[HN Gopher] Archivists Are Preserving Capitol Hill Riot Livestre...
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       Archivists Are Preserving Capitol Hill Riot Livestreams Before
       They're Deleted
        
       Author : ironyman
       Score  : 90 points
       Date   : 2021-01-08 18:57 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.vice.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.vice.com)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | aarchi wrote:
       | I think this article is missing a decimal point: the archive is
       | 12.4GB, not 124GB.
        
       | fasteddie31003 wrote:
       | I youtube-dl'd some of the summer riot streams. They are not on
       | YouTube now. Just looked at them. Honestly, the riots this summer
       | were a bunch of drunk teenagers who were letting off steam. Once
       | the liquor store got raided the mood changed from anger to a big
       | party. The MAGA capital riot actually looked to have a similar
       | party vibe. They just casually all became felons in the process.
        
         | neartheplain wrote:
         | > Honestly, the riots this summer were a bunch of drunk
         | teenagers who were letting off steam.
         | 
         | I also have an archive of this summer's events. Let's not use
         | this moment to downplay the violence of people who may share
         | our political sympathies.
         | 
         | 25+ people were killed in the riots this summer. Over $2B was
         | done in property damage. Police stations, post offices,
         | libraries, and courthouses were stormed and set on fire.
         | 
         | In Portland, rioters with guns and knives threw bombs at a
         | courthouse and tried to burn down the Mayor's condo building.
         | In Seattle, militants with assault rifles took over part of
         | downtown for a month, killing and assaulting people. In DC, a
         | mob tried to storm the White House. In Wauwatosa, a mob fired
         | shots into the home of a police officer. People in many cities
         | were dragged from their vehicles and beaten. Hundreds of
         | protestors and police were seriously injured. Many similar
         | incidents which I don't have the time to dig up and link right
         | now.
         | 
         | There were also many incidents of police brutality, such as the
         | clearing of peaceful protestors in Lafayette Square, which
         | likewise should not be minimized.
        
           | pjc50 wrote:
           | In one case, it was proven to be a provocateur firing on
           | police: https://www.startribune.com/charges-boogaloo-bois-
           | fired-on-m...
           | 
           | Mind you, most of those rioters had the sense to not live
           | stream their crimes.
        
             | neartheplain wrote:
             | Yes, and one of the people who stormed the Capitol was a
             | known BLM activist [0]. That doesn't mean the overwhelming
             | majority of people who stormed the Capitol weren't Trump
             | supporters.
             | 
             | The pro-Trump people saying "antifa stormed the Capitol!"
             | are less surprising when you recall the those who this
             | summer said, "all protest violence is the work of far-right
             | agitators!" The arrest records and livestream footage
             | clearly prove both groups wrong.
             | 
             | [0] https://www.deseret.com/utah/2021/1/7/22219733/utah-
             | activist...
        
         | coffeefirst wrote:
         | DC resident. They came here with bombs, knives, guns, pepper
         | spray, zip ties, set up a gallows on the lawn that's usually
         | covered with families and little kids. They attacked police
         | officers--one died.
         | 
         | DC is more than capable of handling rowdy protests, we have
         | first amendment activity every day. Capitol Police chose not to
         | be prepared and declined backup from the other police agencies
         | for over an hour after they were overrun.
         | 
         | This was not a joke.
        
           | belorn wrote:
           | If someone construct a bomb and brings it to a demonstration,
           | it seems at first glance like premeditated and planned and
           | not something in the spur of the moment.
        
             | TeMPOraL wrote:
             | Depends on what was meant by "a bomb" (hadn't seen the
             | details of that story yet). I used to be into building
             | model solid-fuel rocket engines. If you have certain two
             | common household ingredients and a stove on hand, you can
             | make a sizeable one in a couple of minutes. And the
             | difference between a rocket engine and a crude pipe bomb is
             | whether you stuff the resulting mixture into a plastic pipe
             | vs. metal pipe, and whether you seal it off on one or both
             | ends. So I can easily imagine some amateur pyrotechnician
             | constructing a crude explosive in the heat of the moment
             | (that doesn't excuse it in any way, though).
        
