Two Facebook Riot Inciters Get 4 Years Jail Time

Effectively this blog is pretty much in perpetual hibernation. However, I would be remiss to not mention the riots that occurred in London at least for the context of how ridiculous our justice system is in our Province. As my headline states, two men By the names “Jordan Blackshaw, 20, and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, were jailed for four years each for inciting the disorder on Facebook despite both being of previous good character.” as stated by The Telegraph. The full story can be read here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/8705212/Facebook-riot-inciters-among-those-to-get-toughest-jail-terms-yet.html

So exactly when did the London riots occur? A few weeks ago? The Vancouver Riots occurred over two months ago and despite 37 people having turned themselves in, no charges have been put forth to Counsel. In Britain, the rioters and looters have already been put thru trial and sentenced. In Vancouver the reason given as to why no charges have yet been laid is because there is too much evidence in photos, videos and eye witnesses. WTF!!!???

The judges involved in sentencing the rioters in London have stated that they wanted to send a clear message to would be rioters and looters in the future. In our judicial system we’ve sent the message that has everyone involved laughing at how it’s all turned out and how nothing will really be done to them all. This in turn has sent a message that given the consequences and ability of our judicial system to prevent this from happening again, at least in Canada we simply don’t have the stomach to even effectively punish those who commit crimes.

Where are you now you bleeding hearts with your sanctimonious berating that our judicial system will take care of those involved?

Casey Anthony Not Guilty For Killing Daughter

I know that this has nothing to do with the Vancouver Riots, or for that matter Canadian Law, however it was just announced that Casey Anthony was found not guilty in murdering her 2 year old daughter Caylee.

As so many of those against my blog and others out there state, they dislike what we do because the rioters are not given a fair trial. In this case, much like OJ Simpson, Casey Anthony has been given a fair trial. However, much like the public shunning that OJ Simpson received after he was found not guilty for murdering Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman, I predict that Casey Anthony will receive the same treatment.

So why is this relevant? The hypocrisy of those sitting in their white towers crying for the rights of the rioters and looters receiving a fair trial will now sit silently and say nothing when Casey Anthony is slammed, shunned, and ridiculed on talk shows, blogs, websites, and the media. I will be very surprised if any publication comes to her defense now and says “Come on everyone, she was found not guilty thru the court system and trial by a jury of her peers. Please stop harassing her. Casey, if you’re reading this article, if you’re having a hard time finding employment, we have a job here for you at The Georgia Straight. We believe you and don’t think that what you’ve been accused of has any bearing on who you really are. You really look like a nice person and your defense team presented that well.”

OJ Simpson is innocent, please leave him alone. Casey too. I imagine that the same should be said about the alleged rioters and looters pictured and plastered all over the Internet, caught in the act until they get their day in court.

Promotion Of Public Shaming To Sell Stories

As the emotions of the first few days of the Vancouver Riots have slowly died down, it is no wonder that people coming forth to turn themselves in has also slowed down. The media was so happy to jump on the wagon in splattering the faces of Nathan Kotylak, Cammille Cacnio, Jason Li (just his picture and what school he goes to), and the latest Robert Snelgrove. While doing so they also placed them into the public eye much more forcefully than any public shaming online had ever done.

So where has the media’s appetite for including themselves in publicly outing people gone? Surely they must know that they aided in any further exposure to those now known as household names. I’m asked why not put more of those “committing the real crimes” on my blog and I may do so in time. They’re already listed on other sites so there isn’t an urgency for me to do so. However, what is the excuse of the media who were so happy to run stories especially of Nathan Kotylak and Camille Cacnio, while mentioning as a little blurb Edgar Garcia who was fingered as the man who stabbed a group of three friends.

Beginning to see a patern here? Stories about the “good kids”, the “students” and the one’s who make “just a mistake” make for great news. Those about the dregs of society are just common stories about thugs that fill the back splashes of your everyday news cycle. In other words, not news worthy enough to grab the attention of its readers.

As a side note, I gave an interview to The Dependent last Wednesday to give them my take on why I started the blog, my frustrations that I believe I share with many others, as well as my thoughts on what is in our future regarding all of its fall out. We’ll see how the article plays itself out.

Common Sense, Joshua Evans Is A Hero Of The Vancouver Riots

Yesterday, we started to hear the news that Joshua Evans who was arrested with guns drawn by the VPD for holding a knife was actually a hero.  One of his lawyers, Gloria Ng appeared at the Vancouver Community Court on Wednesday as reported by the Vancouver Sun to ask for an adjournment of the case.

As can be read in the original article, one of the victims who was stabbed, Sunny Jaura, was telling the VPD that Joshua Evans was part of their group after they arrested him for holding a knife.  Where did this knife come from?  Imagine the scene of a knife wielding attacker who stabs three of your friends.  You then subdue the attacker and take the knife away.  No one is video taping this or snapping photos to accidentally mis-identify you.  This is a common charge by civil liberties people who say that out of context photos will incriminate innocent people, but I digress. In this case, because you take the knife away and the police show up at the same time and don’t see it, they point their guns at you and arrest you.  I can only imagine the trauma that Joshua Evans felt after having just saved his friends and was now being arrested.

