To crowdsource or not to crowdsource?
Yesterday, between the last session of Liberty 2006 and the first drinks being served in the National Liberal Club bar (an agonising 90 minute wait), Antoine and I talked at length about whether or not I should have posted the photo I managed to take of one of my attackers. Please note - because I got a nasty email from a guy named Dan Friedman, referring to the guy I photographed as a “fat pickaninny” and then telling me: ‘If you’re the one who took the kid’s picture BEFORE the incident, maybe you should go back to your “rural surroundings” and telecommute from there’ - that I took his picture AFTER the physical attack and in the middle of the nasty verbal abuse.
I’ve struggled with this question, and although am pretty sure I did the right thing, I think it’s going to niggle at me for a while.
When it comes to the two guys, I will repeat here what I said to Antoine: If these guys are caught, and the case goes to court, I desperately want to tell them that it is their choice whether they continue down the road of stupidity and loserdom or take their lives down a much more fulfilling road. This is the case with all of us, and I believe it is never too late to make the right choices. I would much, much rather stop them from attacking other women by compelling them to make good choices than by just locking them up for a long time (though I also believe that punishment and penance have an integral role in rehabilitation).
I am presenting later this morning at the final day of Liberty 2006, where I will be talking about the potential role of social media in bringing about a more free society. If I can bring myself to mention it (I find it quite embarrassing to talk, face-to-face with people, about what happened to me; the humiliation didn’t stop when I got away from the attackers), there might be a debate about the matter which will help me to gain more clarity in my own mind about how I’ve handled this. In the meantime, I appreciate your views on the subject.
First question: If it was wrong for me to post the picture on my blog, then is it wrong for the police to put the picture up in Underground stations?
Filed under: Life
Jackie, now I’ve had chance to think about it I think you were absolutely right to publish the photo. However, Tom, me and any others who published were wrong. We should have directed people to your blog instead of re-publishing the photo.
I’m interested in your reasoning behind that, Stuart, if you care to share.
I’ll try - although I’m still in the process of thinking it through. It’s down to a desire to help, but also the difference between knowing something and thinking something. By republishing the photo it makes it seem like I know the police are looking for him, rather than I think they are which is what it would have looked like had I linked to you.
Woolly I know, but if we take it offline for a moment then I wouldn’t for a minute have published this entry in a print newsletter without checking out more about it first.
Stuart is merely tiresome, whereas Dan Friedman is a cunt.
I think it was absolutely right for you and everyone else to post it. You’re really a brave person. And I wouldn’t hold out much hope for rehabilitation in an English prison. From everything I’ve read, they have very much the opposite effect. Universities of crime, so to speak.
I will be posting a link to your site and I will post his picture if you want. The only reason I would hesitate to post his picture is that I wasn’t there to witness the situation, so my picture of him would be secondhand information and maybe the direct accusation should be left up to the person who experienced the assault and took the picture.
But since you have reported the incident to the police and are pursuing things through legal channels, I wouldn’t quibble about posting his picture on my blog.
On the other hand, I think you have every right to publish the picture and even a moral obligation. You are kinder than I regarding rehabilitation. I’d rather just see them shot in the face.
Jim, I like Stuart even when I don’t agree with him (which is a lot - he’s a Labour man!).
He’s a thug criminal. Who cares about his rights? Next time bring pepper spray and give it to him good. If the police can’t protect your rights, as it would appear will be the case, take measures to protect them yourself.
Of course you should post it, as should as many other people who choose to. The point here is for people to take responsibility for their actions. The assailants chose their behavior; why in the world would we shield them from its ramifications?
Adrian, I care about everyone’s rights. I mean, even thugs and criminals have rights, and that is as it should be.
I’m from New Orleans, so we have had our fair share of cultural veneer stripping over the last year and a half or so. We also saw that there are times–and I think your experience bordered on such a time–when being armed with the power to inflict deadly or at least incapacitating force is necessary to maintain peace and civilization against unbridled barbarism. We are fortunate to have a government enlightened enough to allow citizens to train and obtain licensing to carry concealed handguns. Disarming law-abiding citizens never helped reduce crime in the U.S. and it’s certainly not helping in the UK. I met a young man who lives and works in London a couple of weeks ago who revealed that knives are carried in super-abundance by thugs and the young people who must travel in the thugs’ terrortories ™. What does one do, whether victim or bystander, when a knucklehead (as some here call them) escalates his abuse to physical, life threatening violence? What can a herd of sheep do? I hope this scum is ID’d , caught and prosecuted. I’ll keep your safety in my prayers. But mustly I’ll pray that decent people in government will wake up and realize that we are not sheep to be statistically sent to the slaughter, but human beings and the core of culture that makes our countries places in which people can live in peace and prosperity. Forgetting that and/or pretending that there are no others who will not live by the “Golden Rule” unless forced will leave everyone sliding down Hobbes’ “slippery slope” to anarchy. You did the right thing, without doubt. I pray that others will, too.
I guess it’s a reflection of what a decent person you are to even question whether posting his picture was the right thing to do. But I can’t think of any reason why you shouldn’t post it.
Your attacker obviously had no problem with carrying out his actions in public in front of numerous witnesses. It’s not like you’re “outing” him as an assh*le. He seemed happy enough to display it himself. You’re just giving him a larger audience which hopefully includes law enforcement officials and any number of people who can identify him.
You did the right thing. Period.
Most definitely right to post the photo. You have tipped the scales on the thug. You’ve stamped a “warning” label on his forehead, which may well save someone else from going through what you suffered. Hopefully, he will be caught, but even if he isn’t, you’ve done a service to all who ride that train.
Considering that, if he is caught, and then if he is even prosecuted, his state-mandated “punishment” will be laughable, your best bet at giving him any real punishment is for his mother to find out what he does when he’s out with his friends. So posting the picture for the world to see is definitely the way to go.
Jackie Hope you don’t mind that I have re-posted his picture on my blog. I will immediately remove it if you object. Good luck and WELL DONE! Bretters