The tragedy of Sunil Tripathi

[marmar]

What really happened to Sunil Tripathi?
As a body is discovered in Providence, we're reminded of the human cost of the despicable need to be first

By Mary Elizabeth Williams




(Salon) Of all the ways in which last week’s horror in Boston showed the resilience and cooperation of a community in the wake of disaster, the tragedy will also inevitably go down as a shining example of the desperate, despicable scramble to hunt, to accuse, to blame first – and worry about ethics and responsibility later. If ever.

We saw it in the epic bungling of mainstream media outlets like CNN and the New York Post. We saw it in the frenzy of Redditors and overeager Tweeters. We saw it, most cruelly, in the story of a missing student, a young man whose body may have been pulled Tuesday night from the Providence harbor.

Sunil Tripathi was already making headlines before the Boston Marathon bombing. The Brown undergraduate was last seen on March 16, wearing “a black jacket, blue jeans and a Philadelphia Eagles cap.” In the early days of his disappearance, the news focused on his friends and Pennsylvania family, who posted a video on YouTube pleading for him to come back. “Hey, Sunny,” they say to the man whose nickname belied a reported history of depression. “We miss you.” It was, at first, the haunting mystery of a philosophy student with a “warm smile and generous gentle spirit,” who’d taken a leave from school while he was “trying to figure out his future.”

And then Boston happened. In what was later far too generously referred to as the “confusion” of its aftermath, the amateur detectives of Reddit decided that the missing man could be seen in images at the scene of the bombing. “The photos bear good resemblance… not perfect but there are definitely strong similarities… skin tone, hair color, approximate build, and yes that nose.” Where the whole thing really went berserk, though, was in the rumor, which instantly became a desperately repeated report, that Tripathi, along with another man mentioned by name, had been “identified on police scanner” as a suspect. Tripathi’s photograph was instantly splashed across the world. He was declared unquestioningly in the news feeds of both hasty, news hungry social media users and several media outlets as a “suspect.” The Facebook page Sunil Tripathi’s family created to share information and show support for him became so deluged with what they described as “hateful, angry posts” they had to temporarily take it down. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.salon.com/2013/04/24/what_really_happened_to_sunil_tripathi/

[SoCalMusicLover]

1. That Does Not Explain Police Scanner Chatter

Blame the internet sleuths all you want, but there has, "coincidentally", been absolutely no comment from the police department as to why the full names and birthdates of those 2 named individuals, was broadcast over the scanners during the chase.

I was following the story on Thursday, and I still do not understand how the police just came up with those names as the "suspects."

Also very interesting and curious, is the fact that there is now apparently no record of that scanner announcement, even though it was clearly heard by many people tuned in Thursday night.

Perhaps less people would jump on the "conspiracy" bandwagon, if the authorities were a little more forthcoming about their errors and theories. Brushing it off with comments like...."it was chaos, and it should be expected that there was a lot of disinformation being floated around," seems to be the preferred method of explaining away obvious incorrect conclusions during the heat of the moment.

Since 9/11, I honestly do not know when I can believe something I am told, and when I should question it as BS.

[oberliner]

2. His name was never on any police scanner

Multiple groups of people have been crowdsourcing logs of the police scanner chatter and none of them have found a reference to Tripathi, either. It's just not there.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/it-wasnt-sunil-tripathi-the-anatomy-of-a-misinformation-disaster/275155/

[SoCalMusicLover]

3. Fair Enough....

So you're saying that all those who supposedly heard those 2 specific names, one of whom was a completely new name never heard before, were just blowing smoke, and they all decided to collude in a scam to fake out all the folks following along on the internet?

While I don't doubt that possibility, there seemed to be several people on Reddit that night, posting that the names were mentioned. At the time, it just seemed to incredible that so many claim to have heard the names.

[oberliner]

5. I think one person Tweeted out the two names

And did so in a way that seemed definite and official. And that others picked up on it and repeated the information

But I think it all stemmed from one incorrect tweet.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. I believe you are correct

Also I listen to scanners like way too often, blame work...PDs will not transmit names on a pursuit, which this was. They only do for wants and warrants...

[magellan]

4. The problem is it was tweeted by a reporter as being heard on the BPD scanner

BPD scanner has identified the names : Suspect 1: Mike Mulugeta Suspect 2: Sunil Tripathi. #Boston #MIT — Kevin Michael WFSB (@KallMeKG) April 19, 2013

That was retweeted and shared on websites, including this one. Because it was a reporter who claimed to have heard it on the BPD scanner, people gave it weight.

[oberliner]

6. Exactly

That was the tweet that started it all.

[SoCalMusicLover]

7. I Did Not Realize That

Now I feel so stupid for following along that night. It seemed so cool to be able to sit at home across the country, and follow along the chase and hear the speculation as it went down. I had been very skeptical about the theory the missing student was somehow involved, but when I saw the talk about the scanner naming him, I was really caught by surprise, and figured that if the police were stating it, there had to be some truth.

Perhaps someone should find out why the "reporter" tweeted it as fact. Remember when news outlets were concerned about being accurate? Now you can just put out a completely erroneous story, which has Zero accuracy, and then somewhere down the road, issue an insincere apology for any misinformation or problems caused.

[oberliner]

10. I was right there with you

I followed the whole thing in real time as well. Really tragic for this family being dragged into something they had nothing to do with.

[SoCalMusicLover]

11. I Feel Sad For The Family Of Now Deceased Student

It sounds as if he indeed committed suicide on the day he was last seen weeks ago. I can't even imagine what they had to endure last week.

[magellan]

12. Me too

Unimaginable, to have their missing son named as a suspect in the Boston marathon bombing, then have all those angry (unthinking) people go to the Facebook page they'd set up to try and find him and leave what I'm sure were terrible comments.

[JI7]

15. what i think happened is people had already been discussing whether it's Sunil so people were kind

of looking for that . so they might hear something that sounded like his name but that name could also just have been on the person's mind and they are quick to report it.

i thought it was silly at first but actually started to fall for it being him since it was so widespread on the internet . but i started questioning it again towards the end with info like the height of the suspect and how Sunil was much taller . and that other name they claimed to be on the scanner along with Sunil was i think an Ethiopian name and we already knew by then that they suspects were not black.

[malaise]

13. Did you follow the Murdoch hearings in England?

More than a few cops got rich doing Murdoch's trash papers' bidding.

[FarCenter]

8. Given how long identification is taking, it's likely that the body was badly decomposed

So Sunil knew nothing of being accused falsely of being the bomber.

[Earth_First]

14. Swing and a miss...

There is still family involved and then there is the while media ethics thing...

[FarCenter]

16. If he had still been alive and the "witch hunt" publicity had turned him up, they'd feel differently

They'd still be pissed at the media, but they'd be overjoyed to have him back.