           | sonotathrowaway wrote:
           | Don't forget the pentagon leaders trump installed after his
           | latest purge refused to send in national guard until Virginia
           | and Maryland sent in state troopers, then they suddenly
           | switched course once they found out the coup was failing.
           | 
           | With the coup failed, it was important to look like they
           | weren't complicit and knowingly stood by to allow a terrorist
           | attack.
        
         | zappo2938 wrote:
         | Clearly you haven't looked at it. The MAGA riot had people with
         | guns, pipe bombs, and wrist ties. It was not a party. It was an
         | attempted insurrection against a lawfully elected government
         | while the military was ordered to stand down and stay away
         | while it happened.
        
           | DeafSquid wrote:
           | The riots last summer had guns too
        
             | horsemans wrote:
             | The riots last summer didn't involve insurrectionists
             | violently invading the seat of power of the legislative
             | branch with live ammunition intent on disrupting the
             | peaceful transfer of power in a democratic republic.
        
               | neartheplain wrote:
               | You're right, rioters in DC this summer only tried to
               | storm the White House [0].
               | 
               | 72 people were arrested in DC on weapons charges during
               | the summer riots [1]. Protestors erected a guillotine in
               | front of Jeff Bezos's house [2]. Rioters threw bricks
               | through apartment windows and accosted random people on
               | the street [3] in scenes reminiscent of the Cultural
               | Revolution.
               | 
               | Let's not use the violent insurrection at the Capitol to
               | downplay other violent episodes.
               | 
               | [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/politics/washin
               | gton-dc...
               | 
               | [1]
               | https://mpdc.dc.gov/page/may-2020-january-2021-unrest-
               | relate...
               | 
               | [2] https://www.newsweek.com/amazon-protests-guillotine-
               | jeff-bez...
               | 
               | [3]
               | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/black-
               | live...
        
               | caconym_ wrote:
               | I think a useful yardstick is how many people died. IIRC
               | a sum of around 25 deaths was attributed to all of the
               | "BLM protests" last year, and I don't recall any police
               | deaths that weren't eventually attributed to right-wing
               | folks.
               | 
               | The events of this Wednesday, a single (what I would
               | call) medium-sized protest, got 5 people killed including
               | one policeman, right? So just in terms of the ratio of
               | deaths to participator-days, I think this Wednesday's
               | event probably has last year's protests beaten by at
               | least two orders of magnitude in the loss of life
               | department. Even if you take away the two people who
               | didn't die from the use of a weapon or a savage beating,
               | I think they still got the high score by far.
               | 
               | To be sure, mob violence should be condemned wherever it
               | appears. But in judging movements like these, I think
               | it's important to keep in mind a sense of
               | proportionality, among other things.
        
               | imbnwa wrote:
               | The whataboutism is out of control in this discussion.
               | Its like people forget these same elements showed up to
               | lockdown protests armed and wearing protective vests and,
               | most important of all, attempted to kidnap the Governor
               | of Michigan. So yeah, its a different thing altogether
               | when these elements show up and invade the Capitol
               | building
        
               | jspash wrote:
               | Whataboutism is so easy to spot yet people step right
               | into the trap all the time. But once you can spot it, it
               | just takes a quick remark to shut it right down. ie.
               | either don't respond at all or kindly ask the whatabouter
               | to stick to the topic at hand.
        
               | AnimalMuppet wrote:
               | Attempted to kidnap _and execute_ the Governor of
               | Michigan.
        
               | imbnwa wrote:
               | Can't believe I forgot the best part
        
         | another_sock wrote:
         | Yes exactly, the riots and burned down buildings across the
         | country over the past few years have just been youthful
         | expressions!
        
         | _jal wrote:
         | Yeah - all my parties include ziptie restraints, molotov
         | cocktails and guns in restricted areas, too.
         | 
         | I don't know if you're intentionally downplaying the violence
         | or simply very, very misinformed, but killing a cop with a fire
         | extinguisher is not "causally be[coming] a felon".
        
