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The Internet Is Now Part of the Crime Scene

Posted by samzenpus on from the looking-back dept.

theodp (442580) writes "Over at Forbes, Kashmir Hill examines the disturbing Internet footprint of Santa Barbara shooter Elliot Rodger. 'A decade ago,' observes TechCrunch's John Biggs in The Internet Is Now Part Of The Crime Scene, 'a crime scene was a photo and a report. Now it is a sea of interconnected tracings, the murderer bobbing loosely in social media and the forums. We can watch him make his way through these straits, we can watch the madness growing, and we can watch his terrible end, all through murk of media. We are quick to judge and we are quick to look at his wake and say, definitively, that he was this or he was that. He was frustrated. The frustration grew. He went to a place he thought would help. It didn't.'"

18 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Nobody move a finger! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is official police business. Ctrl-Z and wait to be questioned.

    1. Re:Nobody move a finger! by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 4, Interesting

      OT but a little funny: this reminds me of a time when I was a vax/vms guy and working with a hardcore unix (ultrix) guy. I was in good old EDT editor (remember that?) and asked the guy for some help on something. he came over to my terminal, hit ctl-z (thinking it would just put my current job in the bg) but, in fact, in EDT editor ctl-z SAVES THE FILE AND EXITS!

      oops. he felt embarassed, as well he should have. I was not an emacs guy at that point, yet...

      never walk up to someone's terminal and just hit ctl-z. never go full retard, either.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  2. the crime scene is still... by gl4ss · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ..the places where he made the shootings and possibly where he prepared.

    the internet is not a "crime scene"(for this) any more than the postal system and newspaper opinion pieces were 30 years ago..

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    1. Re:the crime scene is still... by Nidi62 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly. I don't see how this is any different than interviewing a person's neighbors, family, coworkers like they did 15 years ago (and still do now). Or reading the person's journal, or notes or manifesto they left behind. The only difference is that these were private, whereas now anyone can post whatever they like on the internet for people to see. But youtube or blogs are essentially nothing more than the 21st century version of the manifesto or suicide note.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  3. Double-Edged Sword by Jason+Levine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Like pretty much any invention mankind has ever come up with, the Internet can help or hurt. If someone is feeling upset over something, they can turn to friends online for help and can get assistance, support, and guidance through their troubled times. Or, if they aren't as lucky or don't look in the right places, they can find abuse hurled at them, idiots saying "Why don't you just kill yourself" and the like, or an echo chamber where particular prejudices are amplified and focused against Group X being the cause of all of the person's problems.

    This isn't really that different from a distraught person seeking help from others via face-to-face social interaction except that the "kill yourself" jerks are probably somewhat less likely to say that to a person's face. Then again, some people I've met in person don't seem to care at all if what they say/do hurts another person. In fact, they consider hurting another person as "harmless fun." These people would be jerks even if the Internet had never existed.

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  4. Can we stop talking about the killers yet? by Nidi62 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No wonder people keep committing mass killings: they see the people that killed before them and see someone who was invisible, that no one paid attention to, become a household name. How many people here know the name of the person that shot up Sandy Hook, or the Colorado movie theater, this guy, or Columbine? Now, name me some of their vicitms? You can't. People that feel unstable, or feel marginalized and that no one ever notices them or cares about them, they already need mental help. If they turn to the internet, post videos on youtube or write blogs, they get pushed over the edge even more when no one watches their video, or people write negative comments. They get to the point where the only way to get noticed is to start killing people. If they do that they become famous, everyone starts talking about them. When you see yourself as only something they might see killing as the only way to become someone. Stop publishing the names of these killers, stop implicitly glorifying these people, and killings will drop. We also need to improve mental health treatment in the country, but that's a whole other topic.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    1. Re:Can we stop talking about the killers yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not talking about it will not prevent it from happening again.

