
What happens when you give 4chan images of the Boston Marathon? - caffeinewriter
http://basedheisenberg.tumblr.com/post/48181500129/what-happens-when-you-give-4chan-images-of-the-boston
======
ck2
It would be great if this helped but I sure hope "the internet" doesn't decide
it's someone who turns out to be the wrong person, because the vigilantes will
not stop even if the discovery is "corrected".

The media did that with the Atlanta bombing and it destroyed a guy's life.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jewell>

~~~
kmfrk
Anonymous also digitally lynched a guy assumed to have thrown a puppy off a
bridge. Turned out they had the wrong guy.

Vigilante justice is reckless and comes with big risks, as romantic as it may
sound to some to sit in the comfort of your desk chair and bring about digital
justice.

~~~
Falling3
Is there much difference between bad vigilante justice and bad institutional
justice? How about the good variety? We know the criminal justice gets things
wrong all the time.

I guess we'd like to say accountability, but even that's not really there.
Take Louis Cuen Taylor, who just spent over 40 years in prison for setting
fire to a hotel, despite actually helping the police attempt to save people.
After all this time, it was finally accepted that there was no evidence
whatsoever that Taylor actually committed the crime. He was released after
pleading No Contest, making it very difficult for him to get any sort of
reparations. So yes, he was finally released, but with 4 decades of his life
taken from him.

~~~
potatolicious
The difference is recklessness, a word previous user used.

Bad things happen even with reasonable safeguards in place - cars will keep
crashing even if everyone is alert and sober, yet there is still a world of
difference between a drunk swerving between lanes and a sober/attentive
driver.

The fact that the criminal justice system, based around impartial trials, the
right to defend yourself before your charges, and the assumption of innocence,
will at times ensnare innocents is not an excuse to adopt the opposite system
- i.e., the assumption of guilt, mob justice, and the lack of opportunity to
defend oneself.

Put more practically, the difference between bad vigilante justice and bad
institutional justice is its occurrence rate. Vigilante justice _frequently_
ensnares innocents - the other posts in this thread demonstrate this in
spades, and makes wrongful convictions in the US criminal justice system look
like a drop in the bucket.

~~~
tripzilch
> Vigilante justice frequently ensnares innocents - the other posts in this
> thread demonstrate this in spades, and makes wrongful convictions in the US
> criminal justice system look like a drop in the bucket.

Any country that has an incarceration rate 5-10x higher than most other
countries ("civilized" or not), I'd be real hesitant to call their wrongful
convictions a "drop in a bucket".

I'd be in agreement with that argument if it were any other country. Still,
vigilante justice is (of course) not a solution for the US because if that
became commonplace, it'd be _even worse_. Less incarcerations, but you may not
like what they'd get replaced with.

~~~
potatolicious
> _"I'd be real hesitant to call their wrongful convictions a "drop in a
> bucket"."_

That's not what I said. What I said is that miscarriages of justice in a
vigilante environment would _make_ the current US situation look like a drop
in the bucket. The level of injustice that would exist in society would make
people _yearn_ for the days when we were imprisoning >1% of the country's
population.

------
DigitalSea
We shouldn't jump to conclusions here. Are we forgetting the wrongful
identification and accusations surrounding Ryan Lanza in the Sandy Hook
Elementary school shooting? It was his brother Adam who was the shooter but it
didn't stop the media from incorrectly reporting that it was Ryan and his
picture was publicised all over the news, websites, blogs, Twitter and every
possible media outlet you can think of.

While it's possible the person in the image could be the culprit, lets not
jump to conclusions until we have some more solid evidence. Some people take
off their backpack in crowds because it can get in the way, how do we know
this isn't the case here? There are a thousand legitimate justifications for
not having a backpack on you were seen carrying earlier.

I usually walk to the train station to commute to work in the mornings and
take my backpack off once I get on so it doesn't get in the way of others. Now
I know what people will be saying if the train gets blown up and they have
imagery of me with a backpack on and without...

