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United States Cellphones Crime Government Social Networks

Capitol Rioters Identified Using Facial Recognition Software, Cellphone Records - and Social Media Posts (nbcnews.com) 352

NBC News reports more than 440 Americans have now been charged with storming the U.S. Capitol building on January 6th, with charges now filed against people from 44 of America's 50 states. They describe it as "one of the largest criminal investigations in American history." The largest number come from Texas, Pennsylvania, and Florida, in that order. Men outnumber women among those arrested by 7 to 1, with an average age of 39, according to figures compiled by the Program on Extremism at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. A total of 44 are military veterans.
Hundreds of arrests happened because rioters later bragged online: In nearly 90 percent of the cases, charges have been based at least in part on a person's own social media accounts.

A New York man, Robert Chapman, bragged on the dating app Bumble that he'd been in the Capitol during the riot. The person he was seeking to date responded, "We are not a match," and notified the FBI.

In fact, the investigative agency has now received "hundreds of thousands" of tips from the public, and has even posted photos of people who participated in the riots online asking for the public's help to identify them.

But NBC also reports that technology is being used to identify participants:
  • "Investigators have also used facial recognition software, comparing images from surveillance cameras and an outpouring of social media and news agency videos against photo databases of the FBI and at least one other federal agency, Customs and Border Protection, according to court documents."
  • Investigators "have also subpoenaed records from companies providing cellphone service, allowing agents to tell whether a specific person's phone was inside the Capitol during the siege."

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Capitol Rioters Identified Using Facial Recognition Software, Cellphone Records - and Social Media Posts

Comments Filter:
  • Nice. (Score:3, Funny)

    by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @05:57AM (#61364934)
    I especially like the internet tough guy who gets caught after bragging about committing insurrection on a dating website. I hope you like shower sex, stud.
    • Of that list:

      The largest number come from Texas, Pennsylvania, and Florida, in that order.

      The Pennsylvania one is a bit odd. I mean, if someone asked "where do you think they'll be from" I'd have immediately chosen Texas and Florida, but Pennsylvania?

      • Pennsylvania is doing its best to be the next Florida man.

      • There's a reason the middle of the state (between Philly and Pittsburgh) is called Pennsyltucky. Also being Pennsylvania, fairly short drive down to DC, entire state is only a day's drive away.
      • Re:Nice. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @08:13AM (#61365206) Journal

        The Pennsylvania one is a bit odd. I mean, if someone asked "where do you think they'll be from" I'd have immediately chosen Texas and Florida, but Pennsylvania?

        Southwestern Pennsylvania might as well be West Virginia. You'll find more Confederate Flags there than teeth.

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Cmdln Daco ( 1183119 )

          You guys have a nice way of tipping your hand and showing your abject prejudice. We can only hope someday the cancel culture turns on you.

          • People flying the flags of the side who lost a war is a bit strange.

            • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

              by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

              People flying the flags of the side who lost a war is a bit strange.

              Only if you forget that these people are racist AF, and the flag was explicitly created as a symbol of white nationalism and the glory of the whites. They think the war is still being fought, and in a very real way, it is. Only now they're fighting it primarily by gaslighting...

            • Seems to be part of the culture: On the one hand they like to strut around in pseudo-military uniforms carrying assault rifles, but at the same time they spend an awful lot of time crying about how everyone is being mean to them. Viewed from outside the US, it's a really... weird combination. Maybe there's something I'm missing due to the distance.
        • Re:Nice. (Score:5, Informative)

          by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @12:09PM (#61365880)

          Southwestern Pennsylvania might as well be West Virginia. You'll find more Confederate Flags there than teeth.

          West Virginia exists because when the Civil War broke out, Virginia seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy. But the people in the western-most part of Virginia were predominantly opposed to slavery - so much so that they voted to secede from Virginia, and formed a new state which remained with the Union - West Virginia. The only reason the state exists is literally because they opposed the Confederacy.

          So you won't find Confederate flags there. The bulk of Virginia's economy and tax base at the time was on plantations in the east. The west was mountainous and poor. The residents of the state take pride in knowing that their ancestors made the morally right choice during the Civil War, even though it hurt them economically. The fact that you think the opposite says more about your own bias and prejudices, than that of West Virginians.

          • So you won't find Confederate flags there.

