In the chaos of a mob, people might think they're able to get away with just about anything.
Emotions and passions might get the better of otherwise even-keeled people, but as one case in Philadelphia is reminding us, the crowd and the chaos doesn't provide as much cover as you might expect, especially given how connected we all are in 2020.
After protests in Philadelphia turned violent on May 30, the woman at the right in this picture, 33-year-old Lore Elisabeth Blumenthal, stands accused of arson in the torching of a pair of police cars.
How the FBI tracked her down from that faceless crowd showed considerable resourcefulness, and it also has a lot of people thinking about their online history.
As the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, news footage from a helicopter showed a woman wearing a mask, goggles, and gloves using a piece of flaming barricade to light a pair of police cars on fire.
Investigators were able to find other video and images on Instagram and Vimeo however, and they showed slightly more detail: a distinctive peace symbol tattoo. Combing through about 500 more images, the investigators saw the same tattoo on a woman wearing a t-shirt bearing the slogan, "Keep the Immigrants, Deport the Racists."
Only one place had such a shirt for sale: an Etsy shop specializing in handmade feminist clothing. The store's top review happened to come from someone identifying themselves as "Xx Mv" and from Philadelphia, with the username "alleycatlore."
The investigators googled that username, which led them to an account on fashion marketplace Poshmark with the user handle "lore-elisabeth." Searching that handle led the investigators to LinkedIn.
And so, the investigators looked her business up and found her web page, where she had uploaded videos of herself demonstrating massage techniques.
Of course, her forearms were readily visible in the videos, and they featured the peace symbol tattoo that had started the investigation in the first place.
"Social media has fueled much of the protests, and has also become a fertile ground for government surveillance," Blumenthal's attorney, Paul Hetznecker, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I think people have lost awareness of that."
Hetznekcer also raised the question of whether this kind of government surveillance overreached.
"The question is whether they’ve undermined the privacy interests of everyone based on the search for one or two individuals," Hetznecker added. "That’s the same paradigm that was used to profile Muslims after 9/11, the same paradigm used for profiling African Americans."
"We at the U.S. Attorney’s Office fully support the First Amendment right of the people to assemble peaceably and to petition their government," U.S. Attorney William McSwain said in a statement, according to CBS News. "But torching a police car has nothing to do with peaceful protest or any legitimate message. Anybody who engaged in such acts can stand by to put your hands behind your back and head to federal prison. We are coming for you."
Blumenthal faces a minimum seven-year sentence for federal arson charges if convicted.
