Brickbat: Take a Picture, but Don't Keep It

Police in Montreal are asking residents not to post photos of porch pirates captured by their doorbell cameras to social media. They say even thieves caught in the act deserve the presumption of innocence. They ask that the public, instead, turn the photos over to police. One local resident said she tried that before posting the images of the person who stole a ceramic dog from her porch to the Internet. "They have his license plate. They have him on camera taking the dog, putting it in his car," Ania Szpakowski told CTV. "I still don't have it back."

Comments

[Vernon Depner]

Criminals of Color need to be kept safe from justice and vigilantism. If you don't agree you're a racist Nazi.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Weird. This first was reported a few months back. The article itself is recent, thus the recent brickbat. Maybe the newspaper saw an opportunity to nudge the police to get off their collective butts.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Police add that as frustrating as it might be, even potential perpetrators have a right to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

Lol. If police actually thought that...

[Mickey Rat]

But photo evidence of them committing a crime is proof of guilt.

Perhaps there is some explanation in context, but largely not.

[YehoshuaK]

The best version I can come up with of what the police are saying is this:

"This person may and hopefully will be arrested and brought to trial. If future jurors have seen pictures of him lifting packages from your porch, they will be unable to be impartial, and it may be difficult or impossible to give him a fair trial. In which case he'll get to walk free.

"Help us put him away by saving this valid and legitimate evidence for the venue where it will do the most good--the trial."

I'm not at all sure that's what they do mean, you understand.

[Bubba Jones]

Because those videos aren't going to be submitted as evidence?

[mad.casual]

If police actually thought that...

Police? Trump was guilty by virtue of Alvin Bragg running for office and nearly 50% of the country agrees.

Canada freezes people's bank accounts for being tangentially financially related to an actually peaceful, noncriminal protest.

Even large swaths of these forums operate on a "People are guilty unless I say so, even if that means spending untold amounts of other people's money to enforce my will."

The whole notion of every "There ought to be a law..." implies "... enforced at the point of a gun." died in 2016 and again in 2020.

[sarcasmic]

"They have his license plate. They have him on camera taking the dog, putting it in his car," Ania Szpakowski told CTV. "I still don't have it back."

She thinks the police investigate crimes with victims? Ain't that precious. She should have told them she kept her stash in the dog. Then they'd have hunted it down right quick, so they could arrest her.

[Don't look at me!]

Poor sarc.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Cops in US would likely find the dog just so that they could shoot it.

[Medulla Oblongata]

"Asked if Quebecers have the right to record and post footage from their own home — including footage of people taking something from their property — the police service told The Canadian Press: “Since your question is regarding a possible interpretation on a part of the Quebec civil code, we have to refer you to a civil law lawyer.”

Canadian wimps...we had this awhile back, too.

"Toronto police Const. Marco Ricciardi advises attendees at a community meeting in Toronto’s Etobicoke neighbourhood in February to put key fobs at their front door, but not beyond it: “To prevent the possibility of being attacked in your home, leave your fobs at your front door — because they’re breaking into your home to steal your car. They don’t want anything else.”

[Ajsloss]

And women, don't wear panties under your skirts because it just gets in the way when you're being raped.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Seems like diversity only goes one way...don't blaspheme Islam in the name of diversity, but Islam is not respectful of the diversity to *not* gang rape young girls (but the police will respect your cultural needs to rape young girls).

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/02/03/its-official-islamic-blasphemy-laws-have-come-to-britain/

A man was arrested at the weekend after allegedly burning a copy of the Koran – no, not in Iran or in Saudi Arabia, but in Manchester, in the UK. Apparently, it can now be a criminal offence in 21st-century Britain to express your distaste for a seventh-century religion.

The arrest followed a livestream on social media that appeared to show a 47-year-old man setting light to the Koran, page by page, on Saturday. This was just two days after Salwan Momika, an Iraqi atheist, was assassinated in Sweden, seemingly as punishment for burning copies of the Muslim holy book in public.

