Friday 24 June 2011

What kind of apology is this?

Ms. Camille Cacnio was one of the rioters who helped tear apart downtown Vancouver during the riot after Vancouver’s home hockey team lost to the Bruins in June 2011. She was caught on camera as she participated in the riot while exiting a store whose front windows were smashed in after stealing some men's pants. The video of her actions was posted on youtube.com, and she was identified and exposed by publicshamingeternus. Once her involvement was publicly exposed, she went to the police and confessed her role in the riot. Since then, she has released the following letter which was published by the Vancouver Sun. It is posted here in its entirety. I will give you my thoughts about this young woman’s apology at various parts of her apology in italics.

I am not proud of my actions and have made a visit to the Vancouver Police Department, over the weekend to turn myself in.

She only turned herself in because she knew that sooner or later, the police would be at her door since they knew who she was and had pictures of her exiting a store that looters had entered. No doubt she was aware that suspects who turn themselves in to the police know that it has a bearing on the kind of sentence they will get. There is no doubt in my mind that had her picture not been publicly displayed of her exiting the looted store, she would not have gone to the police and confessed her role in the riot.

This blog will serve as a public apology to those that I have offended with my actions, to clarify certain issues, and to address a few peripheral issues that I take as a concern.

I apologize to the City of Vancouver for participating in this riot. I apologize to my friends and family that have been affected by my actions. I apologize to the Canucks (Vancouver hockey team) for reacting in a way that is unsportsmanlike. I apologize to Black & Lee, (the looted store) its employees, and all the customers who have been affected by my actions.

I apologize to Burrard Acura, my managers, my coworkers and its customers. In no way, shape or form does Burrard Acura condone this type of violence or misconduct. It is not necessary to associate my actions with the good reputation of Burrard Acura.

If she is sincere about her apology to her employer and its customers, she should have resigned from the firm because if she remained with the firm, she would be a constant reminder to her employer, her fellow employees and the customers that she is a thief.

I apologize to Enspire Foundation, its’ volunteers, sponsors and supporters. Enspire Foundation is a reputable non-profit organization that does not condone violence or misconduct behaviour in any way, shape or form. To additionally make things clear, I have not been active with Enspire for quite some time now, so there is no need to associate my actions with the integrity of Enspire Foundation.

Enspire’s activities have progressed from conducting soup kitchens, organizing mini-fundraisers and sponsoring the education of children in developing countries to providing life-changing volunteer opportunities for students and young professionals in a developing country.

I doubt that the people in Enspire will ever want this young woman back.

I apologize to UBC Athletics and Recreation and to the UBC Rowing Team, the coaches, the athletes, my co-workers and manager, its other employees, its participants and its clients. In no way, shape or form does UBC Athletics or the UBC Rowing team condone violence or misconduct, and should thus not be associated with my actions. To additionally clarify, I have not been a part of the UBC Rowing Team at all during the last term.

Since she hasn’t participated in the University of British Columbia’s activities and is now known as a looter, it is unlikely that she will be welcomed back in those activities.

Lastly, I apologize to the Faculty of Science. The faculty of science in no way, shape or form condones violence or misconduct. My actions should not be reflective of the good research and work that they have performed.

Why hasn’t she apologized to all Canadians who don’t condone rioting and looting since all Canadians (except her kind) are embarrassed at what she and the other thugs did during the riot? We as a nation have been internationally besmirched by the actions of her and the other rioters.


I know a lot of you don’t believe me, but the truth is that I take full responsibility for my actions and am sincerely apologetic for what I did.

Of course she takes full responsibility for what she did just as a kid who is caught with his hand in the cookie jar has no other choice but to take full responsibility for what the kid has done. But ask yourself this rhetorical question. Would she take full responsibility for what she had done if she hadn’t been previously outed? She is a scofflaw. (mocking us)

What I did was completely out of character for me, but I did it because I was influenced by mob mentality.

Mob mentality refers to the behavioral tendency of people to act in unison with the group of which they are a part. Law abiding people don’t act in unison with a mob bent on rioting, looting, vandalism and arson. Obviously, she was bent on looting a store during the rioting. There were many onlookers at the rioting scenes who did nothing but watch what was going on. Many even took pictures of the rioters and looters which eventually brought Ms. Cacnio face to everyone’s attention.

Honest, law-biding and decent citizens don’t act in unison with thugs who riot and loot stores etc. I don’t think her actions were out of character at all.

