularly on a forum where among the primary focuses is diversity.

A poison gas attack isn't funnier because it happens at a furry convention. It's not funny if it happens at an LGBT convention, a business convention, a political convention...it's not 'funny' if it happens anywhere, period.

And it's a post that does not live up to "the epitome of etiquette and style."

Though the motives of the attack are unclear, it was still a terrorist act, and though I agree furries do tend do make any occasion a bit more cheerful, this is still quite serious.

Edit: Additionally, I think for an adviser to make such a post sets a bad example.

 

I don't see why people can't just accept differences and move on. Atleast no one was seriously hurt.

 

Reading the article that was provided in this thread does not at all explain the severity of this incident that was apparently explained elsewhere. Having known that information now, I do apologize for making light of a situation that most certainly shouldn't be made light of. I admit to having a reputation for calling out comments that I find to be insensitive or problematic on this site and am completely open to receiving critique. This also seems to be a topic that your personally have close ties to and I thank you for calling me out; however, please do not assume that I would be callous against people who were harmed merely because of their interest in the fury culture.

It was pure a case of ignorance on my part and for that I apologize.

 

Meh, if you can't poke fun at grown adults dressing up in animal costumes what can you poke fun at?! Btw I do find it sad when people say hateful or evil things about furries but light banter makes the world go 'round and much more fun.

But I agree that it's a terrible event, especially if intentional. It's a little bit of an odd thing to post here, but meh. (In the sense that the article seems to sort of incite jokes.)

 

Hey there, thanks. I really appreciate that. I hope I didn't come off sounding too mean and huffy, and I can see where on the surface, it does look funny, just given how people look in fur-suits, and not a lot of details were given.

I have a great deal of respect for you, and again, I'd just like to say thanks, and that you help make this a really great place to be.

 

I figured something like that happened. Elsewhere, I probably would've found that amusing, but only among people that understand my true feelings on the matter. I can joke about almost anything, depending on the crowd. Urgh. I don't like emo music, but I'm not about to plan a radiological attack or something against people that listen to it. This is messed up.

 

No problem. I am all about brutal honesty. If you ever have a bone to pick with something I've said, let me have it!

The article is very nonchalant about the entire situation, but I am glad that you said something because there will definitely be people who mock the situation regardless of whether they know that people were genuinely harmed by it. I've never understood why furries are so stigmatized in society. They just seem like people are much better at having a good time than most of us. :lol:

 

"Several thousand hotel guests, many of them convention-goers dressed as animal characters, were forced to evacuate a suburban Chicago hotel early this morning after a chlorine gas leak was detected. Nineteen people who complained of dizziness and nausea were treated and released from the hospital, according to The Associated Press."

I mean, I thought it was pretty plain. *shrugs*


Thankfully it was not any worse, it COULD have been.

I don't think those suits are exactly flame-proof..

 

Even though this is a very serious matter, the MSNBC reaction to this story was interesting...

[YOUTUBE]llmgFZz3Iio[/YOUTUBE]

 

Geez, this is horrible! :/ I hope the find the person who probably started this. This is time where someone should say "let people do what they want. If you don't like furries, then leave them alone :dry:"

 

What has me livid about the subject is that this didn't happen on a public venue, or in an environment where bigots could feel (falsely) justified claiming that "they were shoving their furryness down our throats!" This happened on a secluded space where furries gathered with the explicit purpose of having fun with like-minded people in a safe environment; this wasn't a demonstration, this wasn't a parade, they didn't make it anyone's business but theirs and yet someone ( or maybe even a group) just couldn't stand the idea of furries having fun and feeling safe. Noooo that was too much to ask, they had to violate that, they had to take away their sense of security, they had to act against the physical well-being of others whose only crime was liking something the attackers didn't agree with (as if anyone was asking for their approval).

This is so fucked up and repulsive in so many levels I can't even begin to accurately articulate the disgust crawling under my skin. I'm just happy at least authorities are taking this with the seriousness it deserves. For all intents and purposes, this was an act of terrorism and I'm glad at least the people directly responsible for finding the culprit(s?) seem to be looking at it that way.

 

Well, looks like fate kinda linked what I was just watched that made me mad and this horrible thing.

Morbid/ironic horrible joke time. Maybe they confused which fury things they were gassing.


Watch video on your own risk, it contains dogs gassed to death. According to video there are 2 millions of dogs killed this way every year in USA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1Q9E0rtAQs

And people horrified I hate humans.

 

I watched the video and cried so much. I literally signed like 3 petitions to stop that after watching it.

Ot: furries, they get so much hate. Makes me sad that something like this would happen.

 

Running away and laughing were really unprofessional things to do.

Furry or not, people are people, and they got hurt from this incident. They should have focused on reporting the news rather than making a laughing stock of these individuals.

Don't anchors get news in advance so that they can prepare for/not be surprised by these incidents? It seems like they don't...

 

IKR?! I expect that kind of behavior from certain subsets of the general public, but to see the people who get paid to report this (who also influence to a certain degree the public's perception of events) make the victims of a hate crime (again, 19 of which were hospitalized because of this) the butt of their jokes is insane to me. The fact that it's only happening because the victims happen to be furries is infuriating. If you were to swap the words "furry" and "furries" on this narrative for, say, "geeks" or "sports fans" or "christians" or any other group of like-minded individuals gathering to have some fun, the mockery the anchors are making out of this tragedy would have half of the world outraged. Luckily it's just furries tho! It's ok! They don't count as real victims!

Disgusting.