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Police had woman’s Facebook deactivated during standoff

105 points| petethomas | 9 years ago |washingtonpost.com | reply

113 comments

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[+] erdevs|9 years ago|reply
Tragic and unfortunate, all around.

I wonder what FB's policy on this will be going forward. In many ways, these livestreams are a public good and provide transparency and additional accountability in these situations. If people elect to stream them, it seems wrong to shut it down. On the other hand, perhaps there is a public good in not showing an ongoing live police operation?

I think I'd lean toward not agreeing to shutdown such streams, unless perhaps it's a hostage situation or terror event of some kind. (Getting into squishy definitions there, I'm sure, which is why I qualify it provisionally.)

As to this particular incident... I wish the deceased hadn't resisted. It seems in this case the police exercised much more caution and restraint than has been the case in many other recent examples of shootings. And I think one thing generally stands: if you threaten to kill a police officer and especially if you do so while holding a weapon (or certainly pointing it at them), you're likely to be shot.

[+] imglorp|9 years ago|reply
> perhaps there is a public good in not showing an ongoing live police operation?

Fair enough, but maybe just delay any posts of an active operation, instead of censoring them?

[+] walrus01|9 years ago|reply
From a Facebook abuse and law enforcement operations perspective, if this happens more often it will become a huge pain in the ass. They have procedures in place to provide geolocation and such for urgent subpoenas and warrants (example: a kidnapping in progress). The level of stress that the FB team responsible for this ticket queue must experience is immense.
[+] tamana|9 years ago|reply
It's a strange wish, because the only reason the police were intertsted in arresting her on Aug 1 was because she steadfastly rejected and resisted police authority previously. This was specifically a micro (idiot) rebellion against govt authority, there were no other (non-derivative) issues involved.
[+] HelloImDumb|9 years ago|reply
This was a hostage situation. Was the 5 year old boy, not a hostage to his crazed, gun-wielding mother in this standoff?

I love Monday morning quarterbacks.

[+] aab0|9 years ago|reply
> According to a police report from the March stop, which the department released after the shooting, Gaines was stopped when an officer saw that in place of a license plate she had a piece of cardboard on her vehicle. The cardboard declared, “Any Government official who compromises this pursuit to happiness and right to travel, will be criminally responsible and fined, as this is a natural right and freedom.”

So she was a Sovereign Citizen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_citizen_movement)? http://heavy.com/news/2016/08/korryn-gaines-instagram-videos... quotes her spouting more of the sovereign citizen legal gobbledegook. Apparently there's even a black version of all this stuff: http://www.rawstory.com/2014/08/sovereign-citizens-express-f...

[+] rahimnathwani|9 years ago|reply
"quotes her spouting more of the sovereign citizen legal gobbledegook"

It's sad that the top comment on this thread is just name-calling.

Why do you consider her views to be 'gobbledegook'?

[+] bmmayer1|9 years ago|reply
Why does it matter? Having a cardboard license plate and an uncommon political belief doesn't make someone deserve to die.
[+] tamana|9 years ago|reply
It's not gobbledygook to disagree with the government. (Is the Declaration of Independence gobbledygook?) It's only gobbledygook if you expect a police officer or court to be persuaded by your reasoning. Gaines defended her sovereignty with her gun, just like the US and MD government does. Unfortunately for her, the MD government used it's guns more preemptively, aggressively, and effectively.
[+] Overtonwindow|9 years ago|reply
I think this is a very unfortunate situation, but the thought of Facebook disabling her account at the behest of the police, that doesn't feel right. We seen that we cannot always trust the police perspective in shootings, so instead of disabling the account, perhaps Facebook should have instead continue to record the feed but disable the comments.
[+] 2bitencryption|9 years ago|reply
"Mr. Zuckerberg sir, an incredibly violent and hostile individual with a gun is livestreaming a standoff with the police. It's very likely this livestream will involve somebody brutally dying or getting horrible maimed. Also, this stream could jeopardize an important police operation underway to neutralize this dangerous person. Should we pull the stream?"

"No! Of course not! The internet is the land of Freedom! Hosting this content isn't bad for us at all!"

[+] dogma1138|9 years ago|reply
Why not? cutting off the lines of communication is pretty standard procedures in standoff situations.

Before cellphones they would just cut the landlines, I don't understand why they couldn't just use a jammer to cut her off instead of going to facebook but putting a media blackout on such situations isn't wrong.

[+] nness|9 years ago|reply
If you think about it from Facebook's perspective though, do you really want to be responsible for broadcasting a video where the women, her child or a police officer is shot or killed on camera?
[+] donatj|9 years ago|reply
A [dead] poster commented this, but I think it bears repeating that there is an ACLU app specifically for recording police. [1]

I'd personally trust that far more than Facebook.

[1] https://www.aclu.org/feature/aclu-apps-record-police-conduct

[+] erdevs|9 years ago|reply
This is a great reminder, thanks.

Slight concern that the developer on ACLU's behalf is something called Quadrant 2, Inc, which seems to be owned by an individual operator as opposed to a larger established company. Not sure what the company's track record or policies are.

But just an aside there. This is cool to see and great to have as a reminder.

[+] ben_jones|9 years ago|reply
This is going to get upvoted because of the title, I really hope that people read the actual article before posting. The worst part is that this women put her children in extreme danger and had a history of instigating police and threatening extreme violence through social media.

Furthermore others on social media actively encouraged her violence which directly led to her death and serious injury to her children. It reminds me most of the school shooting in Oregon where the attacker was actively encouraged on internet forums to commit the act. Though like in that incident I think this women would have acted the same regardless.