~~~
Yver
I concur and I'll add that they have assembled similar "evidence" about
_several_ people already.

------
natefinch
I have a laptop backpack like that. On Monday it was 27ºF at 6:30am when I
left for work, but it was supposed to be 55-ish during the day. So, I wore a
light jacket under my warmer jacket. My work laptop is a 15" Dell and is
somewhat heavy.

When I was going home, I stuffed my lighter jacket in my backpack with my
laptop... and it looked exactly like that. In crowded areas, when I'm not
going anywhere, I almost always take off my backpack and put it between my
legs. It's the only way I can safely swivel my upper body to look around
without knocking people over.

Don't jump to conclusions. It's a dude with a big black backpack. There's
hundreds of thousands of those in Boston. I would be surprised if there
_weren't_ a picture of a guy with a big black backpack in that area. Lots of
people work around there and lots of people don't get the day off... I didn't.
I saw a ton of regulars on the Commuter Rail that morning that obviously also
didn't get the day off.

I applaud the efforts of people to scan photos looking for the perpetrators...
but saying they may have found the guys responsible is incendiary and
dangerous.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
> _Don't jump to conclusions. It's a dude with a big black backpack. There's
> hundreds of thousands of those in Boston._ //

Yes, but are there not only a limited number who were at the bombed locations
around the time of the Marathon. Identifying those - if the evidence about the
bombs being in black bags is sound - gives you leads to investigate.

> _but saying they may have found the guys responsible is incendiary and
> dangerous._ //

It's also true. They _may_ [huge huge caveat] have found the people.

Personally I think the only real way the public can help is to identify
themselves and their family/friends in images that others have handed over or
they've sent to the officials investigating (Boston FBI presumably).

I'm assuming that the office based enquiries are based on using available
imagery to build a profile of all movements and to list people who may need to
be interviewed. I poured over a few images (in one reddit thread) of the area
of the bomb outside 671 Marathon Place and it was quite easy to spot certain
people hanging around - what surprised me was that there wasn't already more
imagery available. There must be many video feeds, CCTV and such in the area,
eg from the shops at the bomb sites.

~~~
dopamean
> gives you leads to investigate.

Anonymous are not investigators. As altruistic as their intentions may be here
people cannot forget that. Leave the investigating to the real investigators
who do this for a living. Random people on the internet are not going to see
something that agents from multiple federal agencies wont see.

Your point about people from the public identifying themselves in pictures is
a great one. That was what I first thought when someone posted a "suspicious"
photo of a guy in a blue bathrobe. If I were that guy, and had nothing to do
with the attack, I'd call the police right now and say, "hey that's me and I
didnt do anything."

~~~
baby
> Random people on the internet are not going to see something that agents
> from multiple federal agencies wont see.

I think you overestimate people who do that for a living. I think that what
4chan did, analyzing all those pictures with such minutia, real investigator
would never have done.

~~~
baak
I'm no expert on image manipulation. The only project I've ever done involving
it was an ASCII Art converter. So it's possible I have no idea what I'm
talking about...

That being said, I would be absolutely shocked if they weren't scanning photos
of the event programmatically for items resembling a black bag, and then the
people who were carrying them.

------
jaredsohn
More speculation on Reddit: <http://www.reddit.com/r/findbostonbombers>

Collaborative Google Doc for list of suspects:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AgtCl8YvqiBodEl0...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AgtCl8YvqiBodEl0bkFkR1ZhR3gtZFU5RnRlbzZPS0E&toomany=true#gid=1)

Raw collections of photos:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/findbostonbombers/comments/1cipl7/ph...](http://www.reddit.com/r/findbostonbombers/comments/1cipl7/photo_dump_compilation_megathread/)

IRC Channel: ##bostonspeculation

Closer up view of person in OP (includes shot of face):
<http://i.imgur.com/BBxplgk.jpg>

Checking out the speculation is valuable because it gives the perspective that
many such leads exist (and it is unlikely that they are all in on it.)