How can she blame the thugs on the street for her own actions? She wasn’t dragged into the store she looted and ordered at gun-point to steal the men’s pants.


Why don’t I think I deserve all this treatment? Because for one, I’ve admitted to my mistakes, two, I am ready to deal with the consequences in a judicial manner, and three, because (may I remind you that) I am responsible for theft – a fairly minor action compared to vandalism and arson.

I can only assume that the treatment she is referring to is the bad publicity that she is facing.

She claims that her responsibility for her theft of the goods from the store she and others looted is fairly minor. That is an outrageous statement to make. Looting during a riot is a very serious crime. Imagine if you will, being a store owner and learning that your store windows have been smashed and your goods stolen from the store. Would you think of the theft of several pairs of pants as a minor action on the part of one of the looters? I hardly think so.

Please remember and understand that I am not responsible for the riot.

Everyone who participates in a riot, no matter how minor their participation may be, is responsible for the riot. Ms. Cacnio used the riot as an opportunity to do what she really wanted to do and that is loot a store. Vandalism and arson are serious crimes and looting a store is also a serious crime. If a store loses hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods during a looting spree, is the cost to the store owner and his or her insurance company not to be taken seriously? And what about the store employees who are then out of work while the store tries to get back to what it was before? Do they not also suffer from the actions of looters?

I did not vandalize any buildings.
I did not set fire on anything.
I did not break any glass.
I did not instigate the riot.
I did not physically harm anybody.
I did not jump on any cop cars.
I did not even plan on being in the riot.

That may be but she looted a store. She may not have originally planned to be in the riot but once it started, she definitely planned to be part of the riot.

On any regular day I would not condone looting.

There she goes again, blaming her actions on mob mentality.

However, at the time of the riot, everything just seemed so right. I was fiving just about everybody. In the same way that everybody enjoyed collectively showing pride in our team, it was enjoyable to express my disappointment in a collective manner.

It is OK to express one’s disappointment in their team’s performance but actively participating in a riot by looting a store is not the way to do it and at the same time, enjoying doing it.

I had no intentions of defiling the city. I love Vancouver as much as you do – I’ve lived here since I was 7 months old. But in my immature perspective, all I saw was that the riot was happening, and would continue happening with or without me, so I might as well get my adrenaline fix.

How can she claim that she had no intention of defiling Vancouver when she knew that the scenes and stories of the riot would circulate all over the world and besmirch the good name of Vancouver and Canada at the same time?

I suppose many people would get an adrenaline fix while participating in a lynching even if the lynching went on with or without them but that wouldn’t justify their participation in the lynching. Most of us can get an adrenaline fix without having to participate in a riot and loot a store.

And what was going on my head about the stealing? As bad as it sounds, the stealing was purely fun for me. I had no intentions with the product. I just wanted to get a souvenir at the time. I took two sized 42 men’s dress pants. I’m a woman’s size 6-8. I don’t have any brothers, cousins, boyfriends, fathers, grandfathers or anything else of the like that are size 42 in men’s. I did not plan on selling them either.

If a jewelry store was being looted during the riot and she was standing right next to it, would she enter it and steal a twenty-thousand dollar diamond ring just for the fun of it and keep it as a souvenir of her participation in the riot of June 2011? Even if she was afraid to wear it lest she be found out, that excuse of hers is about as weak as a newborn baby.

I’m a UBC student and an adult. Shouldn’t I know the difference between wrong and right? Well yes, I should…but in certain circumstances our perspectives get seriously skewed.

How much brain power does a young adult who is smart enough to go to university need to have while knowing that looting in a riot is definitely wrong? Admittedly, there have been circumstances when looting may have seemed justifiable to looters. I am thinking of the Earthquake in Haiti in which looters ransacked food stores because they believed (and rightly so) that there would be an extreme shortage of food immediately after the earthquake. But stealing several pairs of men’s pants from a looted store cannot be justified in a city such as Vancouver or any other community during a riot.

Christopher Schneider, assistant professor of sociology at UBC, said in his recent quote in the Vancouver Sun.


“When the riot started unfolding …you have a lot of law-abiding citizens hanging around downtown who otherwise would’ve got out of Dodge…When you have a mob or riot-like activity, individual accountability tends to go out the window. People see other people setting fires and they think, ‘I’m going to set a fire too, and I won’t get caught.’ These types of people typically wouldn’t set a fire on their own.” unquote

Obviously Ms. Cacnio had latent criminal tendencies which were controlled by her fear of punishment, but when that fear was removed because of her being in a large crowd of people, she was then able to act on her underlying criminal tendencies.

