Montreal Student Arrested For Posting Photo Of Anti-Police Graffiti To Instagram
from the you-have-a-friend-request-from-Officer-Smith dept
UPDATE: A commenter below has provided a link to coverage of this story by the Globe and Mail which includes more details than the CBC story linked in this post. Apparently, Pawluck had previously posted other photos of anti-police graffiti as well. This additional information doesn't make the actions of the police department any less egregious, but it does explain why they might have an interest in questioning her. In addition, she was also arrested several times during the Montreal demonstrations. Again, this doesn't excuse any overreactions, but it does at least explain why she may have been questioned at length. Her history with the police department makes this investigation about more than one uploaded photo.
If anyone needed any more evidence that police departments are casting a wide surveillance net over social media networks, here's one more story to add to the woeful deluge.
On Wednesday night, news broke that a 20-year-old “supporter of the student movement,” Jennifer Pawluck was arrested in Montreal for posting a picture to Instagram that she took of a graffiti wheat paste illustration that showed Montreal’s police commander Ian Lafrenière with a bloody bullethole in his forehead. According to the CBC, the image was thrown up on a brick wall in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighborhood. And Jennifer Pawluck—not that this even matters—didn’t even draw the anti-cop graphic in the first place.Further details at CBC's site indicate that the Montreal police are actively monitoring Instagram, or more likely, its new best friend, Facebook.
Jennifer Pawluck was picked up by Montreal police at her home Wednesday, questioned for several hours and then released on a promise to appear in court.So, this wasn't a case of Pawluck shooting photos of graffiti and being approached by an officer. This would be a posted photo being spotted online and traced back to Pawluck. The surveillance aspect is disturbing enough, but the Montreal police went even further, accusing Pawluck of "criminal harassment against a high-ranking Montreal police officer." All over a photo of artwork she didn't create (or apply to a wall).
The picture depicts Montreal police commander Ian Lafrenière with a bullet hole in his head. Lafrenière was a bit of a lightning rod during last year's riots in Montreal due to his position as head of the Communications Division. While the image is violent and could be perceived as threatening, posting a photo of the graffiti on Instagram is hardly "harassment" in and of itself. As the Vice article points out, there have been plenty of other photos of this particular artwork uploaded to Instagram.
The police (unsurprisingly) have been less than forthcoming as to why Pawluck needed to be questioned for "several hours" about this photo. Here's what the department did have to say:
Spokesman Const. Dany Richer said the concern extends beyond just the posting of the photo, but said he could not go into further details.This statement is suitably vague with a hint of menace. There may be some "circumstances" surrounding Pawluck's participation in last year's demonstrations. There may also be some "circumstances" surrounding the original artwork, as I would imagine the police are very interested in finding the creator and questioning him or her for several hours. But I cannot see there being "circumstances" surrounding the upload of a photo to a social media site, at least not to the extent that someone gets detained and questioned for several hours and released only with the promise that they will appear in court, all without being charged with any criminal wrongdoing.
“There are circumstances that surrounded the publication of this image, circumstances that we can’t reveal because it is still under investigation,” he said.
She has not been formally charged, but is scheduled to appear in court on April 17.No charges, and yet the police have prohibited her from contacting Lafrenière (can't imagine why she would want to -- and she states she never has) or coming within one kilometer of the Montreal Police HQ.
This last part is enlightening. It strongly suggests the police department fears the general population, or at least those who photograph (or create) anti-police artwork. There's no other reason the police would need to file a restraining order (so to speak) against a student whose "weapon" is a cell phone with a camera. Unfortunately for Pawluck, the "restraining order" isn't mutually restrictive. I would imagine this won't be her last run-in with Montreal law enforcement. They seem unusually interested in shutting down expression they don't like, and are apparently willing to try to intimidate people into compliance.
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Filed Under: canada, criticism, free speech, instagram, jennifer pawluck, photos, protest
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She isn't allowed within 1km of Police HQ?
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Re: She isn't allowed within 1km of Police HQ?
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Re: She isn't allowed within 1km of Police HQ?
Now that is a clear abuse of power.
Sorry Canada, I thought the US was more of a Police State than you, way to step up the competition.
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Re: Re: She isn't allowed within 1km of Police HQ?
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Re: Re: Re: She isn't allowed within 1km of Police HQ?
You don't see a problem with what you said? Here, let me help. She's not a criminal because taking a picture of graffiti and posting it online isn't a crime.
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I do understand the need for keeping things under wrap when they are happening like when I think the Indonesian SWAT tried to take a bus full of hostages and the bad guy was watching them approach from a TV inside the bus, it was not pretty so sometimes things need to be withhold, but not indefinitely it harms justice, public trust and breeds corruption.
You can't disclose that crap right now? fine, when can people see why that happened and what the process of arriving at those things was?
