Canadian police investigate Facebook beating video in murder case

By Rod Nickel

REUTERS

 

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Canadian police said on Wednesday they were investigating whether a beating captured on video, reported to have been distributed through social networking site Facebook Inc, may be connected to a young woman's murder.

 

The video is the latest example of Facebook being used to document violent crimes, a pattern that has led the company to re-evaluate some of its policies.

 

“This was a horrific tragedy," Facebook said in a statement emailed to Reuters. "We have not been able to locate the video on Facebook, and are working with law enforcement as they investigate.”

 

Thailand police said on Wednesday they would consider how to quickly remove inappropriate online content after a man broadcast himself killing his 11-month-old daughter on Facebook.

 

Last week, the company said it was reviewing how it monitored violent footage after a posting of a fatal shooting in Cleveland, Ohio was visible for two hours.

 

The Canadian video showed someone kicking a woman in the face while a second person held back her arm from defending herself, according to Winnipeg Free Press, and was shared through Facebook.

 

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Sgt. Paul Manaigre said police are reviewing the video to determine whether it is linked to a murder at Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba last weekend. It may have been shared directly between people on Facebook, but not posted for public viewing, he said.

 

Reuters has not seen the video.

 

Police have charged two girls, ages 16 and 17, with the second-degree murder of a 19-year-old woman in Sagkeeng.

 

Sagkeeng Chief Derrick Henderson could not be reached for comment.

 

Claude Guimond, school principal at Sagkeeng, said two videos, each lasting less than one minute, of the beating, circulated widely through Facebook in Sagkeeng, an aboriginal community 100 kilometres (62 miles) northeast of Winnipeg.

 

"It was brutally graphic," he said, declining to describe the content.

 

Guimond said that he identified in the video both of the accused, and the victim, all of whom attended his school.

 

Those who film crimes without aiding a victim could be charged in Canada with being an accessory, but the act of posting such videos is not illegal, the RCMP's Manaigre said.

 

"To me, the video is shocking, that someone can stand there and watch it and not assist," he said.

 

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Angela Moon in New York; editing by Jim Finkle and Grant McCool)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-04-27

Sickening. There is some sort of macho mindset amoungst these native kids, even the girls. A wrong look and they want to beat the hell out of each other. It's a ghetto life on some of these reserves. 

6 hours ago, pegman said:

Sickening. There is some sort of macho mindset amoungst these native kids, even the girls. A wrong look and they want to beat the hell out of each other. It's a ghetto life on some of these reserves. 

Pray tell what reservations have to do with a worldwide epidemic. 

12 hours ago, silent said:

Pray tell what reservations have to do with a worldwide epidemic. 

In Canada the prevalence of this type of trouble is much, much higher with on and off reserve natives. I was a couple miles from where this happened a couple of weeks ago. Beautiful cottage country surrounding Sagkeeng. They have had some very smart, articulate leaders there that have gone on to national native leadership positions. Nothing, including throwing $$$ at the problems,  seems to work in making these communities as safe as elsewhere in our country.

3 hours ago, pegman said:

In Canada the prevalence of this type of trouble is much, much higher with on and off reserve natives. I was a couple miles from where this happened a couple of weeks ago. Beautiful cottage country surrounding Sagkeeng. They have had some very smart, articulate leaders there that have gone on to national native leadership positions. Nothing, including throwing $$$ at the problems,  seems to work in making these communities as safe as elsewhere in our country.

That's not my Canada. I didn't see that sort of thing on the Whitefish or Curve Lake reservations, but sure as hell did off them 

18 hours ago, silent said:

That's not my Canada. I didn't see that sort of thing on the Whitefish or Curve Lake reservations, but sure as hell did off them 

No things are much different in the west than in eastern Ontario. 66% of federal inmates in Manitoba are native. Tragic events are continually happening within that community.

6 hours ago, pegman said:

No things are much different in the west than in eastern Ontario. 66% of federal inmates in Manitoba are native. Tragic events are continually happening within that community.

Let's not call Manitoba, Alberta and BC, Canada then. I've lived and worked all through the flipside of the map too. From what I've seen it's the settlers in the wild west that created the native codependency and there's a hell of a lot more violent crime there from the non-indigenous.