A Massachusetts woman was put under police watch Saturday after a video of her allegedly attacking a mailman and using racist language made her the target of an internet hate campaign, the Boston Herald reported.
Erika Winchester, 60, was seen in the video demanding that former mail carrier Jean Hugson take back a certified letter for which she had signed. When Hugson refuses to take back the letter, Winchester is seen repeatedly using the n-word, telling him that African Americans “turn on each other." She also appears to slap Hugson in the face.
After footage of the 2009 incident was uploaded last month to YouTube, users tracked down and posted on the web details of Winchester’s home address in Hingham, Mass., and her phone number. The video was posted on several national blogs last week.
Harassment from users of web forums like 4Chan prompted police to put her under watch. “Because of the attention that this has gotten in the media, we feel she needs to have protection over there right now,” Hingham police Lt. Michael Peraino said.
Entertainment website Gawker called the phone number listed for Winchester on YouTube early Saturday morning and spoke with a woman who sounded like Winchester. The woman told Gawker it had called a pizza parlor.
Hugson was fired from his Postal Service position in November 2009, a month after the videotaped incident. US Postal Services spokeswoman Christine Dugas said his termination had nothing to do with the video.
Winchester is a former off-Broadway actress and singer who has a history of run-ins with the law, including an incident at a fundraiser in which she threatened to shoot people with a machine gun and told the officer who arrested her for disorderly conduct that she would “chop off” his genitals.
MyFoxPhilly.com
