gang (ga[ng]):    A group of criminals or hoodlums who band together for mutual protection and profit. stalk (stôk):    To follow or observe (a person) persistently, especially out of obsession or derangement. gang stalk°ing:    A group of criminals or hoodlums who band together for mutual protection and profit to follow or observe (a person) persistently, especially out of obsession or derangement. Also known as cause stalking, vengeance stalking, organized stalking and group stalking. OVERVIEW Gang stalking involves the use of multiple individuals to stalk, harass and taunt a victim, as well as to vandalize personal property. This can take place for many years, particularly since law enforcement and legislation have yet to catch up with the reality of organized stalking by groups. Techniques of psychological warfare are used against the target in a methodical and well orchestrated attack that often leaves the target a victim of ridicule among his friends and family because this occurrence is so hard to believe. However, the number of targets are increasing to the point that they can network with one another and find out that the same tactics are used everywhere. These tactics are intended to weaken the target to the point of physical and psychological collapse. The reasons why a person is initially targeted can vary. Sometimes the person may be a political activist. Others may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Corporations apparently have even been known to hire these stalking groups to silence people who were once in their employ. These stalking gangs may be lied to about the target, thinking that perhaps the person is a deviant who needs to be driven out of town. The reasons are only limited to the imagination. In some cases, according to David Lawson, author of Terrorist Stalking in America, the person has done nothing wrong but is simply used as a practice target or as an example to others in the group to show what can happen to them if they anger the group in some way. This serves to keep the members of these stalking groups tied to the group through intense fear of becoming a target. It is such a terrifying prospect because the gang members are intimately aware that the lives of the targets are utterly destroyed. (See FAQ for more information). Many people ask, "Why would anyone engage in this kind of activity?". In order to answer that question, it's important to realize that the person who has decided to target an individual is not the person (or persons in this case) doing the stalking. This is known as "stalking by proxy". Those who have called "the hit" (so-to-speak) may be doing it for any number of reasons, including revenge, jealousy, or a desire to keep someone silent. It may be that physically harming a person is considered too extreme or too risky by the perpetrators. In fact, this kind of psychological attack can be a far more effective way to harm someone. It can completely destroy a person's life while leaving little or no evidence to incriminate the perpetrators. Additionally, there are the reasons that the stalkers themselves engage in the activity, which have little or nothing to do with why the person may have been targeted in the first place. It is conceivable that the participants in the harassment don't even know why the person has been targeted, nor would most of these individuals have any personal stake in harassing the victim. But certain things are clear - this is an both an addictive behavior as well as a form of entertainment for the stalkers. From the expressions on the faces of some of the perpetrators who come face-to-face with their targets, there is a vicious kind of pleasure that they derive from bullying their victim. Clearly they like the feeling of being "in control". Like our society's current obsession with "reality TV", this activity must inevitably gain popularity as the ultimate experience of "reality" entertainment. Such is the nature of the bottomless pit within the stalkers that thirsts, evermore, for greater and greater thrills. To the perpetrators, their targets are merely their prey, in a game that never ends. But make no mistake, whatever the reasoning behind it, this is a vicious and calculated hate crime. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES The types of activities which take place are often subtle, and sometimes cannot be distinguished from normal everyday things that go wrong, but they typically occur much more frequently than they would normally. David Lawson points out in his book, Terrorist Stalking in America, that the victim is intentionally "sensitized" to the presence of the stalkers, so he or she will know that the occurences are orchestrated. This causes intense psychological strain due to the isolation and ridicule that results when the target tries to share these experiences with others. It is a psychological reign of terror intended to make a victim look crazy and intended to keep him or her in a constant state of anxiety and stress as to "what will happen next" (also known as "hyper-vigilance"). There was a 1944 movie called "Gaslight" about a husband trying to drive his wife crazy, from which the term "gaslighting" was derived. According to Slang City, "to gaslight someone is to drive them crazy by intentionally confusing them. It comes from the 1944 movie Gaslight, in which sweet heiress Ingrid Bergman marries creepy Charles Boyer, who hopes to get her inheritance by driving her insane. He convinces her she's seeing and hearing things that don't exist, including the gaslights (what they had before light bulbs) going on and off when he isn't home." The subtle techniques used to make the wife doubt her own sanity are similar to the techniques used by gang stalkers to unnerve a target. To see a summary by Eleanor White on the topic, click here. For example, the perpetrators (who appear to frequently have access to their targets' homes) may sometimes come into the house while the target is out and move things around a little bit, or spread some dirt on the floor or on furniture, or move an item from the house to the car. But usually they won't cause enough damage to involve the Police. This shows that this activity is a psychological game of cat and mouse, and has little to do with any overt kind of damage that may be caused, such as burning someone's house down or stealing valuables. In some cases, the target doesn't know s/he is being targeted. It just looks as though the world is full of very rude people, and everything s/he owns breaks constantly ("bad luck"). According to Lawson, the perpetrators don't need the target to know s/he is targeted in order to fill the need within themselves that they are in control. See Terrorist Stalking in America for more information. Useful Search Terms: stalking-by-proxy stalking mobbing bullying "psychological harassment" "psychological violence"

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