Common Sense Hero

Joshua Evans is from Calgary and has since returned to work.  A second court date is scheduled on July 19th.  I imagine this will cost some money to fly or drive back to Vancouver.  This whole system of having to clear one’s name is going to cost Joshua personally and all of us in taxpayer money.  So while I’ve placed Joshua Evans within the confines of my blog to openly declare that I believe he’s a hero, our court system has to go thru these proceedings and at cost for him to clear his name.

Sunny Jaura said in the Vancouver Sun article, “It’s common sense, save the taxpayer money and do the right thing”.  Don’t worry Sunny and Joshua.  Public opinion doesn’t have to go thru the proceedings of up to a year for him to clear his name.  To all of us, Joshua Evans is a hero that we can determine thru our common sense.

**All attempts have been made to insure all information on this page is accurate.  The author does not endorse any of the comments of the users of this site.  If you feel any information on this site is inaccurate please contact CaptainVancouver with the subject line “CORRECTION”.  LINK TO DISCLAIMER HERE.**

Kurt Sikora And “It’s A Cop Car”

As it’s now been almost a week after the Vancouver 2011 Riots occured, all news is old news pretty much in regards to the current crop of identified photos.  To show just how far behind I am of being “in the know”, I stumbled upon Facebookjustice just now and found a list purporting to be all the names of the ID’d persons of the photos making their rounds on the internet.

However, as we all know Captain Vancouver does a little something different on this  site.  I present to you Kurt Sikora of the famous “It’s a cop car” line said during the Vancouver riots.  In this YouTube video, Kurt Sikora can be seen aiding a crowd of people attempting to push over a car.  Frankly, I don’t know if it’s a police vehicle.  I thought police cars were always white and had red and blue lights on top.

You should have said "It's a junk car!"

As the shot continues, when he is confronted by the girls taking the video evidence, he quickly says that he’s on their side.  When it becomes clear that the girls aren’t backing down he yells at them as if to justify what he was doing. “It’s a cop car, it’s a cop car”, as if each time would solidify the rationale.  Maybe that’s a good defence?  If I was Kurt, I would have said something like “The car doesn’t work”, or “The car is a junk car”, “It’s made out of lemons!”.  That way maybe they would have just let him go.  Unfortunately for Kurt Sikora, because it was a “cop car” I think the girls were even more annoyed and kept taking the video.  That’s my personal opinion on this.

**All attempts have been made to insure all information on this page is accurate.  The author does not endorse any of the comments of the users of this site.  If you feel any information on this site is inaccurate please contact CaptainVancouver with the subject line “CORRECTION”.  LINK TO DISCLAIMER HERE.**

From Shame To Justice and Redemption

There is this belief being pushed in different circles that the use of shaming achieves nothing of worth.  Instead it dehumanizes the human spirit, further pushing that person into despair.  I do not believe this to be the case when justice is involved.  Justice as it pertains to the current society is a must.  Whether that is thru the current court and judiciary system, or thru the eyes of those people who feel the need of recompense in non-traditional ways.

Currently people are on the side of the current trend of shaming, or against it and hoping for the courts.  What is not mentioned strongly enough is that there truly exists frustrations in the public when it comes to our judiciary system.   The current news of how 24 people have been convicted out of 1100 arrested at theG20 Summit Riots in Toronto is what frustrates people.

So while the one side sits frustrated and hoping that things get better, the other side has accepted that in our world of social-media public shaming occurs whether a webpage is made about it or not.  One form of justice waits for the courts, while for some the recompense begins when shame has been laid.  Once satisfied, that’s where consequences have been laid out, and the road to redemption begins.

This site exists to provide shaming, but it also exists to provide healing for our city, those injured, and even those who committed offense.  The healing of our city shall take time as will those injured by this event.  Angry emotions were being shared and vented at such a rate that at this time I had to limit comments to registered readers only.  Those against shaming were also directly inciting and posting against the very frustrated people I mentioned earlier.  Both sides of this mass of people were hindered in their ability to also begin healing by fighting amongst each other when only days earlier they were united in cheering for our beloved city, and team the Vancouver Canucks.

Is it too early for those injured to give up their anger?  Time will tell as each of us is a different being and differing forms of injury had occurred.  What will help I believe is for those who were caught, and were involved in some form of participation in the riots is to come forth and turn themselves in.  Their photos are already out there and someone will know who they are.  Also, for those who have felt the sting and spotlight of being made publicly shamed online, I believe that they can make amends.

Despite what everyone keeps saying (and even my own words at one point) now, it is only the person who was involved in the Vancouver riots that does absolutely nothing to repair the damage done thru restitution, community service, the judiciary system, and in general being a good productive citizen that will remain shunned and despised.  Every other person who has come forward already such as Nathan and Camille the process for them has begun.  Whether at this time while emotions are still running high people accept this as sincere that is another question.  Forgiveness is in our nature, so long as there is a perceived correction of what they had done wrong, and it is sincere in our eyes.