~~~
Shivetya
from a reddit thread on Richard Jewel

The Umbrella Man at Dealey Plaza, which shows how anything can look odd when
scrutinized to an extreme <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuoZWb9gqv0>

~~~
bluetidepro
I love this video and the story of "The Umbrella Man." This is a perfect
example of quantum coincidences.

------
ck2
It occurs to me this incident is going to get drones in use at public events
asap.

Because if you had several drones circling for 24 hours before the event with
high resolution and night-vision cameras, you could trace every single person
on each of their timelines before the event.

Awesome tool for when crime happens but what do we do when it's guaranteed to
be abused?

~~~
davidw
David Brin's "The Transparent Society" talks about this.

<http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P5O37W/?tag=dedasys-20>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transparent_Society>

In short, the idea is to allow lots of watching, because it'll help reduce and
solve crime, but also radically increase the watching of the watchers.

~~~
kokey
I believe an arms race between authorities and citizens when it comes to
surveillance will also be a good thing. The thing we need to protect against
is if governments make this kind of competition illegal, e.g. they can have
CCTV cameras monitoring the front of your house, but you're not allowed to.

------
thegyppo
Whilst it's truly amazing that they've found 3 separate photos of the same
person in the same spot at the blast there's a few questions that come to
mind:

\- If he was planning to commit the atrocity he did, why would you stand &
talk to someone? (unless they were perhaps working together)

\- There's a water bottle in the backpack which leads me to believe that
person is a runner?

\- The bag seems a bit small to hold a 6L pressure cooker. Plus he doesn't
seem to be straining/leaning forward.

\- If you're standing in the crowd most people will take a backpack off & put
it at their feet?

\- The crowd in the second & third photos is much busier which means it's not
the same spot. If you planted a bomb why would you stand in the crowd?

Been trying to line up the flags in the last 2 photos to get an idea of where
he's standing but can't manage it.

~~~
Cthulhu_
> There's a water bottle in the backpack which leads me to believe that person
> is a runner?

Doesn't every stereotypical American have a giant bottle of water in hand / on
his/her lips every two minutes?

> If you planted a bomb why would you stand in the crowd?

Makes sense for suicide bombers.

~~~
acuozzo
> Doesn't every stereotypical American have a giant bottle of water in hand /
> on his/her lips every two minutes?

s/water/soda if you enjoy stereotyping so much.

------
hijinks
/b/ has also posted this one. <http://imgur.com/icyyRLK>

~~~
gsibble
And this one: <http://i.imgur.com/LvoCC5T.jpg>

~~~
KaoruAoiShiho
I think this pic needs its own top level comment. This looks very convincing
to me.

~~~
brador
The bag looks heavy too, and placing it on the arm allows a quick drop.

Try this: <http://i.imgur.com/E4AmAk1.jpg>

~~~
waterlesscloud
That's a woman dealing with a baby in a stroller.

------
gsibble
Another reddit comment/thread that is also interesting..... appears that
another person wearing a backpack was in fact an undercover of some kind:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/findbostonbombers/comments/1cij0q/la...](http://www.reddit.com/r/findbostonbombers/comments/1cij0q/largest_black_bag_ive_seen_yet_in_any_pic/)

Very curious to know this person's story. Looks like a fed.

~~~
yk
The funny thing is, that there are at least six people with black nylon
backpacks in the picture. So obviously an entire swarm of terrorists is
depicted...

~~~
yolonoexception
I feel the same way. This thing is ridiculous, someone could name the person
in the image, and media will go after them. But in the end they will end up
innocent and their life in ruins. As much as this may seem like a good idea,
4chan or the internet should away from pointing fingers at random people with
backups.

------
AdamTReineke
The problem with a mob is the lack of due process. If 4chan were to try to
exact justice themselves and get it wrong (or right for that matter), stuff
could get ugly fast. That said, I'm all for crowdsourcing discovery from
people with downtime to pour over images as long as the discoveries are
processed properly.

