Reddit Thinks It Can Solve the Boston Bombings
By Will Oremus
Posted Wednesday, April 17, 2013, at 11:20 AM
Investigators work the crime scene on Boylston Street following Monday's
bomb attack at the Boston Marathon.
Investigators work the crime scene on Boylston Street following Monday's
bomb attack at the Boston Marathon.
Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images
Acknowledging that "the range of suspects and motives remains wide open,"
the FBI on Tuesday appealed to the public for help in solving the Boston
Marathon bombing.
Users of the social-news site Reddit are, in their own way, doing exactly
what authorities asked. On a subreddit called findbostonbombers, a group of
amateur sleuths is sharing theories and passing around publicly available
crowd shots. At this stage, Redditors have latched on to images of two
different middle-aged men in the marathon crowd, each of whom appears to be
holding a backpack with stripes on the straps. Why are those stripes
relevant? They think the markings look similar to those in an FBI picture of
a destroyed backpack found at the scene of one of the explosions.
Authorities believe that backpack could have held one of the
explosive-filled pressure cookers used in the bombing.
In the court of Reddit opinion, those stripes are enough to cast suspicion
on a couple of to-this-point-anonymous men, one of whom the site's users
have dubbed "Blue Robe Guy." (The other man Redditors have homed in on does
not yet have a nickname.) Never mind that the guy's outerwear more closely
resembles a fleece jacket-a robe sounds more sinister, right? In any case,
beyond the backpack markings, the supporting evidence seems a little thin.
Some Redditors note that Blue Robe Guy appears to be gripping his pack
tightly and "trying to look nonchalant." Another adds that he "fits the
profile of the kind of person I think did this." Well then!
In some ways, Reddit is well-suited to the search for the Boston bomber. The
site has a proven ability to crowdsource digital clues, and its built-in
voting system allows users to bump up the comments they deem most helpful.
On a subreddit called the "Reddit Bureau of Investigation," there's a group
that's always at the ready "to use the power of Reddit to solve
crimes/mysteries and catch criminals." According to the page's info box,
"Witch-hunts and the posting of personal information are forbidden. The
motto not your personal army applies." In addition to the search for the
Boston bomber, the RBI page now lists investigations of a missing girl in
Utah, a lost memory card full of personal photos, and "organized pitbull
fights in Macedonia."
Redditors have been known to help solve a crime or two in the past-last
year, one gearhead identified the make and model of the car involved in a
hit-and-run just from a photo of its right front headlight. But the Boston
bombing warrants a lot more caution than a case that seems well-suited for
Encyclopedia Brown.
Labeling people as "suspicious" based on the scantest evidence can do real
damage. To their credit, many members of the community have recognized this,
voting a post with the title "Does anyone remember Richard Jewell?" to the
top of the findbostonbombers page. After invoking the name of the man who
was falsely accused in the 1996 Olympic bombing, the user who created that
thread writes, "Who knows? You may get lucky and your pet suspect turns out
to be the bomber. But I've seen at least 10 people singled out, and not all
of you are correct. You should be very very careful about picking and
choosing who you think might have killed three people and wounded many more,
based on where they were standing and if they were carrying a backpack or
not."
==========================================
(F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this
message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to
these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed
within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with
"Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976.
The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The
Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain
permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials
if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting,
teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria
for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies
as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four
criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is
determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not
substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. If you wish to use
copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS
PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment