Anonymous says it doesn’t need to leak rage and justice on local police because there's already enough evidence of the force’s wrongdoing in the public domain.
In a video released last week the hacktivist collective gave the Thunder Bay Police Service until Jan. 28 to take an alleged Dec. 27 sexual assault investigation seriously or, through inside sources within the department, it would release embarrassing information about the force and its officers.
It called on people to take part in #opthunderbird to address the alleged lack of conviction from police and politicians to take cases of missing and murdered Aboriginal women seriously.
There are more than 600 missing or murdered across the country.
But in a long essay Tuesday morning Anonymmis, as the #opthunderbird group refers to itself standing for missing and murdered indigenous women, instead chose to highlight specific cases and again accuse the local department of racism and incompetence.
“So we’re not posting anything internal – for now – there are plenty of racist rape cases over which any ‘protect and serve’ police with any sense of shame whatsoever should be mighty hang dog. We don’t need to d0x and hack – yet – condemning evidence is available a plenty in the public domain,” the essay's author states.
Doxing refers to the tactic of finding and releasing personal information on supposed wrongdoers, including names and addresses. The technique made headlines when it was used in the Amanda Todd case to try and out her alleged blackmailer.
Hacking can refer to many techniques used to infiltrate anyone or anything Anonymous sets its sights on.
In Steubenville, Ohio, where it is alleged that a teenager was drugged and then gang-raped by several high school football players, Anonymous gathered information on everyone and everything involved in the case, including phones and email servers.
Anonymous claims that due to the high-profile of the players and the team, everyone from coaches to prosecutors attempted to dismiss and cover up the case.
Anonymmis states the description of two men involved in the alleged Dec.27 assault matches the description of a similar case in 2009.
The essay then describes accounts from an alleged eye witness to the assault in Thunder Bay on Dec. 27.
The 19-year-old First Nations man, referred to as “Bob”, claims that he was chased through a park by two men matching the description of those involved in the sexual assault.
After hurling insults, throwing debris and chasing Bob with either bats or crowbars, the men gave up. Bob then hid in the bushes and watched as the men threw similar objects at a woman before grabbing her and forcing her into a vehicle.
“A nineteen year old Cree man who lives in the neighborhood where the abduction occurred began a long conversation with us which has lasted over the course of the several days. It has convinced us nearly beyond reasonable doubt that he saw the victim forced into the vehicle,” Anonymmis states.
But Anonymmis points out a major discrepancy between Bob’s account and the alleged victim. Bob says the men were driving a van or large vehicle while police and the alleged victim have described the vehicle as a green two-door car.
“After racking our collective brains considerably to discern the “truth” of this situation [sic], this is our best explanation. Anonymmis leaves you, our friends, skeptics, and critics to supply your own best explanation: Is a nineteen year old who was suddenly – and out of nowhere – nearly run over by a hostile vehicle whose occupants proceeded to throw objects, hurl racial insults, and chase him with blunt objects, a reliable witness?
"Maybe the vehicle (somewhat understandably) felt much much much larger than it actually was to Bob,” the essay states.
Police spokesman Chris Adams encouraged people with tips on investigations to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
