>> Philly Hate Crime Suspects Tracked Down by Anonymous Twitter Hero
Nous sommes dans la soirée du jeudi 11 septembre. Un couple homosexuel se balade dans les rues de Philadelphie lorsqu’un groupe d’une dizaine de jeunes interpelle les deux hommes en les questionnant sur leur orientation sexuelle. Ils les insultent et les assaillent de coups à la tête, au visage et à la poitrine avant de s’enfuir.
Cependant, une caméra de vidéosurveillance du quartier filme la scène. La police locale récupère la vidéo et la poste sur son compte Youtube à la recherche de témoins qui pourraient identifier ces personnes.
La suite de l’histoire est surréaliste.
Philly hate crime: pic.twitter.com/i3PBprO9nn
— Greg Bennett (@GreggyBennett) 17 Septembre 2014
Un utilisateur de Twitter, @GreggyBennett, publie une photo postée plus tôt sur Facebook. Des jeunes en train de dîner dans un restaurant.
« L’ami d’un ami d’un ami a vu mon tweet avec le lien de la vidéo. Il m’a envoyé la photo, je voulais passer le mot », explique-t-il.
Son tweet est retweeté par @FanSince09 qui demande à ceux qui le suivent s’ils reconnaissent le restaurant.
@FanSince09 utilise ensuite le moteur de recherche interne de Facebook, Graph Search, pour tenter de retrouver les récents clients du restaurant.
Certains jeunes s’étaient géolocalisés. @FanSince09 remet les noms à la police qui les contacte. Certains avaient déjà pris un avocat. Un officier de police se félicite de cette coopération. « Vous m’avez facilité le travail ».
Actualisé le 29 sept. : Les trois principaux suspects se sont finalement rendus à la police
Parmi eux, c’est Kathryn Knott qui focalise l’attention des médias. Il faut dire que la ravissante blonde de 24 ans n’a pas vraiment le profil du casseur de pédé lambda. Elle est la fille d’un chef de police local et travaille comme urgentiste. Et pourtant, elle a été filmée alors qu’elle hurlait «faggots!» («pédales!») au couple et donnait un coup de poing au visage de l’un d’eux.
En s’intéressant au compte Twitter de la jeune furie, les médias américains (et particulièrement la blogosphère gay) ont ouvert la boîte de Pandore. Non seulement Kathryn y distillait régulièrement des remarques et des blagues homophobes, mais elle y célébrait aussi ses cuites à répétition. Au boulot, la technicienne de salle d’opération partageait également des photos de patients agrémentés de commentaires humoristiques. Une faute professionnelle qui lui a valu d’être licenciée sur-le-champ. L’hôpital pourrait porter plainte contre son ex-employée.
>> The suspects in a violent gang assault on two gay men in Philadelphia have apparently been located by an anonymous Twitter sleuth from Jersey. The victims, who haven’t been publicly identified, were walking in Center City around 10:45 p.m. on September 11 when they came face-to-face with a large, clean-cut-looking group of white men and women in their early 20s. Someone in the group asked if the men were « boyfriends, » according to police, and made « disparaging remarks » about gay people before attacking the victims, kicking them in the head, chest and face. One of the men had to undergo surgery and have his jaw wired shut; the other suffered bone fractures and cuts to his face. As the group was fleeing the scene, one of them also stole a bag one of the victims had dropped on the ground.
Police released the above video of the group yesterday.
This next part is astonishing, in the best of ways. A Twitter user named Greg Bennett posted a photo of a group posing at a restaurant who look an awful lot like some of the suspects in the video.
Bennett tweeted that he’d gotten the photo from « a friend of a friend of a friend, » but didn’t know where it was taken. That’s where another Twitter user stepped in: FanSince09, a diehard Eagles fan who apparently lives in South Jersey. Fan retweeted the photo; almost immediately, he got a torrent of responses from people telling him the restaurant was La Viola, an Italian place in Center City. He tweeted that he ID’d most of the people in the photo by checking their Facebook check-ins:
Then, he called the cops. They are, as you might imagine, pretty goddamn excited. Philadelphia police officer Joe Murray sent a series of tweets indicating that Fan had cracked the case:
He added, though, that no arrests have been made tonight:
Meanwhile, reporter Kenneth Moton at ABC 6 said at 11 p.m. that the news station had learned that some of the suspects — we don’t know how many — have already retained lawyers, who were calling the police to make « arrangements, » which sounds like a plan to surrender voluntarily, before warrants are issued for their arrest.
Fan tweeted that if he receives the $10,000 reward that’s been promised for the capture of these suspects, he’d donate half to LGBT charities.
>> Three suspects — including the daughter of an area police chief — have turned themselves in to authorities in connection with the assault on a same-sex couple in Philadelphia earlier this month.
Yesterday, police announced charges against Kathryn Knott, 24, Philip Williams, 24, and Kevin Harrigan, 26, in relation to the September 11 attack, with each suspect facing two counts of aggravated assualt, two counts of simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, and criminal conspiracy. All three are residents of nearby Bucks County, Pa.
Knott is the daughter of Chalfont Borough police chief Karl Knott, according to WPVI TV.
In a case that’s already seen social media used to help identify the suspects, the arrest of a police chief’s daughter has prompted an eruption of commentary. LGBT writer and activist Scott Wooledge searched through Knott’s Twitter account, then posted a Storify collection of Knott’s most hateful, intolerant tweets, highlighting her apparent homophobia, xenophobia, and penchant for excessive drinking.
BuzzFeed reported Wednesday afternoon that Knott has been suspended from her job as an Emergency Room technician at a hospital owned by Abington Health. A statement from the hospital confirmed that Knott had worked there since 2011, but was suspended due to her connection with the antigay assault, and upon the discovery that several of her tweets — including images of an x-ray and severed fingers — may have violated privacy laws.
Witnesses and victims have said the attack involved as many as 15 « clean-cut, well-dressed » individuals, who allegedly directed antigay slurs at a male couple as they beat the men so severely that both spent time in the hospital, while one of the victims had to have his jaw wired shut.
Attorneys for Knott and Williams have both claimed that their clients are innocent, alleging that the confrontation was a dispute started by the gay couple and that the suspects acted in self-defense, reports Philadelphia’s KYW TV.
While there is evidence that the men were attacked because of their sexual orientation, Pennsylvania law does not recognize attacks motivated by sexual orientation or gender identity as hate crimes. While state politicians and civil rights groups are calling on legislators to pass a stalled bill that would make the law more inclusive, some residents — including a Philadelphia City Council member — have asked the federal Department of Justice to investigate, in hopes of bringing hate-crime charges against the assailants, as federal law does cover antigay attacks. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is aware of the case, but has not decided whether to take additional action, reporrts NewsWorks.
The victims, who have asked to remain anonymous, released the following statement to media Wednesday: « Thank you to the community for their help and support, as well as the Detectives who did a great job gathering details. We are thankful the DA is working so hard to make sure this doesn’t happen again in Philadelphia. »
franceinfo.fr avec 360.ch
