Amanda Hess has a FANTASTIC article in Pacific Standard about women writers who are harrassed on Twitter and e-mail by insane men, and the limits of law enforcement. She describes a particularly disgusting tweet and the reaction of a local police officer.

Two hours later, a Palm Springs police officer lumbered up the steps to my hotel room, paused on the outdoor threshold, and began questioning me in a steady clip. I wheeled through the relevant background information: I am a journalist; I live in Los Angeles; sometimes, people don’t like what I write about women, relationships, or sexuality; this was not the first time that someone had responded to my work by threatening to rape and kill me. The cop anchored his hands on his belt, looked me in the eye, and said, “What is Twitter?”