The amount of digital stills and video posted to Facebook or sent to police is staggering. Businesses such as London Drugs have high-definition video surveillance cameras that captured clear shots of looters in their stores. ICBC has offered the use of its facial recognition software, originally acquired to expose identity theft, to the Vancouver Police department so that in circumstances where a photo or video shows a crime being committed, images can be linked to pictures on drivers' licenses to verify the identity of the suspect.
In this age of social media, those involved in the riot are finding themselves all over the Internet and the local papers. Their personal reputations are being catastrophically damaged by the outrage and the attention. These pictures will be online forever, with one simple Google search showing prospective employment candidates, potentially with great resumes, setting cars on fire on June 15, 2011. They may lead to lost employment possibilities, lost scholarships and lost futures. And I have to confess, there isn’t a lot of sympathy for anyone caught in the camera’s glare during the riot, enjoying their moment of fame along with any stolen goods.
This is putting some employers in a position of having to decide whether the continued employment of someone whose photograph shows him or her running from a store clutching looted clothes or Coach purses, breaking a store window or trying to set a car on fire, will damage that company's reputation, especially if that person deals with members of the public. “Do I really want the guy setting the BMW on fire with a smile on his face working in my business and dealing with my customers?”
When the Facebook posts start identifying addresses where the suspects live, where their parents live, or the location of their workplace – along with threats to their personal safety – it sounds a little too much like vigilante justice, and there have to be limits. If photographic evidence justifies a charge, then those looting and rioting should be appropriately charged and if the evidence warrants it, convicted. If there isn’t the evidence, there shouldn’t be a conviction. That’s how the system works, or how it should work.
But a conviction is less certain in 2011, and it may be that these rioters and looters will get a far rougher ride in the court of public opinion than in the court of law in B.C.
That's because the B.C. justice system is so underfunded by the provincial government right now, it is conceivable that many of those eventually charged will have those charges stayed and their trials cancelled if they cannot get a speedy trial, despite assurances from Premier Christy Clark that those involved in the riots will be prosecuted.
Vancouver businesses affected by the riots, and Vancouver residents angry with what happened the night of June 15, should know that unless money is directed to the justice system immediately, many of those rioters will go free.
New money is required to hire additional provincial court judges to give those charged fair and speedy trials, and funding needs to be found for B.C. sheriffs, who keep our courtrooms safe and secure. And unless there are adequate dollars for legal aid, so that those charged aren’t representing themselves and creating further delays in the system, then maybe the only justice the rioters will get is Facebook justice, which isn’t justice at all.
Special to The Globe and Mail
Tony Wilson is a franchise and intellectual property lawyer at Boughton in Vancouver, and he is an adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University. His newest book, Manage Your Online Reputation, was published in November.
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