There should be a law forcing law enforcement to report to the public what happened after the fact or some time has passed, so the public can keep an eye on the police work to spot abuses of that system.
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90-99% of the time we NEVER hear about 'the followup' or the (bullshit) 'investigation' (which almost always amounts to the investigators 'investigating' -*wink*wink*- themselves...)
you know, i find it really difficult not to hate on the authoritarians like you are responding to...
i find it *REALLY* hard to make excuses for their craven, abject obeisance to authority...
they are -in fact- freedom haters, and are doing the propaganda work for Empire...
fuck'em all...
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof
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Posting it is just as 'threatening' as painting, it is perceived as threatening not because of who painted it or who photographed it, but posting it on the web is an act that is the delivery of the threat.
If someone points a gun at you, you feel threatened by the person making the threatening action, not the manufacturer of the gun.
If someone posts a picture to 'broadcast' a clear threatening act, it is the person who posts the picture who is making the threat.
I am also sure that the person who painted it would also be charged if that person was known.
Both the painter and the poster could and probably will be charged for inciting violence.
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The student is not pointing a gun at the cop. She is not making any overt physically threatening moves. So your analogy fails. She merely took a photo of some graffiti. Was she reporting on the graffiti? Talking about it? We don't know, because the police have said they won't talk about the details.
Basically, this comes down to a suppression of speech. People in that area who hear about this case now will be more likely not to take photos of certain things or not talk about certain subjects because they fear the police picking them up on bogus grounds.
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Free speech protection no matter what? Get real.
People in this area who hear about the case will not be more likely not to take photos of certain things or not talk about certain subjects because they fear the police picking them up on bogus grounds.
She's a criminal that published death threats in the past. Deal with it.
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Trollish bollocks, should reporters go to jail then?
Most people don't even know who that person is, should anybody else go to jail too?
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Really, what about all the cartoonist that draw horrible things about other people should they get the same treatment?
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Until such a time where words become acts there should be no action from any government or law enforcement, at the most surveillance, are we going to wrong every angry person out there now? I am sure you will be in jail at some point in the future.
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Only in a world ruled by cowards that should be the case.
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IF they
-posted a bullet photo with the caption "we're going to kill".
-posted a photo of another graffiti saying, "one cop, one bullet"
-posted a photo another graffiti on the day before her arrest that says "Death to cops"
-retweeted crazy comments after the metropolis incident on Quebec's new prime minister's life last september
then YES,,
>Really, what about all the cartoonist that draw horrible things about other people should they get the same treatment?
people who look at or read cartoons KNOW the INTENT of the cartoon, to make fun of, or the be critical..
Cartoons, are NOT INTENDED TO INCITE or suggest someone gets a bullet in the head.
If a cartoonist posted "Death to cops" with a picture of a recognisable cop with a bullet hole in their head.
So, yes, they should receive the same treatment.
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Art as means of protest. You don't get it. They don't get it. That's your problem.
Have you ever seen people
- burning a flag of a country in protest?
- picturing a hated politician/famous person as stabbed, dead, in blood as protest?
Think about it genius. It's bollocks. And overreaction by morons that fear the shadows.
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Idiot..
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*posts a photo of it on instagram*
*waits by the door for the police to arrive*
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Another disturbing erosion of the rule of law?
The police have? Not a court? That should not be. Citizens should not be constrained by random edicts from the executive branch of government. The executive branch should have to get the judiciary to sign an order (in this case, a restraining order), and of course there should have to be a law on the books permitting the judiciary to do so.
Likewise, how can the police compel her to make a court appearance without charging her with a crime? A court could declare her to be a material witness. Is that what actually happened? Or are the police in Canada able to give out edicts of this sort without having to get so much as a rubber stamp from a judge first?
In any place or time, if the police fear the general population, and not just a tiny subset that are violent felons, then they're doing their jobs wrong.
If they fear the general population irrationally, then their problem is paranoia.
If the general population contains a high proportion of violent felons, either they're grossly incompetent or corrupt or the zombie apocalypse is in progress.
And if the general population does not contain a high proportion of violent felons, but they have legitimate grounds to fear it anyway, then they've failed to "serve and protect" sufficiently spectacularly in one way or another as to have earned the ire of a large subset of their ultimate boss -- we, the people.
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I'm sure their argument would be that they didn't compel her. They just offered to let her go (I'm assuming there's some length of time they can hold her without charge) in exchange for her agreement to appear in court. Whether that's compulsory or voluntary is somewhat hair-splitting though.
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She must have really long arms or something.
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Do not judge too fast
-posted a bullet photo with the caption "we're going to kill".
-posted a photo of another graffiti saying, "one cop, one bullet"
-posted a photo another graffiti on the day before her arrest that says "Death to cops"
-retweeted crazy comments after the metropolis incident on Quebec's new prime minister's life last september
All in all, that's pretty worrying and perhaps there was reason enough for the police to take actions.