            Son, I live on the Virgina-West Virginia border, and I can confirm that West Virginia is full of confederate flags. Maybe in 1889 you might not have seen them, but in 2021 you see them everywhere.

      • Once you get away from Philly and Pittsburg and their suburbs, the rest of the state is actually really republican. It's exactly why it has frequently been a swing state in presidential elections because there is truly no way to know how the state will go.

      • It is not that far from Pennsylvania to the Capitol and what with Covid-19, for some a bit of rioting would have seemed like a fun way to spend a day. Not that a lower level of commitment to the cause excuses any insurrectionist. Those who overtly break the law, and those whose physical presence supports the law breakers, are guilty of crimes. Some were insurrectionists; others were rioters. The courts can sort that out. Stupidity, especially documented stupid acts like bragging on line, is not an excuse.
    • Re:Nice. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Entrope ( 68843 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @09:52AM (#61365570) Homepage

      I do not think I will ever understand people who think that jokes about rape are funny just because they are set in a prison.

  • Well, there you go. The government is actually tracking us with our cellphones.
  • by schwit1 ( 797399 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @06:33AM (#61364998)

    https://www.startribune.com/tw... [startribune.com]

    Estimated $500M in damage.

    • Portland, OR, too (Score:2, Informative)

      by Entrope ( 68843 )

      Also do the rioters in Portland, who assaulted federal officers, attacked the federal courthouse, and did millions of dollars of damage to both government and privately owned buildings.

      Oh, right, the Biden administration is dismissing all charges against most of them. Because orderly trespass is much worse than trying to burn down a courthouse, blind federal officers, and burn local police to death.

      And what are the chances that any rioter will be charged, much less convicted, in a clear case of Antifa brut [oregonlive.com]

      • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @08:02AM (#61365182)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • No one was armed. How would a few thousand people overthrown the US govt without guns?
          • Re:Portland, OR, too (Score:4, Informative)

            by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Sunday May 09, 2021 @09:15AM (#61365448) Homepage Journal

            No one was armed. How would a few thousand people overthrown the US govt without guns?

            At least one insurrectionist was armed. There were probably more of them armed than we know about, as well. But guns are irrelevant, frankly. People overthrew governments before they were invented.

            The insurrectionists' goal was to interfere with and prevent the certification of the vote, and to pressure Mike Pence into illegally refusing to call the election. They were literally threatening his life to that end, chanting "Hang Mike Pence". They erected a gallows to back up this threat. If they had succeeded in interfering with the process, the delaying tactic and the publicity surrounding it might well have led sufficient people involved with the process to falsely certify the election for Trump. There were attempts to assemble alternate panels of electors for that purpose. The insurrectionists were an only-slightly-witting (As they are equipped with only the slightest of wits) element of a coordinated attempt to steal the election — somewhat ironically but also logically phrased "stop the steal". Republicans generally accuse the other side of specifically what they are doing at any given time, or what they have been doing — Witness for example PizzaGaetz. And gaslighting is a known effective strategy for confusing issues.

            Do you need someone to draw you a flowchart?

        • a literal attempt to violently overthrow the government and murder the Vice President

          Talk about unrelated. You cannot get any more unrelated that lies.

      • Re:Portland, OR, too (Score:4, Interesting)

        by angel'o'sphere ( 80593 ) <{angelo.schneider} {at} {oomentor.de}> on Sunday May 09, 2021 @08:11AM (#61365198) Journal

        Oh, right, the Biden administration is dismissing all charges against most of them.
        That is most certainly nonsense. How would that work in a state of law? The administration most certainly has absolutely no influence on what the state attorneys and judges are prosecuting or not.

        How can one be so uneducated about his own countries law system?

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by iamhassi ( 659463 )
          Article literally says federal govt (aka Biden administration) is dismissing charges against most of them https://www.kgw.com/article/ne... [kgw.com]
        • by Entrope ( 68843 )

          The US is a federal system, with criminal laws at both state/local and federal levels. The local prosecutors dropped all charges [katu.com] against violent rioters and looters earlier. That prompted the federal authorities to pursue charges, and those are the charges that I mentioned being dropped.

          Next time you accuse someone of being uneducated about something close to them, you might want to step back and check whether you are the one who is missing important facts. Some caution might make you look less like a hu

      • Because orderly trespass

        I've never seen a post loose so much credibility in just 3 words.