~~~
valgaze
Whoever placed these devices is/are presumably still lying low someplace in
New England right now and has demonstrated a willingness to murder/maim
innocent people and could be planning to do so again.

Frankly "due process" does not seem that important right now (as soon somebody
is formally detained or accused, agree with you 100% on due process), but what
is most important at this moment is getting credible leads/clues into the
hands of law enforcement as quickly as possible.

The people poring over photographs are doing just that

~~~
bcoates
That sounds like something a terrorist would say. I don't think we can take
the risk of not keeping you in jail until we've sorted this.

~~~
clobber
And thanks to NDAA he can be detained indefinitely for that very reason! These
are scary times.

------
bargl
Not to be a debbie downer, but this seems like a more sophisticated version of
a witch hunt...

I assume most people here are completely against drone coverage and yet we are
thrilled at the idea of going through public pictures and pointing out people
who brought backpacks to an event...

~~~
danielweber
"We're too smart to be part of a witch hunt."

------
robryan
I don't get those saying this is unproductive, it is the classic appeal to
authority. "The FBI know what they are doing". No doubt they do but currently
technology doesn't allow a computer to work it out from all the footage and
pictures and the sheer volume means that those on the case will probably take
a long time to sift through it all.

What harm is it if the public puts forward some suggestions and some of those
investigating use them as a starting point? All this information is in the
public domain, I don't think we can simply pretend it doesn't exist.

~~~
Goladus
We shouldn't pretend it doesn't exist however a forum like Hacker News should
be quick to identify and upvote flaws in the analysis.

None of the 4chan analysis photos I've seen are anything close to reasonable.
They all have blatantly obvious flaws and the pictures do not support the
claims being made. In this case, a few commenters have pointed it out but
there are many valid explanations for the "no backpack" shots the main one
being that because the crowd is much thicker the backpack is removed and being
held at his feet. It's a very common thing to do and there's nothing at all
suspicious about this behavior.

------
nraynaud
Wonderful, now the US have investigators, spies, money, and stuff for that, so
thanks 4chan for tackling last Mondays terrors attacks on Iraq where 6 times
more people died in a coordinated terror attack on many cities. And Iraq
doesn't have any real police, spies or security for that matter, since you
know, invasion.

~~~
theorique
Iraq has fewer people online and less comprehensive internet access.

~~~
nraynaud
yeah, that too.

------
jgrahamc
Or that could be Richard Jewell.

------
Aurel1us
Some people but their bag on the ground between the legs cause they are tired.

~~~
gojomo
And, the lighting/angle/resolution in the later two pics don't allow a strong
read, at least to my eyes, as to whether the backpack is still being carried.
(Zooming in didn't help me get any more confidence either way... perhaps the
originals, motivating this claim, are of higher resolution or less-compression
than this collage?)

Still, I wouldn't be surprised if photos like these, and crowdsourced
examination, does generate actionable leads.

------
anigbrowl
For the more forensically minded, this Reuters story [1] has a surprising
amount of medium-res but closeup photos of bomb component fragments, for
example enough to identify the kind of battery employed [2].

1\.
[http://www.reuters.com/article/slideshow/idUSBRE93F06T201304...](http://www.reuters.com/article/slideshow/idUSBRE93F06T20130417#a=13)

2\. [http://www.amazon.com/Tenergy-3000mAh-Battery-Tamiya-
Connect...](http://www.amazon.com/Tenergy-3000mAh-Battery-Tamiya-
Connectors/dp/B0037U35SO)

~~~
CamperBob2
Unfortunately there's nowhere near enough resolution to identify anything
beyond the battery and wire labels. Do those bozos think they're saving useful
amounts of bandwidth by using postage-stamp size images in 2013?