[+] thelock85|9 years ago|reply
An alternate explanation is a woman was protecting her child from a threat --real, perceived or otherwise. Poor choice? Probably. But I think you've only explored one side of the story and a lot more information has become available in the last 12 hours.
[+] duaneb|9 years ago|reply
I would advise avoiding commenting on how people vote. It is never interesting compared to just watching what happens.
[+] Kenji|9 years ago|reply
I wonder if there was a way to resolve this standoff without her death. I.e. letting her shoot all the shotgun shells she has, or just waiting until she gets tired and slips up, gets hungry, etc. Yeah, it requires a lot of patience but hey, you can save a human life. I don't think she would have harmed her kid so waiting in cover seems like a relatively safe thing to do?
[+] wildmusings|9 years ago|reply
Someone shooting at the police is a clear and present danger to everyone's life and needs to be neutralized as quickly as possible. "Letting her shoot all the shells she had" sounds like a cute scene in a movie, not reality. You don't know what the shells will be able to penetrate, whether bystanders in nearby apartments or on the street are at danger, etc. The preservation of her life stopped being a concern when she pulled a deadly weapon and most certainly when she opened fire.
[+] forkwhilefork|9 years ago|reply
Agreed. Especially if you consider that she was originally being served a warrant for a relatively minor offense, which she hadn't even been convicted of.
[+] lighttower|9 years ago|reply
Absolutely right. They have all day and night she needs food and sleep.
[+] pjc50|9 years ago|reply
Sadly this is pretty much the one situation where, once negotiation has been exhausted, it is necessary to shoot the person holding the gun.

Even in the UK with its very low use of police gunfire (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/uk-police-shoo... - seven shootings out of ~12,500 incidents involving firearm officers) have done this on a few occasions involving sieges.

It's all the other incidents we should be concerned about.

[+] _audakel|9 years ago|reply
if police are about to shoot, and have good cause to, then it would seem reasonable that they be allowed to use sleep gas or tranquilizer, similar to what doctors use during operation. Seems better than killing them.

Downside could be lawsuites against the police for "damages" that the sleep gas caused.

[+] williamscales|9 years ago|reply
This seems entirely appropriate. It would be consistent with the practice of news outlets sometimes not showing an ongoing police operation live.
[+] erdevs|9 years ago|reply
What is the rationale for news outlets not showing an ongoing police operation? Is it so that the suspects / perpetrators can't use the external information against the police? If so, does that rationale applicable when it is the suspect / perpetrator broadcast their own available information?

I don't know the background for these policies, so asking the first question non-rhetorically.

[+] gpm|9 years ago|reply
The normal justification (the only I've heard) for that is you don't want to give the suspects an advantage. Clearly that justification doesn't apply when the suspect is the one livestreaming it.

Can you give another justification?

[+] NeutronBoy|9 years ago|reply
Agreed - why would social media be treated any differently than disconnecting phone lines or mobile phones during standoffs and negotiations?
[+] clarkmoody|9 years ago|reply
Also, using a police scanner while committing a crime carries an additional penalty in certain jurisdictions. Probably along the same lines as far as rationale goes.
[+] chendies|9 years ago|reply
The ACLU has an app that can be used to record police encounters. Fortunately, the ACLU won't be shutting it off at the police request.
[+] microcolonel|9 years ago|reply
>“She was intelligent, strong, determined, beautiful. She was a dedicated mother, an awesome friend. She was determined to enlighten people. There’s not enough accolades I can give her,”

A mother determined to endanger the life of her son in a firefight with police. Though it seems it may not have been her fault that she turned out that way. Quite sad.

[+] cloudjacker|9 years ago|reply
Right, she sued over lead in water and so far seems to be a very accurate assessment of her deteriorating mental health by the time of encounter.

If some police departments can deliver bombs via drones, maybe warrants can be too!

[+] erikpukinskis|9 years ago|reply
My first thought was they are trying to prevent a similar situation to Antonio Perkins in June:

http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2016/06/17/man-shot-killed-whil...

Where he was live streaming to Facebook while being shot by police. If the police can prevent streams like these from being seen, it gives them a huge legal advantage. It means the public won't be able to see what happened and can't put political pressure on DAs to prosecute cops. It's much better for them if they can keep that footage internal to Facebook, the police force, and the DA if at all possible.

Very smart.

[+] nolepointer|9 years ago|reply
Considering her followers were encouraging her to not give in to police demands, this was entirely justified.
[+] MichaelGG|9 years ago|reply
Police aren't allowed to jam cell phones, so why should they be allowed to do this? Making the cops' jobs easier isn't something that always benefits society. (I'm totally for the cops in this case, but still they shouldn't be able to censor like this.)
[+] erdevs|9 years ago|reply
I think this is a good point. I wonder if livestreams could be enabled but perhaps comments/feedback could be disabled or invisible to the poster. This could also address concerns that external viewers might feed a suspect/perpetrator intel on the police operation which might impinge their efficacy in an already difficult notice.
[+] rwallace|9 years ago|reply
This incident didn't really have anything to do with Facebook. The cause was buried in an offhand remark in the middle of the article: apparently the woman's behavior was a result of brain damage from lead paint. The headline should have been 'Lead paint claims yet another victim'.
[+] codezero|9 years ago|reply
I'm curious if the police would have entered and shot at her if they couldn't get the live stream shut down.
[+] tonmoy|9 years ago|reply
Couldn't they have just cut the Internet for the place and block her cell phone?
[+] catuskoti|9 years ago|reply

[deleted]

[+] wildmusings|9 years ago|reply
Are you kidding me? She was shooting at police in order to resist arrest. This is about as justified as it gets.