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Aug 4, 2009 
By 
If you want to see what modern independent journalism can accomplish, look no further than this marvelous expose of a pack of sociopaths who call themselves Pranknet. Pranket specializes in phone "pranks" of varying levels of cruelty and sickness. Patrick, in discussing one of Pranknet's past escapades, made an apt comparison to the Milgram Experiment and its lesson that people will do cruel or ridiculous things if told by a putative authority figure. But responsibility is not a zero-sum game; the fact that sensible people ought not fall for the pranks (because sensible people ought not do bizarre things just because a voice on the phone tells them to) does not diminish the fact that the person setting up the prank is a scumbag.
The best part of TSG's expose is that Pranket's members turn out to be exactly what you would imagine if you were making up a rude story about them: arrested adolescent man-children, sex offenders, convicts, and misfit losers of every stripe. For all their big talk online — which typically involves racial epithets and threats — they scuttle like cockroaches when exposed to light. Take, for example, big talker "Dex" — real name Tariq Malik — who, after an online career of scorning law enforcement, calls 911 and hides behind his mommy to protect him from having to talk to TSG reporters:
Cowering in his room with his mother, Malik called 911 to report "suspicious persons" outside his home (it is unclear whether he used Skype to beckon cops). According to Windsor Police Service records, Malik asked not to be contacted by officers when they arrived at the Assumption Street address. Despite that request, Fouzia Malik, 51, eventually allowed a pair of Windsor patrolmen to enter the family's $600-a-month apartment. The officers spent about 30 minutes conferring with Tariq before emerging to report that he did not wish to speak with reporters.
It will likely not be the last time law enforcement finds itself inside Tariq Malik's bedroom.
Awesome.
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