John Tauer, physiology professor of the University of St. Thomas stated in a Minnesota newspaper that that “many factors create a mob mentality — though emotion and alcohol do top the list.” He also said in that article, “Instead of being an individual or feeling like an individual, we feel part of the mob and usually, that's when normal moral restraints relax and people feel less accountable for their behavior" unquote

There were many people in the immediate area of the riot who were merely bystanders and who had no intentions whatsoever of actively participating in the riot as vandals, arsonists or looters. If any of them had hidden criminal tendencies within them, they didn’t let them take over their minds like Ms. Cacnio did. She wasn’t shoved into the store she helped to loot. And even if she was drunk, that isn’t an excuse any more than being a driver of a car when the driving of the car is impaired by the ingestion of alcohol.

And that’s really what it was for me. I was immature, intoxicated, full of adrenaline, disappointed in the loss (and) with young rage. It had nothing to do with anarchy because I am definitely not an anarchist. I am a law-abiding citizen that has had a clean slate criminal record before this night. I had no intentions on harming the law, the city, any businesses or any people. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing and I just got caught up in the chaos.

Give us a break, Ms. Cacnio. Do you really think that Canadian adults are that stupid to swallow that kind of hogwash you are feeding us?

Her actions during the riot and even her previous statements demonstrate just how fallacious her statement is.

Admittedly she is not an anarchist but she certainly isn’t a law-biding citizen. If she was, she wouldn’t have gone into a looted store and stolen several pairs of pants knowing that the store owner would suffer from the loss of the goods, as would his employees and the store’s insurance company because she and others stole from his store during the riot.

If someone kills another on the spur of the moment, will the fact that the murder was done on the spur of the moment be considered a factor that the judge at that person’s trial should seriously consider? If Ms. Cacnio attempts to bring that mitigating factor in during her sentencing phase, she will get about as much sympathy that a fox will get when it is facing the shotgun of a farmer who has just seen the dead chickens in his chicken coop.

As soon as I left the riot I knew that what I did was wrong. My levels of alcohol and adrenaline in my blood had seriously died down and I was no longer surrounded by the mob.

Her statement reminds me of what the commandant of Auschwitz who was responsible for the gassing of millions of Jews wrote in his final statement four days before he was hanged. “My conscience compels me to make the following declaration. In the solitude of my prison cell I have come to the bitter recognition that I have sinned gravely against humanity. As Commandant of Auschwitz, I was responsible for carrying out part of the cruel plans of the 'Third Reich' for human destruction. In so doing I have inflicted terrible wounds on humanity. I caused unspeakable suffering for the Polish people in particular. I am to pay for this with my life. May the Lord God forgive one day what I have done.”

He didn’t get any sympathy from his judges and neither should Ms. Cacnio get any sympathy from her judge. The Germans said it best in their often repeated saying. “Too smart, too late.”

If I knew that I was wrong, then why didn’t I do something about it sooner?

She could have returned the pants to the store she stole them from. If she had done this, it is unlikely that the store owner would have called the police. She only reported her crime to the police when she knew that her face was in the public forum. Prior to that, she believed that she would never be found out so she did nothing.

I knew that I was going to return the pants and tell the cops that I made a mistake, but why did I wait 2.5 days instead of .5-1 day? Well, that would be out of pure nervousness…nervous to tell my parents and my sister. I was raised in a good family and I was more nervous to tell them than the cops. I had to be okay with admitting it to them before I could go out to the cops.

What a lame excuse that is. If any of my readers believe her, then contact me. I have a bridge I want to sell you. It is connected with Manhattan at one end and Brooklyn at the other end.

And still, a lot of people will never find remorse for me because I had a huge smile on my face. But like I said earlier, it was fun at the time. I thought it was pretty funny because this is the only time that I would ever do something like this. The smile on my face was an “I’m such a badass I can’t believe I’m doing this!” kind of look.

It reminds me of the smile on the face of Jared Lee Loughner, the man who shot Senator Gabrielle Giffords and killed six others in a shooting in Arizona in January of this year. He didn’t give a damn either for what he had done to these innocent people.

If you still don’t believe I’m a good person, here’s a little side story for you:

As many of you already know, I am majoring in Conservation Biology at UBC. I strongly believe in ecological conservation and sustainability. That night, I saw a few people that were trying to knock trees down. So what did I do? I yelled at them, saying “Pleaaseee, not the treees!!!!” And what did they do? They stopped. And I felt like a hero.