Part of photo 16/28 looks somewhat like a ferrite loopstick from the AM radio
portion of a portable radio, but again it's hard to be sure. The distinction
is important because if that's what it is, then this PC board is probably from
a benign device that just happened to be carried by someone nearby.

~~~
anigbrowl
They probably want other media outlets to pay for the high-resolution photos.
They're not postage-stamp sized, nor are the people bozos for not making your
life maximally convenient. You could try searching for larger-resolution
versions with Tineye or so, though chances are the FBI are way ahead of
everyone on this since they employ specialists in this sort of thing.

As for the ferrite loopstick, it occurs to me that if the battery pack is from
an RC device (which is what it's marketed as), the bomb maker have used the RC
interface as a trigger. But that's just a guess.

~~~
CamperBob2
_They're not postage-stamp sized_

Yes, they are, on my monitor.

 _nor are the people bozos for not making your life maximally convenient._

Yes, they are bozos. The FBI released those photos to the press for a reason.
What do you suppose that reason might have been?

~~~
anigbrowl
Well, we can't all size things for your small monitor Bob. They're about
postcards-zied on mine, but perhaps larger-resoltuion versions will show up on
Google images in a day or two. I don't know whether the FBI intended for them
to be released or not, according to CBS the pictures were obtained from a
leaked intelligence bulletin to local forces. If the FBI really wanted them
widely available I imagine they'd put hem up on FBI.gov, and who knows, maybe
they will.

I just don't see the value in insulting people for having their systems run to
your specifications. It makes you sound like a dick. I suggest you write to
them and offer to host the high-resolution versions or something.

~~~
CamperBob2
_I suggest you write to them and offer to host the high-resolution versions or
something._

Yeah, I'll write to Reuters and see if they need to borrow some bandwidth from
some random guy with a cable modem. There's a plan.

Seriously: why are you defending the all-too-common practice of posting
miniscule images in important news stories?

~~~
anigbrowl
I'm not defending it Bob. I'm objecting to you whining about people being
bozos, and I wish now I had just ignored you the first time.

~~~
CamperBob2
I'd certainly not try to discourage you.

------
buro9
Crowd-sourced vigilantism, just what the world needed!

~~~
pseut
Is there any other kind?

------
nextw33k
Don't use drones or CCTV.

Crowd source the security.

I the modern world we don't take pictures of people we don't know, its
considered rude. We let the state do it because somehow they are not human.
However if it became the norm that 50% of a crowd of people took pictures of
everybody else then you have a massive record to call upon when a crime
happens. If nothing happens then the jigsaw is incomplete and privacy is
maintained.

~~~
NZ_Matt
Imagine if 50% of the crowd was wearing google glass

------
_pmf_
With great power comes great bullshit.

------
aquadrop
On the photo where backpack is missing he could just take it off and put it on
the ground or on his knees. It's uncomfortable to sit in such a dense crowd
with backpack on. I just hope this isn't another case of false accusing by
media. Let FBI do their work before judge anyone.

------
tagabek
Wow, if this leads to the bomber being caught, then that is amazing.

This truly goes for most large online communities that I have seen. They all
have their negative aspects, but this is an example of the combined efforts
reaching a productive conclusion.

~~~
panacea
I'm seeing people putting red circles around dark skinned people wearing
_suspicious_ clothing.

------
just2n
Those images were taken around 11 AM. The bomb didn't go off for nearly 4 more
hours. So there would have to have been a suspicious looking bag in front of
the store there for almost 4 hours. These guys were walking away from the bomb
location.

We don't have access to the images being sent to the FBI, which I imagine
might include a lot of personal photographs taken on phones. Deadspin's images
from a few minutes before the first explosion show clearly that there were a
lot of people in the vicinity actively taking pictures in all directions, so I
suspect someone got a shot of the area where the bag was placed (near the
intersection of the wall of the Lenscrafter's and the black railing) within
10-20 minutes of the explosion.

This is all based on public photographs and poorly coordinated timestamps.
There are likely 100x as many being submitted as evidence that we can't see.
It'd be nice if they were all public, as the leads a mass of volunteer
investigators could turn up might result in something credible, but privacy
and everything.

------
anigbrowl
A classic case of confirmation bias?

------
Apocryphon
Interestingly enough, the phenomenon 4chan/reddit/Something Awful and other
free-spirited trollish communities embarking on activities like this has
precedence in China:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Human-t.html?pa...](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Human-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

------
GHFigs
It's hilarious to see anything from /pol/ show up on Hacker News.

