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Using Crowdsourcing To Identify Vancouver Rioters 397

Fudge Factor 3000 writes "The Canucks' loss in the last game of the Stanley Cup Finals resulted in complete mayhem in downtown Vancouver. Everything from upturned cars set alight to looting was commonplace. Unfortunately, most of the perpetrators were able to maintain their anonymity by disappearing into the crowds. Fortunately, bystanders took several pictures and videos of the carnage. Now, websites (including both Facebook and Tumblr) have set up pages to use crowdsourcing to identify the hooligans."
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Using Crowdsourcing To Identify Vancouver Rioters

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  • by Mashiki ( 184564 ) <mashiki@nosPaM.gmail.com> on Thursday June 16, 2011 @08:25PM (#36469912) Homepage

    Hey guess what. Fuck you. No seriously fuck you. In Canada we generally have a well ordered, and well behaved society. Lets see we got one guy who got the shit beat of him by 15-20 people because he was trying to protect property. And we have idiots who have this idea that public mischief, rioting, and in general being a danger to everyone else is not worthy of your time?

    It wasn't a few cars, it wasn't a few businesses, and it sure the fuck wasn't a few people who got stomped in the face because they tried to stop the fuckers from ruining businesses and looting. And if you are a Canadian. Get the fuck out of the country and go somewhere else. Maybe europe, where they let you destroy someone elses property because your "sensibilities" can be offended, because a sports team lost.

  • by whisper_jeff ( 680366 ) on Thursday June 16, 2011 @08:26PM (#36469924)
    Before you comment, perhaps you'd like to do some research and educate yourself. Here: http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=369127 [tsn.ca]

    Coles Notes: 150 people injured, some quite seriously. Millions of dollars in damage, which tax payers and insurance payers (translation: the populace - you know, the people who are working together now to help find the criminals) will have to pay for. Perpetrated not by a crowd going insane over the angst of a lost hockey game but by anarchists and professional criminals taking advantage of a large crowd of people which could provide cover for their activities while blame was placed on the hockey fans rather than the criminals perpetrating the crimes.

    Forgive me if I disagree with you, strongly, and am very happy to see initiatives like this to catch the criminals and happier still to know that the hockey fans often stepped in to try to hold back the criminals from their desired goals.
  • by SerpentMage ( 13390 ) on Thursday June 16, 2011 @08:38PM (#36470040)

    No dude Fuck you! Canada generally well ordered? LOL... I have lived in Canada for 18 years, and now I live in Switzerland. Now that is a country with order and well behaved people. Canada has the impression of being well behaved, but it really ain't. Just google Canadian riots and wow here is a list: http://ca.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/top-10-canadian-riots.html [askmen.com] Or how about the following list: http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=capress-hkn_stanley_cup_riots_list-7164094 [yahoo.com] Topping the list are HOCKEY riots. You would have figured that MAYBE just MAYBE the police would have been prepared...

    So next time do some soul searching before saying that Canada is so good and the rest are bad!

    Dumb Ass!

    Oh wait... Dumb Ass Eh!

  • by Mia'cova ( 691309 ) on Thursday June 16, 2011 @08:39PM (#36470048)

    As a vancouver citizen, I'd just like to say that anyone who gets into international news for burning a police car, shoplifting, stabbing, etc deserves to be identified. These people are being misrepresented as genuine vancouver canucks fans, rather than criminals who planned crimes in advance, eg bringing gas with them downtown. Since when has asking the public for help in identifying the the people responsible for a crime (in this case many crimes!) been a bad thing? After an amazing Olympics, how do you think we feel having our city shown in this spotlight? I don't know a single friend of mine who wasn't thoroughly disgusted by what they experienced in vancouver last night. If you try to convince anyone from vancouver that this was in any way, shape, or form okay, expect to get a very strong response from those of us in vancouver who love our city.

