DUMB CRIMINALS OF THE WEEK: FACEBOOK LIVE LEADING TO MANY ARRESTS
by Hazed
This week’s dumb criminal story starts off with a serious crime – not one of the light-hearted romps I usually write about.
Three men in Sweden were arrested on suspicion of raping a woman in an apartment in Uppsala. What makes this a dumb criminal story is that police easily found the suspects – because they broadcast their assault live onto the net using Facebook Live.
Several people who viewed the footage of the rape reported it to police, who headed to the apartment and took the men into custody.
So the dumb part of this story is that when they decided to commit such a horrible crime, they thought it was a good idea to broadcast it to the world – live.
Why?
The story at the source link below suggests several possible reasons. The first is the obvious one – stupidity. But there may be more to it than just sheer idiocy. Broadcasting themselves doing something horrible, or risky, or criminal (or all three) could be a way of demonstrating their power or bravado. It’s a form of bragging, and using social media ensures the crime makes maximum impact.
Recent cases have seen very unpleasant bulling and harassment incidents broadcast live. Committing a crime in public is now simple using the new tools that technology gives us.
But at the same time, this just gives the police the information they need to catch the perpetrators. At least, until the criminals smarten up!