Oh, PLEASE. You are giving me a headache with your whining and self-serving comments. So this stupid woman saved a tree. Does this mean that the saving of the tree will automatically absolve her from the crime she committed during the riot?


Was she later one of the many citizens living in Vancouver and the environs who went downtown and helped clean up the mess in the area of the riot? If you believe that she was one of those decent and caring persons, then perhaps I can interest you in buying some swamp land in Florida.

In social media sites such as Facebook and twitter, we have seen the following actions regarding the riot: lives are destroyed, by making sure everybody collectively e-mails, phones and spams their families, their jobs, their schools, and all others that they are associated with trying to ruin the reputation of all organizations that they are associated and with threatening associations to ruin their reputation if they do not disassociate themselves with that person and
exaggerating what that person did in order to make their actions seem completely unforgivable.

Hooligan hunters have sent Vancouver Police 3,500 emails relating to the identification of rioters who looted stores, beat up people and trashed businesses and police cars.

A certain amount of public pressure has been necessary to force persons like Ms. Cacnio who committed criminal acts into the open.

As a person called Beer wrote in a recent blog. “Let’s hope the guilty are found and punished, but also try to make sure the online search for them doesn’t devolve into a 21st century witch hunt.”

Furthermore, the VPD (Vancouver Police Department) does not support the negative behaviour that has been so prevalent online. In fact, many of you should even be careful of what you say online, because everything that you say online is basically written in stone. And anything that you say can and will likely be used against you in court. If not in the judicial court, then in this new-aged social media court that everybody seems so happy and willing to partake in.

The police are not interested in people defaming criminals like Ms. Cacnio. They are more interesting in searching the Internet for more clues as to who the criminals are that caused so much damage in the Vancouver downtown area on the night of the riot.

The VPD defined harassment for me the other day: that it is multiple attempts of unwanted communication. They further advised me to file harassment on anybody who did not leave me alone.

If citizens of Vancouver who are outright furious at this stupid woman’s looting on the night of the riot and they are repeatedly approaching her and harassing her or repeatedly texting, emailing or phoning her, then yes, that constitutes harassment as per Canada’s Criminal Code. However, if she is referring to people who are writing articles or comments about her to other people, they can do it as much as they wish because Canadians and others in Canada have the benefit of the right to freedom of speech.


I think that people are all over my case for several reasons:

(1) I’ve lived here all my life so I am bound to have made a few enemies along the way.

Hey, stupid woman. Not everyone is bound to have enemies. You on the other hand are because of your looting and your attitude towards society in general. In fact because of your obnoxious public statement you published in the Sun and which by now is in many newspapers in Canada and elsewhere, you are bound to have a great deal of enemies.

(2) It seems abnormal how passionate some people are at trying to ruin my life. Well you know what? I think it’s sad how much you all want to ruin my life and how I have become the centre of your worlds.

It may be sad for you but I hardly think it is sad for the millions of decent Canadians who are dismayed by your looting and your obnoxious explanation as to why you are so stupid to have committed the crime because it was fun at the time.

(3) I’m a UBC student that works two jobs, volunteers and am athletic.

Well, young woman, at the time you wrote your statement and had it published, you had a job as a part-time receptionist at a car dealership. You have been fired from that job. Obviously, it is not in that firm’s best interest to have you as their receptionist, a woman who was a looter during a riot.

No doubt every customer that walks up to the reception desk would recognize you as the looter that was seen on TV laughing after you exited the store you looted. Yes. They can fire an employee who commits a crime outside of his or her work if in the opinion of the employer, it will reflect badly on the reputation of his or her firm.


As to your volunteer work with Enspire Foundation, you have admitted publicly that you haven’t been involved with them for some time so it is unlikely that you will be welcomed back with open arms. I think they would look upon you not unlike someone whose body is showing signs of the plague.

What does being athletic have to do with character? Have you any idea just how many athletes are convicted of crimes around the world? Even some of those that earn millions of dollars every year commit crimes.

Speaking of athletes, professional mountain biker, Alex Prochazaka posed in front of a burning car that had been overturned with his arms outstretched and yelling, At that moment, he was wearing a T-shirt from his sponsor, Oakley. When his sponsor saw the published picture of him doing what I have just described, the sunglass company promptly dumped him.

