Social Media and Vigilantism

As social media has become more and more prevalent over the years we have seen it become an indispensable tool in our daily lives to conduct business and social activities. In the process it has also been used to both improve and destroy lives.

On September 11th 2014, in the city of Philadelphia, the public was able to see first hand how social media can be used for both good and evil. On that evening, two gay men were attacked as they walked down the sidewalk by a group of intoxicated men and women.

A surveillance video was later released by the police and went viral along with the story. This is when an army of social media crusaders took over, starting with a twitter user named Greg Bennet. He managed to get a picture of the attackers that had been taken of them earlier in the evening and posted it, asking for assistance in identifying them.

In just a few hours, his followers had identified the restaurant it was taken at and used their check-ins on facebook at that restaurant to identify them. It took an incredibly short amount of time to find these people, by using the power of social media. And unlike the emotional vigilantism that took hold after the Boston Marathon bombings, the information was gathered only online and then turned over to the police.

But the story doesn’t end there, and neither does social media’s involvement. Once the identities were revealed, the suspect’s lives and backgrounds were pulled apart and examined.  The public hit pay dirt once again when it was discovered that one of the suspects was the daughter of Chalfont Township, PA Police Chief Karl Knott, Kathryn Knott.

Knott’s twitter account was a treasure trove of information regarding her life and personal beliefs. Based on her tweets she has no problem revealing her xenophobia, homophobia and binge drinking, not to mention her father’s raging nepotism. One of her posts boasts of Chief Knott allowing her to kick down a door on a raid. She tagged it “#epic.”

As if all of this information wasn’t enough, her job is now in jeopardy as an ER tech at a local hospital. She has been suspended while her employer investigates various HIPAA violations due to her posting everything from photos of patients to copies of their x-rays online.