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Tag: Vancouver Riots

  • Vancouver Newspapers Release Riot Photos To the Public

    Remember those Vancouver riots from last summer? Remember how the police said they would make use of various social media platforms to track these ruffians down and punish them appropriately? Well, apparently, the social media sting didn’t net the kind of fish the Vancouver police were looking for.

    Thanks to a local judge, The Vancouver Sun and The Province have been ordered to hand over all of their Stanley Cup riot photos to the police, but before they complied, the newspapers in question released these same images to the public.

    And that’s just what they did.

    In fact, the news service released over 5000 photos to the public, but their reservations in doing so remain:

    “We will reluctantly turn over the photos and videos to police, but remain concerned that the production order turns journalists into evidence gatherers for police,” said Harold Munro, The Sun’s deputy managing editor.

    “Police should only make such demands on the media as a last resort,” he added. “In this case, they have many thousands of photos and videos from the public that are still being reviewed.”

    As indicated, the media outlets released “some 5481” images to the public, the same ones they will be turning over to the police. While The Vancouver Sun is complying with the judicial ruling, the newspaper’s legal team asks that pictures with innocent citizens in them be destroyed.

    While the chaos of the riots made the topic a popular trend, perhaps the most famous item to come from the Vancouver riots was the image of the couple kissing:

    Couple Kissing

    Of course, this kind of image is not what the Vancouver police are looking for, unless they’re wanting to issue a Public Display of Affection citation.

    No, these are the kinds of images the police are interested in:

    Fire

    And:

    Riot

    The next question is, how does this kind of ruling make you feel? Should newspapers be compelled to release such images in order to assist with police investigations or should the police, well, find their own damn images? Let us know what you think.

  • Vancouver Healing Begins With Apologies That Go Viral

    The post-Stanley Cup Finals riots in Vancouver, among other things, has made for some really good web content, giving the audience a closer look at the chaos that went on. Now, that the childish acting out has subsided, the city is beginning its healing process, and while this will probably continue throughout the summer, some olive branches have been offered by Vancouver residents who are looking to change the perception left by the Stanley Cup riots.

    Meanwhile, perhaps the lead image, via reddit, sheds some light on why the riots happened. We were led to believe it was fans behaving badly after their team lost to the Boston Bruins in Game 7, when, in fact, a rampaging Tim Thomas was trying to destroy Vancouver and the residents simply panicked.

    Considering Thomas’ sterling goal-keeping against the Canucks, perhaps the image isn’t that far-fetched, at least on a metaphorical level.

    As for the healing process, it has already begun in earnest as Vancouver residents are eager to put the ugly incident behind them. Of course, social media has played a big role in the recovery process, with Facebook playing a big part in the organization of clean-up efforts — the page in question has over 17,000 likes — Twitter was also leveraged. While these kinds of responses are to be expected in today’s world, another area of healing that may surprise you comes from the avalanche of hand-written apologies notes from various residents.

    Instead of posting apologies on the two social media platforms, relying on technology to do the deed, many people hand-delivered their message directly to the authorities in made-for-the-Internet moments that resonate almost as loudly as the kissing couple. The first wave of apologies came in the form of sticky notes left on a Vancouver police squad car. While the idea is a great one, the images are even better:

    Sticky Notes

    Sticky Notes


    Images courtesy of here and here.

    That’s not the only hand-written apologies that popped up around Vancouver, either. There’s also the “Citizen’s Wall,” a plywood barrier that’s covered in hand-written apologies and other self-incriminating messages. The entire wall can be seen over at Gigapixel, and it measures in at 877 megapixels (107,271 X 8,173). Gigapixel’s “image” of the “Citizen’s Wall” is made up of 472 separate images. An example of the notes:

    Sticky Notes

    There’s also a video of the clean-up process, but the noticeable thing is it has much less views than the images of the riots themselves. Apparently, chaos is good for almost 200,000 views, while goodwill is only worth a little over 400.


    Whatever your feelings about the riots and/or the rioters, you have to admit just how effective social media on the Internet is for keeping up with this stuff. I can only imagine what the content would’ve been like if Twitter/Facebook/YouTube had been around during the Rodney King riots. We’d have enough stuff to write about for the next 10 years if that were the case.