Luka Magnotta case: lessons learned?

Netflix has a new documentary series on Luka Magnotta, who videotaped his murder of Chinese immigrant and student Lin Jun.

You may and probably should watch this series (it’s short) for some background on the case. However, there is a better, more informative video available for free on the web, courtesy of The Fifth Estate:

In the Netflix video, a group of animal lovers dedicated to fighting animal abuse sought information about a video of a young man suffocating two kittens using plastic bags and a vacuum. The group did some good work, however I am astonished at how long it took for them to identify the perpetrator – 18 months, according the the Fifth Estate video. I hadn’t been familiar with the Magnotta case (I was suffering from a serious illness at the time and also taking care of a dying father), so as I was watching, I had no idea of who the kitten killer might be.

However, ten minutes into the Netflix video, I had already formed a profile in my mind: he was most likely North American and white, and very likely a white supremacist. I felt the display of narcissism and the attention-seeking nature of the kitten killing videos revealed someone with a political, however inchoate, motive. These animal folks were initially fooled by the numerous images and Facebook pages showing Magnotta’s alleged modeling career and world travels. Immediately I knew that this was a pathological narcissist who had created all of those profiles. Why didn’t someone on the Facebook group – which had thousands of members – take a criminal profiler’s approach to finding this guy?

Then there was the issue of the outlet – decent sleuthing for sure, as was the identification of the bedspread and vacuum cleaner. However, these issues could have also been resolved much more quickly if they had worked with the premise that the perpetrator was either from the United States or Canada. I find it hard to believe that they concluded that this outlet was not from North America. Here is what they saw:

First of all, it is impossible to tell what sort of outlet this is. Secondly, a brief look at Google Images shows a range of outlet styles in both the United States and North America. Seems to me that possibly looks large because it is one of the larger 4-plex electrical outlets?

The “find the kitten killer group” was enormous – it had thousands of subscribers (a really bad idea when you are certainly dealing with a sociopath and quite possibly someone capable of murder) and if you lack the requisite sang-froid, you’re very likely to get an adrenaline rush from the drama. Group dynamics on the internet tend to be unhealthy. Before you decide to hunt animal abusers, you ought to seek out alliances with trusted individuals. They should have not broadcast this information to such a large group.

The animal abuse crowd should have done a number of things first. For one thing, if you’re hunting animal abusers online, you must always assume that the animal abuser is either capable of or guilty of crimes against human beings. Do not separate violence toward animals from violence directed at individuals. That means that you should really think hard about why you’re online hunting or confronting predators, and you should probably have a strong grounding in criminology. You cannot just be an animal lover. Also, you should probably cultivate some relationships with people in law enforcement and criminal justice. The Fifth Estate video points out that police often don’t take internet crimes seriously – however, they should have done more research into finding law enforcement personnel who might take an interest in animal abuse? And I’m not sure if they bothered to alert the FBI and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, especially after so many videos had appeared before the actual murder video.

If you’re going to engage in hunting predators or criminal profiling on the ‘net, you should be well-versed in the darker corners of social media. First of all, it would make sense to start a theory that you can test. The question ought not have been, “what sort of person would do this sick thing to a pair of kittens?” It should have been, “what message is this person trying to send to the general online population by publishing this video? And we’re clearly dealing with someone with a sick sense of humor, as indicated by the fact that he stroked the kittens before killing them, and then entitled it “one boy 2 kittens.” We’re dealing with someone with an enormous ego. Someone who wants to experience that power over so many internet users would most likely feel comfortable on platforms dominated by the English-speaking world – in particular, North America. He would also feel comfortable with such cesspools as 4Chan and 8Chan. Again, the psychology at work that I saw at play here was that of a privileged and vain white American, or possibly a Canadian. They should have started with that theory – which proved to be correct – right down to the white supremacist aspect, which Netflix did not cover at all – a negligent act on the part of the filmmakers. Anyone doing this should spend at least some time studying far-right hangouts and culture on the internet. The Pepe crowd loves engaging in lower levels of this sort of provocation – and their egos are fed in part due to their success in the very powerful North American world. I could have told you right off the bat that he was a racist, and that hunch was further confirmed by the vanity displayed and the obsession with achieving a very racist standard of physical perfection. Mass shooters, many of whom are racist or anti-Semites, very often exhibit similar characteristics. As the Fifth Estate video shows, Magnotta spent time on Stormfront and other white supremacist sites, and expressed a hatred for Chinese people. The Netflix documentary did not comment at all about the racist aspects of preying upon a shy and very vulnerable Asian immigrant.

If a situation like this happens again – and it quite possibly could – I hope that those trying to find a predator are more discreet and circumspect about what they do. There shouldn’t have been a panic that this individual could be anywhere on the globe. Occam’s Razor would have saved everyone a lot of time.