~~~
zalzane
Yeah seriously, I thought it was going to be a cold day in hell before anyone
(especially HN) took information seriously coming from a board where people
think that the jews have organized and are working on world domination.

------
gekoloaid
New photo: <http://i.imgur.com/rTiaLuZ.jpg>. This definitely looks like a
placed bomb bag to me. Who knows if any of the pictures on 4chan could have
been photoshoped though, but I've yet to see one of those before.

~~~
draugadrotten
more backpacks <http://imgur.com/a/xPKgL>

------
wjk
On the 2nd picture he has sunglasses, but not on the 1st or 3rd...? Completely
different guy ?

~~~
joewee
You can't tell if he is wearing the sunglasses in the other shots. And the
likelihood of two sets of guys walking around fitting the same description?

~~~
anigbrowl
I think the likelihood of two guys with white baseball caps at a crowded event
in the USA is actually pretty high.

EDIT: after finding the higher-resolution photos, it's almost certainly the
same 2 guys in each pic. On the other hand, the descriptors label him/them as
moving, when my impression is that they're just standing there. Worthy of
study, sure, but pretty weak sauce by itself.

~~~
j4_james
They're definitely moving.

In the first picture, they're standing next to the lamp post near the tree
(you can see the branches on the left). Also note the no stopping sign facing
inwards.

In the last picture, they've moved further away from the finish line to the
next lamp post - you can see the first lamp post and tree in the background.
Also note the no stopping sign on the second lamp post is facing the road.

Less obviously, you can see the Slovakia flag, third to the left of the lamp
post in the first picture. Harder to make out in the second picture, but it's
clearly a white/blue/red tricolor.

~~~
anigbrowl
I guess we mean different things by 'moving'. They certainly moved from where
they were in the first picture, which shows a fairly thinly populated area. My
impression is that they hadn't yet chosen their vantage point, perhaps having
just arrived. But in the later pictures, they appear to be standing still and
watching the runners with everyone else. When I say they don't seem to be
moving, I mean they don't appear to be moving relative to the crowd around
them, eg departing the area.

I'm guessing they're not significant because while they first drew attention
for both carrying heavy-looking bags (a black backpack and a blue duffel),
that may be a subconscious bias towards the fact that there were two
explosions. On the other hand, the two explosions were separated by a city
block; so unless one or both of them were spotted a similar distance away from
the start point, the fact of the two big bags is probably just coincidence.

So many people were taking photos and video that by the time the investigation
is done, I imagine there'll be a patchy but contiguous animation of people's
movements through the area, at which point it'll be far easier to spot
dichotomies in behavior between race viewers and the criminal(s) that carried
out the bombing.

~~~
j4_james
Fair enough. I agree that they haven't moved between pictures 2 and 3. But I
thought the point was that they were out of range by then, so there would be
no need to go any further. Although I must admit that explanation seems highly
unlikely.

------
TerraHertz
Regardless of risks of vigilante 'justice', I consider this sort of crowd-
sourced investigation a highly valuable development. For the simple reason
that there's a significant chance that this attack, like many others, was done
by elements of the government. Or groups with the ability to strongly
influence the official investigation.

The days when we the people could trust the motives or results of official
investigations into politically significant crimes, are long gone.

The government develops ever-more powerful technological tools for monitoring
ordinary people. It's entirely appropriate for ordinary people to use every
technological tool at their disposal to guard against government wrongdoings.

If the Internet was able to identify the person(s) responsible here, and prove
(for eg) that this was a government ploy to ban the sale of ammunition
reloading black powder or bulk cartridge sales, that would be of immense
significance.

For this reason I applaud the posting and permanent archiving of photos of
events where such attacks occurred. We need some way to bypass the controlled
MSM's low bandwidth and tendency to publish low-res, selected, edited and
generally useless news images. 4chan doesn't cut it, due to the impermanence
problem.

