Anonymous and the Dawson Creek shooting

WP Note: Posting these two articles as a follow up to previous posts about the Dawson Creek police shooting of James Daniel McIntyre.  It’s been a confusing story to follow, and now it appears that Anonymous is engaged in an internal struggle over how to respond.  The initial call outs for naming the cop who fired the shots, shutting down police websites etc, have now been replaced by what appears to be a liberal faction of Anonymous attempting to pacify any type of militant response to the shooting.  It also appears that McIntyre was not a part of the Anonymous First Nations, who have stated he was not a member.

B.C. man killed by RCMP identified, as Anonymous members quarrel over retaliation

By Adrian Humphreys & Postmedia Network/The Province, July 21, 2015

The man killed by the RCMP outside a BC Hydro public meeting in Dawson Creek Thursday has been identified as James Daniel McIntyre, a 48-year-old local resident who fellow activists say was an Anonymous member who sent warnings — or threats — to BC Hydro of a potential hack attack shortly before the police shooting.

The killing of McIntyre, who is said to have been wearing the grinning Guy Fawkes mask worn by supporters of Anonymous, a global hacktivist collective, and carrying a knife at the time, has led to threats of vengeance against the RCMP and calls for public protests.

“Anonymous will not stand idly by while our own are cut down in mask,” said a statement sent Saturday to the National Post, threatening the Internet infrastructure of the RCMP and the release of personal information on the identity of the officer who pulled the trigger.

“If we do not receive justice, rest assured there will be revenge,” the statement says.

An apparent denial of service attack targeted RCMP websites over the weekend but all seemed operational Monday. The fallout from the threats, however, sparked infighting among activists under the Anonymous banner, some pushing for alternate ways of dealing with the shooting. By Monday, an Anonymous Twitter account issuing the threats first declared it was “under new management” and then, by afternoon, was deleted.

A Twitter user claims to have deactivated the account through a hostile takeover because “the drama” of the Anonymous squabble took the focus away from McIntyre’s death and the issue he was protesting. Someone identifying themselves as McIntyre’s cousin tweeted, “this nonsense will not bring my cousin back” and said McIntyre has family members in the RCMP.

McIntyre was killed at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the parking lot of the Fixx Urban Grill restaurant.

The RCMP said officers were called to the scene for a report of a man damaging property and disrupting the event. McIntyre was not the person who caused the initial disturbance but confronted two responding officers, said Corp. Dave Tyreman, an RCMP spokesman.

Tyreman said officers “did everything they could to de-escalate” the situation before shooting.

The death is being investigated by the Independent Investigations Office. The IIO said a knife was recovered along with other evidence and the probe is continuing. IIO investigators are “interviewing civilian witnesses; designating and interviewing officers; reviewing video from the scene and from witnesses; and meeting with the affected person’s family,” the IIO says in a written statement.

Neither the IIO nor the RCMP have identified the officer who shot McIntyre. Tyreman declined to provide even the officer’s rank, gender or years of service with the force, citing the threats against the officer by online activists. The IIO says decision on the officer’s work status is the responsibility of the RCMP.

Mike Irmen was in Dawson Creek on business and said he saw two Mounties with their guns drawn. Irmen asked what was going on.

“Just as I said that to them, bang, the cops had shot the guy. He kind of falls down and ends up laying there, bleeding, and he’s got his knife still in his hand,” Irmen said.

Irmen pulled out his phone and shot video of McIntyre as he lay on his right side, blood pooling beneath him.

“The cops are like, ‘Throw your weapon away, throw your weapon away, throw your weapon away.’ They must have said it I don’t know how many times,” he said.

McIntyre appeared to lose consciousness and the officers kicked the knife from the man’s hand and handcuffed him, Irmen said.

McIntyre died shortly after arrival at hospital, according to the coroner. The coroner has still not traced bullet trajectories and could not say how many times he was shot.

A woman who answered the phone Monday at a home believed to be a relative’s residence said she had no comment and asked for privacy for the family.

McIntyre worked at Le’s Family restaurant as a dishwasher and cook’s assistant, according to the Alaska Highway News. Owner Le Nguyen said McIntyre was a hard worker and a “normal guy.”

People identifying themselves as Anonymous activists, including some with a known history of hacktivist activity, say McIntyre was a First Nations Anonymous member who, using the Twitter handle @jaymack9, helped organize opposition to the Site C Dam, a massive hydroelectric project planned for the Peace River in northeastern B.C. (The coroner’s office said determining any native status was part of its investigation.)

On the day of the public hearing, he sent several tweets, most about BC Hydro’s plans.

“Anonymous splinter group (to) attend the scheduled meeting in Dawson Creek tonight starting at 6pm,” he tweeted shortly before he was shot.

Earlier, he sent a tweet to B.C. Premier Christy Clark and B.C. Hydro with what could be perceived as a threat of a computer hack: “BC Hydro check your computer systems, have real weakness in some areas,” it says.

Despite his tweeted warning of Anonymous protesters attending the meeting, Tyreman said that information did not appear to be known to police at the time.

“The only time this group Anonymous came to our attention was after the fact,” Tyreman said. The RCMP is aware of the subsequent threats coming after the shooting and “appropriate resources” are reviewing it.

One of those tagged in @jaymack9’s last two tweets was Faisal Moola, a director of the David Suzuki Foundation and an environmental scientist.

“I don’t know the individual. I am not clear why he tweeted me, the local First Nations and the David Suzuki Foundation,” Moola said in an interview. “I do not know the individual at all but I am aware of what happened to him in this altercation with police.”