More details in this article.
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MORON: we are ALL scumbags to Empire, don't you fucking get it yet ? ? ?
the ONLY reason a mouthbreather like yourself is not picked up, is because YOU DEFEND EMPIRE and don't make waves...
the VERY SECOND you step out of line (OR are PERCEIVED to have stepped out of line), your miserable hide will be the focus of the Eye of Sauron, JUST AS MUCH as some 'real' terrorist...
(you know, like a 5 year old with an Hello Kitty squirt gun...)
wake up, sheeple: Empire ain't your friend...
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof
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Perhaps Tim Cushing or Techdirt should publish an update? After all, the story is about an activist making death threats to policitians and policemen and gets arrested for it. The photo/instagram part of the story is what brought the attention of the police to this particular person's questionable online activity. It is not the sole cause of the arrest.
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what an admit they are wilfully stupid, or negligent, or have any willingness or ability to just all the facts to let the reader decide for themselves.
It would not be an 'update' it would just be an admission of the truth, you think they did not know these facts, that other people so easily found ?
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I expect Tim will update his post...unlike the bulk of the media conglomerates you trolls shill for, who either never retract their stories or only acknowledge with a page E34 correction in the face of incontrovertible evidence.
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Posting photos of artwork created by others and retweeting others' statements does not equal "making death threats."
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In no way do social sites need policing and civil law works fine. Poor Pawluck only took a picture FCOLoud. For that she gets criminal harassment?
Everyone is guilty of a thousand crimes and enforcement is random targeting based on fear or profiling.
Since its obvious that police treat facebook and other social sites as a perp-walk/lineup/most-wanted some legislation might be needed and it would be nice to have some criminal teeth in it for any police/agency stupid enough to use it as such. Freedom of expression? What a laugh.
Don't see this beneficial type of legislation submitted anytime soon but its nice to have a target to work toward. Would be nice to have the legal text of such a good act 'shovel ready' for instant presentation when the time is ripe.
It might be a good idea for the Montreal PD to visit a psychiatrist for a Prozac prescription. Take a load of dudes! Relax. You'll be fine. -spoken honestly with no malice-
This paranoia comes from job stress. When police are off duty they should surrender their badge and gun. The need to live as a normal human being when off duty. No special persons allowed. The only special ones on this planet are human beings. Being on the job 24/7 creates stress that is unsolvable and damaging to the normal human psych. Paranoia is one of the normal expressions of such stress.
Its normal human psychology 101 with no exotic disorders involved. Stress kills from the inside.
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After reading up on Pawluck a bit it may be that some complications exist. The reasons why are arguable though as no convictions exist. Its common (like in many so called civilized countries) to arrest student protesters lately in Montreal and citizen moral may be at its lowest point.
Lets look at how a typical police department handles or mishandles such a case where a citizen seems disappointed with current police services.
Instead of sending out a counselor to console and help tell the disgruntled citizen that the message they were sending scared the willies out of the home office they arrested her. A lesson on presenting figurative arguments might have been a great subject to discuss. (Better yet it should would be a great grade school subject.)
What kind of escalation of violence and taking of ones freedom is that? Arresting someone and locking them up in an interrogation room and bullying them for hours (sometimes continuously for days its happened before) is no way to encourage happy citizenry.
However all the psych stuff said in the above post still applies. (Interesting, ain't it?) The root problem of constant internal stress derived from 24/7 duty is a universal problem.
Like many current government (societal also its not just government) problems these days we have another broken system. Lack of respect for the average citizen derived from a lack of respect for the required down time an officer (absolutely has to have) needs to preserve sanity and keep paranoia from entering normal life and on the job performance. (Thus proposed laws and procedures.)
Realizing; This is more than the obvious and it takes a bit of knowledge to understand the consequences of stress but such is the professional level anyone would expect from a highly paid police chief or government administrator.
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Do not judge too fast
tweet
tweet
tweet
from this twitter account
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> I'm glad they caught her before she did
> anything stupid.
If it was really serious, why the hell did they let her go with no charges?
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"With great power comes great responsibility."
or
"He who gives up freedom for safety deserves neither."
Damned straight. Both times.
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Tim, are you are habitual liar ?
All over a photo of artwork she didn't create (or apply to a wall).
Tim, you are either wilfully stupid, cant read, or biased, or simply a liar.
She distributed a photo of a bullet several weeks ago with the caption “we’re going to kill,” along with a photo of another piece of graffiti that said “one cop, one bullet.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec-woman-faces-charges-after-posting-an ti-police-graffiti-to-instagram/article10779292/
A photo posted on the eve of her arrest showed graffiti with the message “Death to cops.” Ms. Pawluck posted the photos on Instagram under her handle, anarcommie.