(4) Well guess what folks? People who work hard make mistakes too.

That’s true. Honest people who work hard do make mistakes. And we can forgive them if their mistakes are not caused by outright carelessness and stupidity. But dishonest people who make mistakes are not entitled to forgiveness when they are seeking forgiveness because they were looting stores during a riot. Instead of forgiveness, they are entitled to what you and they really deserve―our contempt.

(5) And to the guy who called me a “disrespectful spoiled little bitch,” you are completely wrong. I was raised by hardworking parents and was taught to work hard for myself. I work hard to pay for my own rent, my own groceries, my own bills, and my hobbies. I have additionally also been fully responsible for financing my own education. I have been working since I was 14 years old – as soon as I was legally able to do so. I have been responsible for obtaining my volunteer opportunities and my work opportunities. So please people, find it in your humane hearts to let the cops deal with the rest of this.

What you have done in the past is admirable and it will have some bearing on how the judge will sentence you but it doesn’t change the fact that as a looter in a riot, you have disrespected the people in the city you live in. I agree with you however that the person who said that you are a spoiled little bitch had no right to say that. Without knowing your background, he was not in a position to make that kind of remark.

(6) I have been dehumanized. Nobody has sympathy for a picture. I have been painted out as a criminal, and not the person that I really am. Everybody associates me with all the bad things that have happened in the riot. I do not agree at all with how far the riot went. If you must know, I wasn’t even at the riot when it was at its peak.

No one is saying that this woman is an arsonist or a vandal. What they are saying is that she is a looter who smiled after looting a store because she thought it was fun.

No one is saying that she was in the riot when it was at its peak. However, being in the riot and looting a store during the riot is unforgivable and that justifiably points her out as a criminal.


(7) And to the girl that messaged my sister on Facebook, I sincerely apologize that your boyfriend got stabbed, but I had nothing to do with that. I wish him the best and I hope he gets better. But please separate me, and especially my family from these horrible things that have been done. Remember, the only thing that I did was take a couple things from a store. It’s fairly minor compared to the rest of the acts that were done.

Admittedly, stealing several pairs of men’s pants is fairly minor compared to what the vandals and arsonists did during the riot but her offence should not be considered as being minor. Looting during a riot should be considered as being very serious.

(8) People don’t know how else to vent their anger

They could have taken her to the nearest telephone pole and lynched her or shot her on sight but instead they wrote insults in their messages to others via Twitter, Facebook and blogs. She should consider herself lucky that she committed her crime in a democratic country like Canada. The people in other countries around the world would have been less sympathetic.

(9) I honestly think that the reason why people are so strongly targeting people like me is because people are upset.

That is the first thing that this young twit has said that makes any sense.

(10) They are drunk off of emotions, and want to do everything they can to fix their city. I completely understand that and like I said, I am not proud of myself!

She is right a second time.

(11) Collaborating to clean up the city? Excellent way to remediate the mess.

IDing people? Very helpful for the VPD – saves time and money for the cops and in the end for our city.

This paragraph of her doesn’t make much sense. Is she implying that the people who passed on her ID are bad people? If that is what she meant, then she has insulted those concerned people who want the rioters found and punished.

(12) Harassing people, ruining their lives, and finding unlawful punishments? Not at all helpful. It gives the cops more things to deal with, and is in a way a form of anarchy. The laws were made for everybody to follow: criminals and spectators alike. So for you to disregard the laws makes it seem like you are an anarchist, starting a mob based on social media, starting to get the picture yet? Anyways, long story short, venting your anger on people does not make the situation better, so feel free to ID people and help in ways that you can, but don’t ruin our lives!

If she knows that the laws apply to everyone, then why did she disregard those laws she expects everyone else to follow and obey? The answer is obvious. She is a hypocrite.

She is suggesting that people who outed her and other thugs in the riot have ruined their lives. She and the other thugs in the riot ruined their own lives.


(13) In the Canadian society that we all know and love, we are taught to be righteous individuals, to stand up for our rights, and to be loyal to society. Well great, props to everybody for being loyal to society by IDing people. They (we) will get what they (we) deserve. But you guys are completely forgetting that we have rights as well. It is completely unrighteous to be spending your entire day(s) contacting us, re-posting our pictures, and having everybody collaborate to ruin our lives. Not even the VPD spend that much time on us, so please simmer down a tad bit.

It is beyond me as to how this woman can presume that people are spending their entire days contacting her and others like her doing nothing but re-posting her picture as a looter and pictures of other criminals who were rioting.