    2. Re:Can we stop talking about the killers yet? by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Insightful

      One of them (Adam Lanza) I remember only because the media started going crazy with "He had Asperger's which made him shoot everyone up." As someone with Asperger's Syndrome and as the father of a boy with Asperger's this struck a nerve. People with Asperger's aren't more likely to commit violent acts than neurotypical (non-Autistic) people. In fact, they are more likely to be the recipients of violence. If they do become violent, they are more likely to hurt themselves than others and even if they hurt others it will be in an unplanned out lashing out (e.g. swinging arms because they are upset and happening to hit someone), not a carefully planned out event like these mass killings were. But, unfortunately, the media loves a simple "reason" and seized on Asperger's as "the cause." The whole affair burned Lanza's name into my memory. So it wasn't his actions that cause me to remember him but the media missteps in reporting his actions.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    3. Re:Can we stop talking about the killers yet? by HornWumpus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      At their core these are suicides. Suicide is contagious.

      Right now there are people on the edge of nutting up that are watching the attention this fuckwit is getting and thinking about it...

      It's the same the world over, in Germany 'Ghost Drivers' (murderous suicides that go the wrong way on the autobahn) happen in streaks.

      Reporters feed this problem. They have suggested advice (don't repeat the jackass' name constantly, report other things; don't focus on the killer.) but don't follow it.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  5. The bigger story by rolfwind · · Score: 3, Interesting

    is to congratulate the NSA and FBI on what a fine job they are doing spying on us. How safe they kept us with ever intrusive nets. That they can't even catch a kid whose own relatives called the police on him worried and posted out in the open that he'll kill people.

    And then they go on how they need more powers to protect us. Yeah, right, more like to control the populace.

    Congratulations Law Enforcement. Awesome work.

    1. Re:The bigger story by spire3661 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The NSA isnt WATCHING, they are RECORDING and STORING for later use. Its a very different game.

      --
      Good-bye
    2. Re:The bigger story by ganjadude · · Score: 4, Insightful

      really? because I would wager that a number of us here have been shit on for a large portion of our lives, being the geeks and nerds and all. Ive never killed anyone

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    3. Re:The bigger story by onkelonkel · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This is what narcissistic psychopaths do; they blame other people for their own problems. Girls don't want to go out with me. It's clearly their problem, nothing to do with me, so I will kill them all.

      --
      None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
  6. What kind of dating approach by Deadstick · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...will never get you a date if you (a) are a fairly nice-looking kid, (b) drive a BMW, and (c) have a father who employs actresses?

    About the only one I can think of is "Let me tell you about Amway".

    1. Re:What kind of dating approach by mpe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      From what I have gathered, he didn't even speak to them. He simply expected them to come up to him and lust after his cock or something. It is really bizarre. He had no social skills *at all*,

      Possibly because that's how things looked to him. Any skil set (including "social skills") can look like magic to someone who does not posess it. Quite a bit of social interaction, including sexual, is "non-verbal". (Sexual encounters which involve little even no verbal communication certainly do happen.) People with good non-verbal communication skills are often less conciously aware of non-verbal communication than those who are poor at non-verbal communication. With the former even assuming that all communication is verbal.

      which seems to have been the result of him being awkward around the time high school started and him retreating into video games, mainly WoW.

      More likely this was a reaction to his lack of social skills. Whilst the lack of a non verbal communication channel, in text based chat, is often considered a handicap this dosn't tend to be the case people who have difficulty with non verbal communication. Especially if their non verbal illiteracy means they are effectivly sending out "noise".
      Being verbally literate but non verbally illiterate appears to be especially confusing to the verbally and non verbally literate majority.
      In Western cultures, possibly others, whilst verbal communication is typically taught to both children and adults non verbal communication typically isn't.

    2. Re:What kind of dating approach by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Given that this idiot was still stewing over not getting to go on a carnival ride with his friends 16 years after the fact (apparently, the little shit was too short to meet the minimum height requirement - you remember those "you must be this tall to ride this ride" signs), I can well believe he came across as a whackjob.

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  7. A: Because it breaks the flow of a message by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4

    Q: Why is starting a comment in the Subject: line incredibly irritating?

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  8. Shooter? The first 3 deaths were stabbings by schwit1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    He killed 3 with a knife and 3 with a legally purchased firearm. He also tried to kill others with his car.