    • by dasunt ( 249686 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @07:16AM (#61365076)

      If you are paying attention, people have been arrested and charged in regards to what happened in Minneapolis.

      As far as I know, there's been two convictions so far in the precinct fire - neither was from Minneapolis, btw.

      • by Entrope ( 68843 )

        Charging people for actually burning down a police precinct is not comparable to charging people for what is essentially trespass. There were a lot more people in the MPLS rioting who could be charged with lesser crimes. Are they being pursued?

        Among the first people to be sentenced or plead guilty over that, two are from St Paul (Wolfe and Turner), and another is from Brainerd (Robinson). Two out of three from the Twin Cities makes "neither was from Minneapolis" seem disingenuous.

        • Charging people for actually burning down a police precinct is not comparable to charging people for what is essentially trespass.

          Intent is always relevant.

          Their professed intent was to stop the legal count of a legal vote, in order to change the outcome of the election. Therefore they are insurrectionists by admission and definition.

          • by Entrope ( 68843 )

            Insurrection, n. - a violent uprising against an authority or government.

            Destroying a police building in Minneapolis is much more of a violent uprising against government than is petitioning government for a redress of grievances about a supposedly stolen election.

        • Congress had to stop certifying the election results because of the capitol riots. That's kind of a big deal. https://archive.is/SNAXR [archive.is]

        • by dasunt ( 249686 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @01:20PM (#61366132)

          Charging people for actually burning down a police precinct is not comparable to charging people for what is essentially trespass. There were a lot more people in the MPLS rioting who could be charged with lesser crimes. Are they being pursued?

          Minneapolis has pursued 75 cases. Total arrests during the protests were in the hundreds, but in many of those, charges were dropped because the first amendment provided a strong defense.

          Quite honestly, arrests could have been higher, but the police were more focused on arresting protesters than rioters and looters. The cynical side of me thinks this may be due to the protesters criticizing the police, while the criminals were victimizing the general population.

    • by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @08:35AM (#61365300)

      What are you even talking about? This information is out there and it's not like MN or the Fed's are not making arrests and filing charges.


      Ninety-one people faced state felony charges by December 2020 for burglary connected to looting in late May—35 in Hennepin County and 56 in Ramsey County. All but three of those charged were from Minnesota and most had home addresses in Minneapolis or Saint Paul. Several of those charged pled guilty and two had charges dropped in lieu of participation in a restorative justice program. The number of felony charges were said to represent a small fraction of the total people culpable for rioting and looting during the events in late May 2020.[9]

      A 28-year-old man from Saint Paul faced attempted murder charges for allegedly shooting at Minneapolis police on Lake Street during unrest on May 30, 2020.[9]

      By February 2021, twenty-two people were charged in federal court in connection to the unrest in late May 2020.[12][10] Only one person had a residential address in Minneapolis, while two were from outside of Minnesota, including an Iowa man charged with illegal gun procession during the unrest.[12]

      "By late December 2020, United States Attorney’s office charged 14 people with arson in connection to eight separate fires set in late May 2020. Officials said they had plans to bring forward additional cases as they reviewed more evidence.[9] Two additional suspects, a husband and wife from Rochester, Minnesota, were charged in February 2021 for fires they set in Saint Paul on May 28.[10] All but one of the federal arson suspects-—an Illinois resident—were from Minnesota.[9] Two arson suspects were from Saint Paul, one from Minneapolis, seven from suburban Twin Cities' communities, and others from Brainerd, Rochester, and Staples. Authorities relied largely on video evidence and in some cases on the social media videos that suspects posted of themselves at protests.[9]"

      Also it's easy to forget that the BLM protests were by the numbers, the largest civil rights protests in American history. Tens of millions involved and only 3.7% actually involved any property damage, only 1% were police injured.

      https://www.radcliffe.harvard.... [harvard.edu]

      Funny that people who decry the "MSM" so much always seem to run with their sensationalist and lazy narratives when they like it and can just toss everything else away when they don't.

    • Maybe if the police stopped murdering (black) people these riots wouldn't happen...

  • Check out this defense [theguardian.com].

    I suspect others will subpoena Trump etc to testify in court.

  • "Hey, let's do something illegal and then post an incriminating photo on social media!"

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