         | vharuck wrote:
         | They erected a gallows. Not the kind of party I'd want to
         | attend.
         | 
         | https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/noose-hung-outside-capitol...
        
       | caminocorner wrote:
       | This is a great idea!
       | 
       | Hypothetical: I do wonder how admissible this is as court
       | evidence in a world where DeepFake videos is an open source tool.
       | If it's not on the protester's facebook, couldn't a clever
       | defense attorney just claim the video was altered by the
       | archivist and "there's no way to prove that is the face of the
       | defendant"? I bet it would need to be coupled with other
       | evidence, testimony, etc?
        
         | redisman wrote:
         | I mean you can corroborate it with a plane ticket most likely
        
         | MattGaiser wrote:
         | If it got to a trial, they would just get the original from
         | Facebook with a court order.
        
         | caymanjim wrote:
         | Cell phone tracking, eyewitnesses, confessions. Most of these
         | people aren't going to be arrested or prosecuted, and the more
         | egregious ones are going to brag about it.
        
         | rapind wrote:
         | I don't think deep fake is deep enough to survive real
         | scrutiny, especially with tools to detect fakes. I'm not even
         | sure still image fakes are good enough to be undetectable given
         | some time and resources.
         | 
         | Deep fake videos are more about influencing opinion, especially
         | when people can't be bothered to check sources, which is a
         | legitimate concern.
         | 
         | I expect that any video submitted as court evidence will
         | undergo the necessary scrutiny.
        
           | handedness wrote:
           | > I expect that any video submitted as court evidence will
           | undergo the necessary scrutiny.
           | 
           | Evidence often only undergoes the level of scrutiny for which
           | the accused are willing and able to pay. Contesting a
           | sophisticated deep fake would require leading expert witness
           | research and testimony, which can cost thousands of dollars
           | per hour and take weeks or months.
           | 
           | For the proverbial Trial of the Century, fake detection may
           | well be robust enough for a long time to come. For many
           | others, though, it's likely another shift in the balance of
           | power further in favor of the well-funded, whether said
           | funding comes by way of existing wealth or an ability to
           | print currency.
        
         | chowells wrote:
         | No physical evidence is ever provided without some sort of
         | testimony as to its provenance. The legal system was already
         | equipped for this, in theory. The bigger problem recently has
         | been that when someone is willing to lie about their faked
         | evidence, it's harder to detect and impeach the testimony
         | introducing that evidence.
         | 
         | So it's a problem, but not a structural one. The existing
         | structures are already designed to handle forged evidence. The
         | issue is that it's more expensive and technically difficult for
         | parties to audit evidence in search of that forgery.
        
         | Mizza wrote:
         | A great idea! While we're at it, let's have a game show where
         | condemned prisoners battle celebrity bounty hunters on live
         | television!
         | 
         | So weird to see hackers suddenly embracing the surveillance
         | state, national security directives, security theater and a
         | harsh judiciary for political protest just because it's a bunch
         | of lower class brainwashed boomers instead of their favorite
         | whiny private university activists.
        
           | another_sock wrote:
           | It's not really weird, it's expected. What would be weird is
           | if the HN crowd was able to think for themselves when the
           | media, all governments, and tech companies are pushing the
           | same narrative. Employees of tech companies aren't any
           | different than employees of non-tech companies, their main
           | trait is following orders.
        
           | pc86 wrote:
           | You can both detest the surveillance state _and_ be happy
           | when terrorists are able to be brought to justice.
        
             | Mizza wrote:
             | Calling everything you don't like "terrorism" is exactly
             | the kind of hyperbolic rhetoric that ends up giving the
             | surveillance state more power to spy on you and every one
             | you love.
             | 
             | Am I just old now? Or did people just not learn any lessons
             | from the post 9/11 years?
        
       | neartheplain wrote:
       | Previous discussion:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25667763
        
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       (page generated 2021-01-08 23:01 UTC)