(14) Not only that, but Canada prides itself in being a peaceful country. We Canadians are loved around the world because we know how to handle ourselves and we avoid war as much as possible. The actions that I have seen on social media sites are embarrassing to our country and our reputation. These actions do not reflect the kindness that us Canadians are all known and loved for. So please, give me, my family, my friends, my school, my employers, and everybody else or everything that I am or was associated with a break. It’s called mistakes. I learned from my mistake, I am not proud of my mistake, and I will make sure not to be influenced by people as easily as I was. I will make sure to make proper judgments on all my decisions in life. I am prepared to do community work, pay fines, and if worst comes to worst, even a criminal record. The same goes for Nathan Kotylak, Sienna St. Laurent, Jason Li and all the others who deserve a break. As angry as this blog is (a natural response after seeing people repeatedly trying to – successfully – ruin your life), I am again very sorry for my actions. I have reported to the VPD, will return the pants when they want me to, and I am currently waiting to see what I will be punished with.

Here is a woman who feels that she has suffered because she has been publicly outed and yet she ‘outed’ three others in this previous paragraph.

(15) I want to save this last paragraph to my friends and family who have supported me through this difficult time. Without your help I may have lost my mind already. To those who know me and have turned their backs on me, please delete me from Facebook and disassociate yourself from me as much as possible because I don’t want to have anything to do with you.

It must be obvious to her by now that those people who know her and have turned their backs on her have obviously (and with good reason) disassociated themselves from her. They don’t want anything to do with her anymore.

Thank you ever so kindly for your time.
Sincerely,
Camille Cacnio
AKA: “Looter”, “Flip”, “Anarchist”, “Criminal”, “disrespectful spoiled little b--ch”, “skank”, “lowlife”, “disgrace”, “POS”, (piece of shit) “troglodyte”, (prehistoric person who lives in caves) “scum of the earth”, and much much more.

Even when I fed pigs while living on a farm as a child, I have never seen so much hogwash in my life as I have in reading this woman’s letter. She would have been better off had she simply apologized for her misbehavior and left it at that.

A summary of my own thoughts on this issue

I found it interesting that Ms. Cacnio tried to downplay her role in the riot by issuing the following statement, “Please remember and understand that I am not responsible for the riot.”

This brings to mind the statement of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi who supervised the deportation of millions of Jews to the extermination camps. He said at his trial as a war criminal, “In actual fact, I was merely a little cog in the machinery that carried out the directives of the German Reich. I would like to stress again that my Department never gave a single annihilation order.” unquote

A great many people are self-centered who when left to their own devices will seek their own gain regardless of the cost to others. This especially applies to looters in a riot. I suppose we have all been tempted to steal something that doesn’t belong to us at one time or another but for the constraints of recognizing that to do so is not only morally wrong but also legally wrong which can bring about consequences to us, we have kept our hands off of that which tempted us so much.

Riots remain a troubling feature of modern life. Historically they have erupted over perceived economic, political racial/ethnic, religious and social injustices. And strangely enough, even after sports events. It is the riots that occur after those events that are most puzzling because there just doesn’t seem to be any justifiable reason why anyone should riot over sports events especially after the home team has won.

There are anarchists in every community who are bent on creating havoc at the drop of a hat and it is these kinds of thugs that initiate the riots. But once the riot begins, people nearby are drawn to the scenes of riots just as people are drawn to the scene of a fire. It is an adrenalin rush that draws them there and keeps them there.

Unfortunately, there are people in every large crowd that is out of control who let their basic personality come to the fore. Because of the anonymity of being in a large group of people, they commit crimes such as arson, vandalism and looting that they would not do under normal circumstances. It is not unlike a person who walks into a store without any intention of stealing anything but then finds himself in an area where there is no one around and no overhead camera is nearby and they see something they have always wanted but could never afforded to buy so they steal it.

Nowadays, because of cell phones that have cameras inside them, there is a greater risk of being found out as an active participant in a riot. The fact that 3,500 citizens took the time to send emails to the police in which the citizens were identifying the rioters is proof of that. However despite that revelation, there are still stupid people who continue to participate in riots believing that they will never be found out. Well, Ms. Cacnio was one of a great many rioters who are learning the lesson that what rioters do will be photographed by others. The days of anonymity are quickly disappearing. Hopefully in the future, the days of riots following sporting activities will also disappear.

No comments: