Pointing out the wrong perpetrator
At the Boston Marathon, for example, you could follow the runners live via a chip. In this way, people could see exactly who was near the finish at that time after the bombing. Many smart people and hackers pored over all the available big data and did a light version of the investigation. On the site Reddit, among others , many discussed and analyzed who could have done it. The disadvantage: they were often wrong, for example by pointing to a missing American of Indian descent as the perpetrator .
Again, this is where the difference with the government lies. There are laws that protect suspects for a reason. Nor is it the intention to take the law into one's own hands. The public wants the perpetrator to be found quickly, but this must be done according to the rules that we have drawn up together. The judge increasingly gives a milder sentence, because the suspects have already been convicted in the media .
Manhunt in Boston?
Manhunt in Boston?
Citizen financing
American Bauman lost both lower legs in the Boston bombing. He was not insured. In America, they do not have a compensation fund that he could fall back on. A case of double bad luck, you might say. Not in this day and age. Friends and acquaintances start a campaign for the victim on the Go Fund Me website. Under the name ' Bucks for Bauman ', they donated more than half a million dollars within a week. The counter is now at three quarters of a million of the required million dollars. Donations of 10, 20 or 50 dollars flowed into the site in the first few days. So the company is actually paying for the damage that has been incurred in this exceptional case. And the American government? It does nothing.
Citizen funding for Boston Marathon bombing victim
In the Netherlands, we of course have the compensation fund, but we are also georgia mobile phone number list increasingly seeing similar actions. For example, at the end of last month, the former internationals played a benefit match for the relatives of the deceased linesman Richard Nieuwenhuis. After 90 minutes, they raised over €50,000. Of course, this does not mean that we should abolish the compensation fund in the Netherlands. We do see that society is taking over part of this task. And we predict that this will happen more often, both large and small.
Citizen support
In addition to information provision and financing, there are many other examples in which citizens take on part of the process. In the case of psychosocial aftercare, numerous condolence registers are created on Facebook, Hyves and other social media after an incident. A government does not always have to open a condolence register itself, if this has already been done by (directly) involved parties. If a government does not set up a page itself at that time, but refers to a single page of expressions of support (for example a RIP page ), people can leave their expressions of support there.
There are known examples where (direct) stakeholders exchange ideas on a closed forum, for example after a major morals case or a shooting incident. The role of the government is then mainly in referring to these places.