One day, TD will actually post something, that is factual, includes ALL the facts, and is truthful..
Actually it wont.. cant..
Police spokeswoman Constable Anie Lemieux said the arrest was approved by Crown prosecutors and a judge, who issued the warrant. She also confirmed more than one photo of graffiti led to the arrest.
“It’s not just one photo, it’s the gathering of many elements posted by her … that brought investigators to this point
she is rightly being charged with HARASSMENT.... NOT for posting a single picture, why did you not mention the captions ???
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But, since your barge of recycled bile seems to hinge on my being a "liar," perhaps you can click through to both the links I provided in the post and point out exactly where this info is that I'm supposedly purposefully excluding.
I'd say, "I'll wait," but honestly, I'm done here.
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When you know her entire story, it makes a lot more sense. But quick let's judge the police!!! *sigh*
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Quebec
The government is heavy into infrastructure in Quebec, which is why it is the most corrupt province in Canada. The Hell's Angels and the mob run many businesses, while out west, where the free market reins, gangs and corruption are relatively small. The "Sponsorship Scandal", that brought down the Liberal party, was in Quebec.
And every decade or so, Quebec threatens to separate from the rest of Canada. Dude, you know the transfer payments stop when you leave, right?
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Re: Quebec
Also, please note that causation is different than correlation. The low enrolment rate is not necessarily caused by the low tuition fee.
Finally, many students hoping for a free system as a society decision and objective. That is a decision needed to be considered separately from the tuition fee hike.
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Re: Quebec
Whether they have low enrollment and therefore lower their rates to try to compensate or arbitrarily set low rates which "causes" low enrolment is iffy. There are definately a lot of young people who move there for school, but the ones who are more committed to secondary education will probably go to the better schools, which won't not be the cheapest ones (so won't be in Quebec).
Our government is certainly plenty corrupt here in AB lately.
The sponsorship scandal was basically the liberals cheating to try to keep Quebec from seperating. The target was quebec, not the source. Plus it's just one of a ton of scandals in various places. The conservatives from AB have been cheating in every election recently. What else is new. Show me an honest politician and I'll show you a politician who isn't in power.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Quebec, they definately have problems and aren't handling them well imho. It just doesn't support your conclusions imho. There are easy counter examples you can just point to oversees to show that cheap education and social tendancies can succeed very well.
Funniest thing is, the last time they threatened to seperate, what they said they were going to do is become a seperate nation, but still get the transfer payments, and not take on their portion of the national debt at all... Like that was ever an option :)
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Re: Quebec
Oh please STFU with your free market, will you?
Corruption is UNIVERSAL.
And your free market masturbation fantasy is meaningless since the US is filled with corruption and crime.
Try to build ANYTHING in the NY region and tell me that crime doesnt run the city's construction. garbage collection, etc.
Youre an ass who has read a Readers Digest but cant put two thoughts together.
Free market is NOT a guaranteed against corruption if anything, corruption is ripe in free market and when possible even legalized to make it easier.
What part of lobbyism isnt a corrupt con game between politicians and groups that want to buy these politicians support?
yea, Quebec's problem is not enough free market.
idiot.
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If she'd 'shopped it...
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cops, cops, cops...
Nothing surprises me... cop rapes dozen women? No surprise. Cop breaks in toy store and kils himself? No one blinks...
When I was at Concordia University over a decade ago there was a student activist who was prominent at anti-war and violence demonstrations, Singh something.... saw him twice downtown on the busiest corners of the city being grabbed by a few men and thrown into a van violently. Second time it happened, I was with a south american friend who was shocked because he thought these abductions didnt happen in Canada.
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Wow
> they will appear in court, all without
> being charged with any criminal wrongdoing.
Appear in court for what? If she hasn't been charged with anything, how can there even be a case against her to answer for?
> No charges, and yet the police have
> prohibited her from contacting Lafrenière
> or coming within one kilometer of the
> Montreal Police HQ.
They must give Canadian police far broader powers in this regard than their American counterparts. Restraining and protection orders can't be issued by the police in the U.S. Only a judge or magistrate can issue them.** Kinda scary that the police, on only their own volition, can just ban a citizen from a huge swath of the city in which they live.
**Reminds me of that old cliched Hollywood cop movie scenario where, after questioning a suspect, the cop menacingly tells the person "We'll be in touch. Don't leave town." There's a reason why real cops never tell people that-- because they have no legal authority to just unilaterally restrict your ability to travel. They can arrest and charge you if they have the evidence to support it, but if they don't arrest you, you're as free to leave town as anyone else in the city.
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Re: Wow
Police don't have the authority to arrest someone for recording video of them either, and it doesn't seem to be much of an impediment.
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Good idea
Why don't the police subject all citizens to restraining orders that the citizens are then allowed to make mutually restrictive before gathering in a 1.1 kilometre circumference ring outside the police station?
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