The Online Aftermath of the Vancouver Riots: Who's the Real Mob Here?

The legacy of the June Stanley Cup riots will linger in Vancouver for years. In many ways they are the virtual riots, with more of the action taking place on-line than ever occurred in the street. 

The Vancouver Police held a virtual town hall meeting last week, which is apropos, as so much of this debacle and been magnified by the online nature of the riots. 

I was on the road in Calgary as the events took place. Unable to get a good night’s sleep, the following day I rose very early, logged on to Facebook to read my friends’ reactions, and then proceeded to take a look at the sites dedicated to ferreting out the miscreants, most of them filled with photos people took with their phones as the riots took shape.

When I first looked at about 4:00am PST, there were already hundreds of photos online, and over 6000 people had "liked" the page. Names of the guilty were already appearing, as well as links to their Facebook profiles and their work information. Even in these first hours of online reaction, warning bells were going off in my head. I feared I was seeing the beginning of an online witch hunt. Social media was giving birth to a digital lynch mob.

My own first reaction was, I must admit, mob mentality. The videos were horrific: mob violence, fights, a crowd out of control, and a few valiant Vancouverites trying to stem the madness at their own peril. I was devastated to see the number of people flaunting their disregard for neighbours, community and city. Those cretins had defaced my city, embarrassed me, assaulted my friends and neighbours, and I wanted them punished. But a little voice in my head warned me that things are not always what they seem. For example, a person standing in front of a broken window with a large stick in their hand may not be breaking in, but standing guard to keep others out.

Nevertheless, many of the pictures were far from ambiguous. And worse than the pictures were status updates scrapped from people's profiles ie: "I have three broken fingers, got pepper sprayed but I scored two Coach bags!"

While the police are finally planning on laying some charges by November 1st (6 months later!), The online trial has been underway form the moment the first photos appeared. 

While I won’t deny my desire to see the wrongdoers punished, I don’t want to see them destroyed. I read online comments stating that these rioters should never work again, I see their home addresses and other personal information appearing. I see one form of mob mentality replacing another.

Youngsters are being vilified for their actions, and my fear is that they will never recover. A mistake at 17 should not affect your entire life; that is why we have the Young Offenders Act. Once these kids have paid for their actions, will they be allowed back into society?

I don’t know, and I have little faith in the kinder gentler side of our society. The long memory of the online mob may never forgive these people for this night of mistakes. And if they don’t recover, they are consigned to the margins of society where they become an even bigger liability.

Yep, it just keeps getting worse.