  • by History's Coming To ( 1059484 ) on Thursday June 16, 2011 @08:49PM (#36470130) Journal
    Crowdsourcing? Sometimes you don't even need that, sometimes a muppet hands himself in because he LOVES FACEBOOK SO MUCH! Honestly. Read it and weep for humanity. [twitpic.com]
  • Re:Wow (Score:3, Interesting)

    by NFN_NLN ( 633283 ) on Thursday June 16, 2011 @08:50PM (#36470138)

    People care about hockey? And enough to riot?

    Different people, different worries [imgur.com]

    Vancouver is similar to the worst US cities before the housing bust. It costs 11 times the average income to buy the average house. This would put servicing housing debt at 72% of your gross income. There isn't much industry and therefore job prospects aren't the greatest. The average young person is likely to live in debt their entire lives if they stay. I don't see how people can live without drawing equity from their homes to pay daily expenses. Add on top of that foreigners driving up the price of everything.

    As someone mentioned about the hooligans trying to start a riot during the Olympics, it didn't work. A riot only happens when you have enough pissed off people in a large group. The end of a losing hockey playoff is just a catalyst that brought a lot of already morally defeated people together in one place.

    Saying the hockey game caused the riot is like saying the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand caused World War I.

  • by RobinEggs ( 1453925 ) on Thursday June 16, 2011 @09:54PM (#36470548)
    You have a "well ordered, and well behaved society" and your entry into an earnest debate begins with "fuck you. No seriously fuck you"? Perhaps your society is civilized, but you fall well short. Forgive me for valuing proper police procedure more than I value a dozen assault convictions and a slew of larceny and vandalism arrests. It's been accepted for a very, very long time now that sometimes a civilized society has to let the criminal go rather than compromise its principles. Rioting is a serious problem and a PITA to prosecute, but I still I don't think a video from one guy containing a person identified by another guy constitutes sufficient evidence for a conviction given the normal chain of custody rules for evidence and the "shadow of a doubt" criterion used for criminal convictions (at least in the US). I guess that makes me an anarchist or an ACLU boot-licker or whatever else you want to call me, but I'm not going to apologize and despite the concerted campaign to mod me down this is absolutely not flamebait. I'm trying to have a serious discussion; if all you people can respond with is curses and systematic attempts to bury my words under digital red ink you're not going to have any luck changing my mind. Enjoy your apoplexy; it was a complete waste of your time.
  • Re:Wow (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16, 2011 @10:04PM (#36470582)

    Or, US: Your team wins a hockey game.

    While the Canadian police erred on the side of respecting civil rights, the Boston police erred on the side of being jack-booted thugs. There were almost riots in Boston, too. But because in Boston, the police aren't concerned with minor things like "human rights," anyone who looked like they might possibly be celebrating outside a designated Free Speech Zone was hauled off the street.

    No chance to celebrate, no chance to riot. Which didn't stop a Bruins fan from being killed, incidentally, but apparently no one's bothering to cover that. Apparently sports fans being killed in Boston is no longer news, it's just the status quo.

  • by ChinggisK ( 1133009 ) on Thursday June 16, 2011 @10:07PM (#36470600)
    Two different police departments aren't necessarily going to handle things the same way.
  • Re:Wow (Score:4, Interesting)

    by germansausage ( 682057 ) on Thursday June 16, 2011 @10:41PM (#36470718)
    There were 2 groups that started the rioting. First there were the hard core rioters. These were the same bunch who riot at G8 meetings. The "Black Bloc". Actually they couldn't give a fuck about politics or hockey. For them, rioting and looting and mixing it up with the cops is a sort of urban "extreme sport". They came equipped with bandana's and geologist hammers.

    The second group were a new bunch. The facebook rioters. Riot 2.0 as it were. These were the dumbasses who came downtown so they could take pictures of themselves standing in front of burning cars so they could post them on their facebook. Status "At A Riot. Epic :) :) :) "

    Add to that a huge number of 18-25 year old kids, rat-arse drunk and happy to participate as long as the group is big enough to give them some sort of anonymity.

    Angry Canuck fans may have been there but were probably a minority. Groups 1 and 2 would have rioted win or lose.

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