Moola previously presented a study on the environmental impact of hydroelectric projects in BC to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency as part of the hearings on the Site C dam.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/killed+RCMP+identified+Anonymous+members+quarrel+over/11229527/story.html

Anonymous responds after Dawson Creek man fatally shot by police

Image captured from video moments after RCMP shoot a man allegedly holding a knife in Dawson Creek, BC.

By Global News, July 20, 2015

A group claiming to be Anonymous is striking back after a fatal police-involved shooting in Dawson Creek last week.

The BC Coroners Service identified the shooting victim as James McIntyre, a 48-year-old Dawson Creek resident who worked as a dishwasher and part-time cook.

Police said they shot the man after he refused to comply with officers’ instructions.

Eyewitness video posted online showed a man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask lying bloodied on the ground while two Mounties faced him with weapons drawn.

The smiling Fawkes mask has become a symbol for Anonymous. Fawkes was the most well-known member of a plot to blow up the British Parliament in 1605.

The hacktivist group issued a press release claiming the man killed last Thursday as one of their own and vowed revenge against the RCMP. It promised to identify the officer involved and release his personal information on the Internet.

The group took credit for shutting down some RCMP websites, although government officials claim it was maintenance.

Others associated with the hacktivist group raised questions about further actions, saying:

“No Canadian Anonymous that we know of supports the outing of the RCMP officer or the screams for ‘vengeance’ at this time.”

Global BC reached out via social media to a person who claims to be part of  Anonymous. The person answered several questions in an online exchange with reporter Jeremy Hunka.

Here is the full exchange:

Was it Anonymous that shut down the RCMP websites today, and if so, why?

Anonymous does not mean Unanimous. @OpAnonDown is being claimed by a USian named Christopher Doyon, aka Commander X, who tends to trick younger Anon prospects into committing illegal activities such as DDoSing websites. Many Anons are outraged over this week’s shooting of a man in a Guy Fawkes mask outside of a BC Hydro open house meeting and they are supporting the op because of their outrage, but many others find the op and any association with Commander X to be extremely counterproductive.

What next steps will you take against the RCMP?

Anonymous amplifies voices of the oppressed when they are not being heard. If Canada continues to follow the path of violent policing set by their neighbours to the south instead of bringing their policing back in line with the rest of the developed world, we will assist any efforts brought by the people to encourage retraining and new regulations for the police.

What are your main concerns with the police action in Dawson Creek?

It is obvious that Canada has an escalating problem with police violence. The BC RCMP (one province) has shot three people to death in ten days. We are deeply shocked that the RCMP, who are traditionally known to be highly trained, resorted to shooting a man to death when non-lethal force would have been enough to subdue the suspect.

Social media accounts suggest the man shot in Dawson Creek was an Anonymous member. Is that true? How was he affiliated? Do you know his identity?

No proof of his identity is public at the time of this interview and we have no reason to release anything we know of his identity. However it should not matter if he was Anon or First Nations, he was a person and now he is dead. Police killings in Canada are increasing and it is a worrying trend we must nip at the bud before it becomes an epidemic. No one wants Canada to look like the US.

Why was Anonymous protesting the Site C Dam?

Canada was formerly a resource corporation known as the Hudson’s Bay Company. Canada’s laws have aided the more than 75% of the world’s resource corporations registered here to avoid legal responsibility for their human rights and environmental disasters worldwide. Anonymous OpCanary was pushing SiteC protests because the RCMP are protecting resource corporations over the public at large and helping enforce unjust action against First Nations, as happens globally.

Will Anonymous be publicizing the name of the police officer suspected of shooting the victim from Dawson Creek even if his identity is unconfirmed? Could that put an innocent person in jeopardy?

No Canadian Anonymous that we know of supports the outing of the RCMP officer or the screams for ‘vengeance’ at this time. We are waiting to see if there is an effective independent review from the IIO and a trial. There are certain Anons, mostly from the US, who do not understand how a working legal system may function. They may feel that outing the RCMP officer is an appropriate step and we have no control or influence over them. We also have no control over anons who may run out of patience with the ridiculously slow process many of these reviews are.

What are your demands to the RCMP?

We want to see the officer who shot the man in Dawson Creek charged and we want retraining of Canadian police in de-escalation and non-lethal weapons. We would like to see Canada work towards disarming the police in a manner similar to Japan or the UK and we would like to see far less emulation of the US. We also would like more transparency and media focus on the number of police deaths in Canada and the actions taken in each case. It is obvious the numbers have risen dramatically but information is not easily accessible or widely known to Canadians.

What are your accusations against the RCMP based on? Do you have members on the ground in Dawson Creek?

Anonymous is everywhere including in Dawson Creek. We have seen no evidence that #OpAnonDown has any contact with the local anons however, it seems to be operating on its own.

What is your main message?

In 1984, Denis Lortie stormed into the National Assembly of Quebec building and opened fire with several firearms, killing three Quebec government employees and wounding 13 others. The National Assembly’s Sergeant-at-Arms, René Jalbert, after Lorie fired his C-1 Submachine gun inches from his face, persuaded Lortie to talk to him for over four hours and ultimately surrender with no further violence. That is the gold standard of de-escalation and peacekeeping that Canada was once famous for. We would like law enforcement policy and training to reject the new paranoia and return to the model used formerly in Canada and used currently in all the places with far less police violence than Canada. Canada is not the US, we do not tolerate street executions.

http://globalnews.ca/news/2122106/anonymous-responds-after-dawson-creek-man-fatally-shot-by-police/