The petition for Montreal police to take action on Dennis Markuze’s constant barrage of death threats has reached 4,000 signatures, and the local news is starting to pay attention. As someone on twitter quipped, this may be the first time an internet petition accomplished something, because the police have opened an investigation:

Monday afternoon, following an inquiry by The Gazette, a Montreal police public-relations official said: “We haven’t received any complaints” about ‘Mabus.’

The police tune changed Wednesday morning, with a tweet from @SPVM that “we are investigating the case.” It included a plea to “please stop sending emails to our media address by signing the petition.”

Lafrenière said he was not aware of earlier complaints to police about the man’s activities. Complainants are “mainly from the (United) States,” he added, with others “from all over the world.”

Each time the petition is signed online, Lafrenière said, an email is relayed to a Montreal police publicrelations email address. By 8 p.m. Wednesday, that attention-grabbing tactic had yielded a barrage of 3,224 such individual emails.

Prior to Lafrenière’s announcement, PZ Myers, a frequent recipient of threats from ‘Mabus,’ and a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, blogged that the St. Laurent man’s tone has escalated in recent years – “his hate messages have gotten crazier, more vicious, and more frequent.”

“I have reported him to the police,” Myers added, and “seen these complaints climb the ladder from the local department, to the FBI, to the RCMP, to the Montreal city police, where they promptly fizzle out.”

Montreal police, according to Myers, have had “this deranged man making death threats on their watch for over a decade, and have done nothing.”

Lafrenière said he wasn’t aware of any complaint from Myers.

Thank you for pointing out your own incompetence.

This other report is all in French, but I included it because it has an interview with Mabus’s mom. The below excerpts translated by reader QoB (thanks!):

In a brief telephone interview with La Presse yesterday, the mother of Dennis Markuze confirmed that he is the author of the messages. However, she refuses to condemn the writings of her son, who still lives in her house, and ensures[?should be ‘assures us’?] that he is not violent. “I have not asked him to stop, no. Why should I? It is his job, it is what he believes. Why should I stop him? ” said Ms. Markuze in English.

She was promptly taken aback when La Presse told her about death threats that many people say they have received. “He never did that. He does not even kill a fly, sir. I do not believe it. You probably do not understand his messages.” When some excerpts were quoted to her (“I’ll put a bullet in the head,” “I’m going to execute you”), she replied: “Read fully what he writes and you’ll see” before hanging up.

Oh dear. Looks like Mom has typical Mom Blinders on, and refuses to believe her ittle wittle Dennis could be sending hundreds of death threats every day. I feel a bit bad for her. Apparently DM has done a very good job at hiding his obsessive hatred, so this must come as a shock to her.

Some people think this is “just internet culture,” but the internet is part of the real world. If someone was sending hundreds of people five letters or phone calls a day saying he was going to cut off my head, you know damn well the police would do something about it. And DM has been getting worse over the years – more persistent, and more violent, more nonsensical, and even showing up to atheist events in person.

I think a good example of DM’s decline is a post from 1994 on a chess message board (yes, chess):

Women are on a lower rung of evolution compared to men, the difference between men and women is like the difference between animals and plants. First comes God, then the Angels, then men, then women, then animals, then plants.

You can count the number of female geniuses on one hand!

Which women have contributed to philosophy, painting, music, chess,etc..? Alright, the Polgar sisters may be geniuses, but they are freaks of nature! To be a genius by defintion is to be a male (Webster, if you are reading this, be sure to add this in your next edition). A female genius is a contradiction of terms. A woman may be intelligent but never a genius,of course, exceptions do occur, like the baby that is born with twelve fingers.

P.S. No hate mail from the ladies, please. I’m safe here behind my computer,you can’t scratch out my eyes even if you wanted to.

Dennis Markuze

d_ma…@pavo.concordia.ca

Holy crap! At one point in time, DM had the ability to write in complete, understandable sentences! Granted, they’re misogynistic bullshit, but grammar!

I laugh because that’s what keeps me sane – but this is perfect evidence of DM’s escalating madness. His writing went from sentient to erratic word salad. The threats become more and more violent. The messages are obsessively persistent – he hops from internet cafe to internet cafe since bloggers keep banning his IP addresses, and he creates dozens of new email addresses and twitter accounts a day because his get banned so quickly. He has started physically showing up to atheist meetings, and repeatedly try to enter after being thrown out by security.

This is not the behavior of a mentally healthy person. DM needs to be committed and evaluated before he finally snaps and hurts someone. And if that shows him to be a sane but particularly motivated God botherer, he needs to be prosecuted for harassment, stalking, and death threats, all of which are crimes in Canada.

What used to be an annoyance is now a red flag – stop this man before he’s the next École Polytechnique massacre, Anders Behring Breivik, or decides to actually cut off someone’s head.

If you read atheist blogs, you probably know Dennis Markuze. Possibly under another name, since he shifts around a lot – David Mabus, DM, Nostradamus. And if not, here’s a brief introduction:

For several years Dennis Markuze has harassed and threatened scientists, writers, public figures, atheists, and their friends under the pseudonym “David Mabus”. While this was previously a minor annoyance, the intensity and frequency of his contact have increased.

“Mabus” attacks now include hundreds of Twitter accounts (used and discarded as they are reported). He has threatened young boys and girls as well as adults (including Rys Morgan, 16, who was acknowledged by some in the science community for exposing a dangerous quack medical treatment). In fact, anyone who associates with scientifically and skeptically minded people like PZ Myers, Phil Plait, James Randi, Brian Dunning or Michael Shermer is likely to become a target for unsettling rants and threats to their life and well-being.

Markuze has even gone so far as to attend meetings of such people, including attending the American Atheist Convention in October 2010, held Montreal.

You don’t see him around here that much because I’ve tightened up my comment moderation quite a bit, and probably banned every IP address in Montreal in the process. But I get at least one crazed email and multiple tweets from him every day, usually containing a variety of threats – punching us, shooting us, nuking us, chopping off our heads, references to krystallnacht.

This has become a common occurrence for any bloggers, scientists, or activists who are associated with atheism. But I’ve also received personalized threats, such as “feel safe, jen?” and “jen we are going to exterminate you, cunt.”



And despite multiple people making multiple reports to the police over years and years, the Montreal Police do nothing.



How much longer are the Montreal Police going to sit on their hands? Until Dennis Markuze finally snaps and hurts someone? If these were religious leaders receiving constant death threats, you can be sure it would have been taken care of instantly. But when atheists are on the receiving end, they twiddle their thumbs.



I don’t necessarily think this man needs to be thrown behind bars – but he has a history of mental illness and has become more and more threatening and persistent, and something needs to be done before he follows through with his threats. I especially fear for atheists he targets that live near Montreal – and I certainly will not feel safe ever visiting that city until the police take some action.



Please sign the petition for the Montreal Police to take death threats made against atheists seriously.

And if you’re from Montreal…a tip to your local newspaper probably wouldn’t hurt.