in winnipeg
Lynch-mob justice Vigilantes gloat online about beating car thief By ROSS ROMANIUK, SUN MEDIA Last Updated: 3rd January 2009, 2:04am 
One of the photos posted of the man who was allegedly beaten as a suspected car thief. The Sun has obscured his identity. (Winnipegheights.com)
An apparent case of vigilantism -- with photographs of the incident posted online -- has prompted city police to take a close look at the response by several St. Boniface citizens to a series of attempted vehicle break-ins.
Police said yesterday that investigators will probe a New Year's Day confrontation that resulted in images being posted online of a 21-year-old man bloody and bruised on the ground and surrounded by several people -- some of whom had beaten him as they emerged from a Horace Street house party.
The incident was described on the Internet message board WinnipegHeights.com, with some of the people involved -- mostly anonymous -- proudly discussing what happened.
"Now your first thought when seeing the pics of the guy bleeding is that we gave him a beating he'll never forget, but that would be illegal," one man wrote.
He said he noticed someone breaking into a friend's car up the block about 1:30 a.m. that day. After running back to the house to call his friend, the man said he returned to find the would-be thief trying to break into his own running vehicle, with his wife and two-year-old child inside. A struggle ensued.
"He must have 'fallen' in the struggle and smashed his face into our boots," the man added in the online thread, dubbed "us 1 -- dirty indian thief 0".
The man said he wanted to dump water on the injured man but was restrained by neighbours, and that someone had a rope and was "going to put it around his throat and drag him down to the river."
The thread, which has since been removed from the website, contained at least one other racial slur. In a separate thread called "Heights Is Famous", members complained the media was trying to turn the incident into a racial issue.
Others who were there that morning added posts that pointed to their pride and amusement regarding the incident.
"Haha my knuckles are on ice this morning ...," wrote Rahim, who later spoke to the Winnipeg Sun.
"It's pretty much the definition of a vigilante attack, but I wouldn't say it was much of an attack," Rahim said, adding he uses only one name.
He said up to about five men surrounded the alleged would-be thief and a few of them struck him before police responded.
"Most of the people there, though, were circling the guy to keep him from getting away," Rahim said. "At one point, he tried to tackle one of the guys."
Two photos of the bloodied man lying on the ground were also posted on the website.
He was later taken away by officers, questioned and eventually released because of a lack of evidence.
Const. Jason Michalyshen said officers will take a closer took at the actions of the residents.
"We're going to be investigating that further -- about the pictures and just the whole incident itself," he said.
Rick Linden, a University of Manitoba criminology professor, said citizens walk a fine legal line when confronting and holding a suspect.
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