Another thing to be wary of, is the 'vanishing 911 photos' syndrome. Some
organization appears, solicits the donation of original photo/film media with
the promise of building a public archive, gets given a vast amount of such
material, then vanishes along with all the material. NEVER give away or sell
your original material. Post copies!

~~~
Crake
Yes, the bombing in Boston, 9/11, etc were all a government conspiracy. I
suppose you think the Holocaust never happened either and that vaccines cause
autism.

------
jrs235
Anyone else see these things? <http://imgur.com/C9uo2zj>

The man with the blue jacket and back pack is seen helping an injured
person... where's his back pack? (We have no idea)

There appears to be a back pack in the same picture.

On the OP page the third photo stating "Backpack seems to be missing... it
appears to me that the man in the white cap is looking down and doing
something, perhaps getting something out of his back pack?

------
sergiotapia
Interesting:

<http://i.imgur.com/i1yLgzY.jpg>

Racial profiling?

~~~
abcd_f
Hardly.

~~~
parasight
Common. What is meant by "unusual characters" then if not the color of their
skin and hair?

~~~
draugadrotten
Their skin color seems to be very common on all the pictures. These guys
stands out for other reasons.

~~~
pdabbadabba
Those reasons being that they came into physical proximity with one another
and possibly exchanged a few words? I've looked at the pictures and see
nothing "suspicious" about them at all except that they're brown and a little
scruffy looking.

------
michaelbuddy
And we see the double-edged sword of a crowd sourced public criminal
investigation. The crowd is powerfully brilliant and ignorant.

------
ddrmaxgt37
speculation. this is misleading and not productive

------
taytus
Have you guys seen this: <http://imgur.com/a/sUrnA>

------
swinglock
It's very difficult to see, I'm not even convinced he's not wearing a backpack
in the later pictures.

------
alan_cx
When does the "crowd" become the "mob"?

------
stratosvoukel
Is blaming someone for a crime without actual facts legal? Is it something we
should encourage? How about not? (btw am I the only one clearly seeing the bag
strap on the second picture?)

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nnnnni
No, I definitely see something that looks like a strap on his right shoulder.
It's a messenger-style gym bag or something similar, not a regular backpack.

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will_brown
Now that this has been deemed a "terrorist attack", doesn't this fall under
the jurisdiction of the military justice? Irrespective if the guilty party or
parties are US citizens or foreign nationals - or I suppose even if they are
just suspects or persons of interest - can't they be detained indefinitely
without trial? Or even worse US citizen or not, suspects, without trial, can
be added to the Kill List.

Kind of scary, especially with the internet creating suspects for the
government.

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sharkweek
I'd be very impressed if this actually led to an arrest, but I am always very
wary of the collective witch hunt often caused by attempts at internet
heroism.

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shocks
People would do well to read this [1] and watch how quickly this idea of
'helping' gets out of hand.

It may be well intended, but it escalates _very_ quickly into publicly
accusing people for doing relatively normal things.

[1]:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/1cf5wp/2013_boston_m...](http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/1cf5wp/2013_boston_marathon_attacks_please_upload_any/)

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pfg
I'm wondering if law enforcement is using something like Microsoft
Photosynth[0] to process all the images. Probably would make their job a lot
easier.

[0] Photosynth example - requires Silverlight:
[http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=d7d78324-ad5e-41ea-94dd-...](http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=d7d78324-ad5e-41ea-94dd-512580ed4393)

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mcantelon
Related: <http://www.reddit.com/r/findbostonbombers/>

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debt
i kept thinking about effective it might be to crowdsource this particular
part of the investigation. it seems the only venues available for
collaboration in a situation like this are 4chan, reddit, hn, tumblr, etc.
perhaps there's an opportunity for a collaborative forum that's a bit more
focused and a bit less public in terms of the potential suspects.

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tmslnz
Enhance.

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withoutthis
And... HN is officially Reddit.

~~~
Uchikoma
+100