You might have imagined that in a modern, liberal democracy such as Britain that blaspheming against a religious text would be none of the police’s business. After all, laws criminalising blasphemy against Christianity were officially repealed in England and Wales in 2008, with the last successful blasphemy conviction obtained in 1977. But the old crime of blasphemy has been slowly replaced with a new raft of criminal offences against so-called hate speech.

According to Greater Manchester Police, the alleged Koran burner was arrested under suspicion of a ‘racially aggravated public-order offence’. Assistant chief constable Stephanie Parker told GB News that police felt compelled to make a ‘swift arrest’, fearing the livestream could cause ‘deep concern… within some of our diverse communities’. The modern language of diversity and multiculturalism disguises the medievalism of the decree that’s being enforced.

[mad.casual]

Again:
July 10, 2023- Iran accuses Iraqi [sic] refugee who burned Quran in Sweden of working for Israeli Mossad

January 30, 2025- Sweden's PM admits 'we've lost control' as man who burned Koran is assassinated during live stream - with 'foreign power' feared to be behind the hit amid gang violence and gun crime sweeping country

Reasonably Retared Magazine: MUH OPEN BORDURZ!

[Rick James]

Prosecutor Rasmus Oman confirmed that an investigation had been opened into the murder of Momika and that five people had been arrested.

I'm trying to confirm, but this seems like a mobius strip of Muslim immigration.

[Jerry B.]

Waiting for the "Funniest Porch Pirates" reality show on Fox.

[Independence]

What kind of Woke nonsense is that? There is no constitutional law that gives the police any special authority limiting what you can post online. In fact, "Wanted" posters are in post offices! Booking photos are regularly posted by sheriff departments. Good for you for attempting to bring justice to your community.

[ElrondPA]

This is in Britain, not the U.S. The First Amendment doesn't apply. The contours of free speech are less clearly defined, and more vulnerable to government encroachment.

[Rossami]

"Presumption of innocence" does not mean "ignore the evidence against me".

[jimc5499]

Isn't this the same group that advised people to leave their car keys in plain sight to make it easier on car thieves who break into houses?

Sounds like they are taking lessons from Pennsylvania. A few years ago there was a bunch of car thefts. People would start their cars and leave them running to warm up. Thieves would then steal the car. Instead of doing something about the thieves, they made it illegal to leave a car running unattended.

[Rick James]

Same here. You're witnessing the decline of western civilization. We're a failed state and culture. It's what's known as "anarcho-tyranny". Your border doesn't matter-- it's just a social construct, but you'll be forced to pay for and provide welfare, housing and healthcare to everyone that crosses it. The police won't respond to or even investigate crime, but you'll be thrown in jail if you try to defend yourself. There's a homeless camp with chemicals, human waste, motor oil and brake fluid pouring into a creek bed, but you'll receive a citation if your dog is off-leash.

[mad.casual]

Kyle Rittenhouse [clearly and unambiguously puts out a literal dumpster fire and defends self against 3 attackers]
Right/Normal Thinkers: Fuck yeah!
"Progressives": White patriarchal tyranny!

Luigi Mangione [clearly and unambiguously shoots unarmed and unsuspecting victim in the back multiple times]
"Progressives": Fuck yeah!
Right/Normal Thinkers: That's all the way fucked up.

[Rick James]

Why does a photo of someone stealing a package suggest they don't have the 'presumption of innocence".

1. Here's a photo of some dude... stealing my packages.
2. John Smith of 2237 Maple Leaf Lane was found guilty of the theft of packages from the porch of Mary Ann Watterson of Surrey, BC.

Those two things are separate events.

[Winston in Wonderland]

I don't believe that anybody acting in public space has a right to privacy. Certainly, they have no right to privacy if they are on my porch stealing my stuff.

[Tamfang]

Compromise: publish the pic, but with a note that of course we must presume that they're stealing the stuff in a totally lawful way.

[Livemike]

They have the right to presumption of innocence _in court_ not in society. They don't have the right to censor bad information about them until it's presented to a jury, which would only happen if the police did their jobs.