(The murder of 25-year-old Dino Dizdarević is
only the latest in a recent wave of violent crimes facilitated through
the country's most popular gay hookup app)
Dino Dizdarević’s body was found on May 1 in an overgrown alley in
Chester, Pennsylvania. The 25-year-old chemical engineer left his loft
in Philadelphia, 18 miles away, the night before to allegedly meet a man he
found on the hookup app Grindr. Police say Dizdaravić, who was a gay
man in an open relationship, was subsequently strangled and beaten so
viciously that he was unrecognizable.
During a late-night romp in March, a Seattle man allegedly went berserk and beat down
a Grindr date he took home to his apartment. Naked and brandishing a
hammer, Curtis Rosenblat clobbered his unclothed companion repeatedly
and even bit the man while attempting to rob him, police say. The victim
required eyelid surgery and several staples in his skull, according to
court records. Police finally arrested the 23-year-old suspect last
week.
Others have faced similarly unsettling casual encounters. In April, a
Canadian tourist visiting Philadelphia met a man on Grindr who
allegedly held him at gunpoint, raped him and shook him down for $2,000.
Meanwhile, Daniel Simmons, a former deputy attorney general in Delaware, was
charged last week with fourth-degree rape after he allegedly lured a 16-year-old boy back to his home and involved the minor in a threesome.
“We are deeply disturbed by the conduct alleged in this case,”
Delaware state prosecutor Kathleen Jennings said in a statement. “We
are most concerned for the welfare of the victim.”
Grindr, which turned five years old in March, now has more than 5
million active monthly users worldwide, and the app itself has been
downloaded more than 10 million times. In February, the company
published a
list of safety tips
for users, which includes advice like “Don’t believe everything you
see,” “Don’t rush into things” and “Honesty is the best policy.”
Responding to our request for comment, a Grindr spokesperson says in
an email: “As a company, we treat all reports of crime very seriously.
We encourage anyone with information on any criminal incidents to reach
out to the police. If we are contacted by the authorities about an
investigation, we fully cooperate with their requests. Regarding the
recent incidents you pointed out, our thoughts and prayers are with the
victim’s family and friends.”
Still, the attacks have placed some local law enforcement on alert
and prompted them to issue warnings about Grindr. “I think that anyone
should use extreme caution when going on this dating site or any other,”
Philadelphia Police Lieutenant Robert Otto
told ABC News.
Gay and LGBT news outlets are also asking men to be careful. Following Dizdarević’s death, both the
GailyGrind and
Queerty
published tip sheets on how to stay safe while hooking up online. Among
their advice: Tell a friend where you’ll be, avoid total strangers and
arrange your own transportation to and from a hookup.
Despite all the news some users aren’t worried. “Things like
this—like stranger danger—are really overblown and shouldn’t prevent
people from meeting,” one active Grindr user tells Vocativ. “I’m more
worried about living a terrible life where I’m afraid of everything than
I am of being murdered by some random dude.”
Source:
vocativ.com
