The Danzig Street Shootout - minute by minute on Twitter

I was made aware of the Danzig Street shooting by a YAHOO News headline, as I accessed my email. Toronto news is of no particular interest to a Vancouverite so the shooting didn't really catch my attention until I gave the CTV News Channel ten minutes of my time, over the lunch hour Tuesday.  The TV reporting was of the typical "I'm standing on the sidewalk where it all happened," variety.  Ten minutes Googling the story gave me a far clearer picture, and resulted in my posting last night's Blog article.  Scroll down for more on "The City, By Homicide" and NATIONAL POST graphic artists.

When I Googled the names of the four people listed as creators the NATIONAL POST  graphic, this is what I found.

Ian Vandaelle describes himself as "Morally, socially & financially bankrupt."  Does that make him dangerous? or just cute?

Samina Esha is a "shopaholic and bookie".   It's starting to look like the POST team has "street cred".

Jonathon Rivait is the punster in the pack. "My rock is cock hard."

Richard Johnson is all about "Sarcasm, cynicism, skepticism - in monster proportions."

What an interesting posse of crime reporters!  To be accurate, it is Jonathan Rivait and Richard Johnson who must take the lion's share of credit for the wonderful graphics the NATIONAL POST publishes on a fairly regular basis. Others contribute only research.

TWITTER REPORTING - the Danzig Street Shootout

The really significant thing about this shooting in Toronto is not the bombast and baloney spouted by the Mayor and Chief of Police. Rather it was the level of involvement by citizens participating in the mass crime, or reporting on it via their Twitter Accounts. An article written by Joshua Errett, editor at NOW Magazine in Toronto, is a good place to start.

Joshua's article is HERE.

Even now, two days after the shooting, you can get a far better sense of what went done on Danzig Street, by reading Twitter archives, than you can by reading commercial news accounts.  There is a lesson in this.  Should you ever be caught up in a big event... a natural disaster, a major crime, etc... task someone with downloading the Twitter chatter before it gets edited or truncated by deletions. It will later be a valuable resource for reconstructing chain of events.

DANZIG STREET TWEETS - The shooters "touched the wrong people".  .."there is gonna be a war".   On that point at least, the Street and the Mayor's Office agree.