How this relates to my site (and certainly anyone else currently featured on it or in the future) is that while it is a tool for public shaming, it must end at redemption for those who seek it.  This is what makes us Canadian.  Now, I must reiterate this isn’t about Captain Vancouver going soft.  I still believe that there will be amongst those photos, people who actually couldn’t care less if their picture and name was plastered on billboards on the streets.

So while some have this fear that if they’re featured on this site, they will be forever carrying that dreaded scarlet letter, they should also know that there also exists its unmentioned redemptive side.  Redemption that acknowledges any news, apologies, and stories of the positive things they are doing will be noted.  So while I have mentioned before that an employer can google someone’s name and consequences may occur, that will happen whether my site exists or not.  Anonymity and digital foot prints ended when sites like Facebook became live.  With that scenario, it is imperative that justice and redemption for all have a chance to occur.  Should I then have positive information in the future to come from people like Nathan and Camille, I am duty bound to help in the fulfillment of what  is just and fair

I am reminded of the hiring policies which are well-known for our policing forces. Even amongst these men and women, there exists those who at some point in their lives committed chargeable offenses.  Now it can be debated whether we hire only pure saints to be police officers, but we all know that won’t happen.  How they hire those with past indiscretions is they view their personal records and resumes, check references as they interview their family, friends, co-workers etc.  At that point if everything checks clear, that person goes thru the process to become a police officer.  I see no difference here for those who were once shamed, that they can regain their reputations.

Does this mean I must remove them from the site?  At this point I don’t think it will serve good purpose for the digital imprint for everyone outed and named is far larger than the few I have on my site.  This is where news media and bloggers should fact check and report that those 1,000,000 photos floating around are on other sites not my own and what they do is completely different from what is the purpose of my blog.  By keeping them on this site, this blog then serves a greater purpose and chance at showcasing their redemption.  Instead of a google search sending someone to photos only depicting the negative aspects of the historical online record, they will be sent here instead.

What about everyone else?  There are many more photos that can be posted on the site and they will be at some point as they are properly assessed to make sure I do not make a mistake.  If those who participated and are featured never come forward, or never make an apology to be added alongside to their name, that will be online for anyone to see in the future.  If you were at the riots and know your photo is being circulated but feel secure that “nothing in the courts” will happen to you, remember that at some point it may end up here.

**All attempts have been made to insure all information on this page is accurate.  The author does not endorse any of the comments of the users of this site.  If you feel any information on this site is inaccurate please contact CaptainVancouver with the subject line “CORRECTION”.  LINK TO DISCLAIMER HERE.**

A Tale Of Two Cities And The Captain Vancouver Backlash

When I read the news media articles, listen to the news and saw online bloggers denounce what I’m doing I realize that there exists an agenda to have my site shut down or silence it.  It is no secret that threats also come my way as seen in my blog’s comments and I will leave those up for all to see.  In the same way Captain Vancouver is denounced as the wrong-doer in this current debate, it ignores the fact that my site has nothing to do with the hundreds of names and 1,000,000 photos that are circulating around the internet.  I think the media and bloggers should get their facts straight that I don’t post willy nilly photos, nor does my site have hundreds of pictures that have the chance to be wrongly ID’d.  As well, they should check their stories out and learn that early on I’ve done my  best to remove personal phone numbers etc from my blog’s comments.  Since then I have not seen those types of comments from my readers.  They do however exist elsewhere, and not with Captain Vancouver.

My site exists as my own commentary and opinion on the photos that I choose to post up myself.  I cannot speak for the various other sites that ID and “out” others on photos uploaded and shared on their pages.  I am aware of what responsibilities I have and with due diligence I will attempt to complete them.  It is my full intention to moderate the comments on my blog (of which there are 3500 comments to sift thru) to remove those things I have stated I do not hold views of and which are against what I accept as appropriate to this debate.  All forms of inciting violence, veiled, real, or joke about will be removed as this has never been my opinion as has been alluded to by the media and blogging world.

For the audience awaiting new photos to be posted, they will be as I have time.  As I mentioned with the increase of traffic to this site ironically brought about by my detractors posting their backlash, I need to be responsible in moderating closely what comments are made.  I believe in freedom of speech and thus have chosen not to moderate comments before they are posted since the comments themselves provide some important lessons and can teach us much about ourselves and how we are really different people.  It amazes me to the point that I wonder if there are two different cities in how we view the case for and against public shaming.

The pictures will come again for those waiting to see who’s next to be profiled.  For now, please be mindful of what is posted since it will only give fuel and ammunition to those against what I am doing with my blog.  I am Captain Vancouver but so are you all.

**All attempts have been made to insure all information on this page is accurate.  The author does not endorse any of the comments of the users of this site.  If you feel any information on this site is inaccurate please contact CaptainVancouver with the subject line “CORRECTION”.  LINK TO DISCLAIMER HERE.**