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Vancouverites fight back against rioters through social media
Vancouverites fight back against rioters through social media
VANCOUVER - Social media is all about sharing: thoughts, memories, and to the chagrin of Wednesday night rioters, evidence.
Pictures, videos and posts detailing every step of the riot began to appear on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter within minutes of the first signs of trouble. The quantity of digital evidence already posted to the internet is enormous and police believe it will help them track down those responsible for the violence.
Some of the earliest digital notice that trouble was pending came in the form of tweets.
Twitter user TomMcGarry tweeted “Time to riot,” around the time that the Canucks’ game seven loss became a certainty.
“Heading DT about to join the riot soon!!  ,” wrote bkambere.
While it is difficult to discern sarcasm from honesty in posts like these, visual evidence of acts of violence are far more telling.
As rioters smashed windows and lit fires, witnesses soon flooded social media sights with digital content. Photos and videos of perpetrators appeared in real-time on Tumblr, Flicker and other photo blogging sites.
Robert Gorcak created a Facebook page titled “Vancouver Riot Pics: Post Your Photos,” within 10 minutes of game end. He said he created the page to gather photos of the perpetrators in the hopes of bringing them to justice.
“I had a funny feeling that there was going to be some people out there who wanted to start trouble,” said Gorcak on Thursday. “I was just so disappointed [when the riot started].”
Gorcak’s page had been “liked” by nearly 70,000 people by Thursday evening. Hundreds of photos have been posted on the page documenting people looting stores, setting fires, and smashing property.
Some fans of the page have also taken screen capture photos of Facebook status updates made by smug hooligans, including one who bragged he “punched a f---en pig in head with riot gear on knocked him to the ground” and “burnt some smart cars.”
The Vancouver Police Department released a statement Wednesday thanking individuals for sharing their digital evidence.
“The response from the public wanting to help the police identify the individuals involved in last night’s criminal activity has been overwhelming,” it read.
UBC Okanagan social media expert Christopher Schneider said police face a different challenge sorting out the turbulence and aftermath from Wednesday’s riot than they did 17 years ago, in 1994.
He said only a small handful of television crews documented the ruckus at that time and that footage became crucial parts of a subsequent investigation that took weeks.
Schneider said that this time around, the riots unfolded on the streets and on social media simultaneously, leaving behind a moment-by-moment roadmap to the disturbance. |
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發表於 2011-6-16 18:24
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