On Thursday, Boing Boing ran a story "Alleged subway wanker caught on cameraphone, Flickr" which tells how a young woman, Thao Nguyen, was allegedly flashed by a guy who completely exposed himself to her and masturbated on the NY subway; in response, she took his photo with her cameraphone, apparently putting him off enough to leave the train. She took the photo to the police, looked through some existing mug-shots, couldn't immediately identify the man, and then posted the photo to her Flickr account. Since then, her Flickr photo has been viewed over 89,000 times, the story has appeared in 1010Wins and, more importantly, in the New York Daily News (cover image here, [via BoingBoing]). At first glance, this story reflects an empowering use of new technologies: instead of being victimised by a guy who may never be identified, Thao Nguyen used her cameraphone to capture an image of her abuser and then used Flickr and digital word of mouth (amplified by Boing Boing and then an old media newspaper) to get the image of this guy out as a warning. Even if not caught, the guy in question probably won't be riding the subway again for a while as there are no doubt many citizens (and police) who are now familiar with his face. In this particular instance, this use of technology appears to be entirely positive (especially if the guy is caught, tried and proven guilty).
However, there lies the issue. Boing Boing, quite sensibly, added an "allegedly" to their first story about this incident. While I'm 100% comfortable with everything up to Thao Nguyen posting the image in her Flickr account (which is her right as the person taking the shot), I'm less comfortable with the media reportage thereafter. Sure, this case seems very straightforward: flasher guy is bad/evil/deranged. But, what if "the flasher" has a mental illness of some sort and didn't understand what he was doing? What if there are other extreme circumstances behind his action? Now, let me state clearly: I would never wish this situation on anyone and am sure the trauma Thao Nguyen felt is very real and should not be in any way trivialised. However, beyond this image, nothing else is know about the guy on the train. Now, I recognise that this is one of those cases where if it was left up to the police and law, it's very possible nothing would get done. Police in NY seem to be very busy most of the time and this sort of abuse may very well not register very high on their priority list. So, Thao Nguyen's actions may very well have sped up justice in a particular way. Indeed, in this very specific case, Thao's actions and those of the media seem very just and upright.
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