I'm a big fan of television programs like "The World's Dumbest Criminals," where video surveillance shows inept thieves failing miserably at their petty crimes.
In the past, I spent some time managing a loss prevention team for a popular record store chain - which means I nabbed shoplifters on a daily basis - so I kind of lack any real compassion for the light-fingered or criminally devious.
So it was with mixed feelings of disgusted déjà-vu and a certain sense of giddy anticipation that I watched coverage of the St. Patrick's Day riots in London, Ont. this past weekend.
I was disgusted because, just like last year's Stanley Cup Vancouver riots, I saw Canadians being portrayed as a bunch of drunken and rowdy hooligans instead of the more common perception of maple-syrup-swilling and hockey-loving people who say "eh?" a lot.
But there was a self-satisfied smile as well because just like with the Vancouver rioters, many in the London mob were going to find themselves in court pretty darn quick - thanks to cellphone videos and social media.
Today, almost everyone you pass on the street has a cell phone, iPod or portable game console in his or her pocket that also doubles as a camera and video recorder.
All those gadgets are also connected to the Internet, and with a touch of a button or the swipe of a finger, those photos or videos can instantly be posted where anyone can see.
That's something I think the rioters in both cities didn't take into account before going on a destructive rampage.
Of course, and not to slander those folks, I don't think these trashy kids could really be called "thinking-type" people anyway.
Some of these kids - who represent the future of our country, I'm afraid to say - actually posted videos and photos of themselves participating in the violence onto their Facebook pages.
I know. I'm shaking my head too.
Hey, maybe they're just doing their bit to help police along in the riot investigation and aren't - y'know - just complete morons.
No, I don't believe that either.
Can you imagine some notorious criminal like Jesse James living in today's world, posting on his Twitter account, "Just robbed Wells Fargo Stage Coach. Check out pic of me pistol-whipping driver. So Kewl."
But if you look at the news footage of both riots, you'll plainly see these kids (and it is always kids or young adults you never see a bunch of 70-year-olds setting cars on fire or rioting in the streets) actually posing for photos or videos in front of burning cars.
Hello, people. It's called "evidence."
But considering what happened with Vancouver rioters (who are ever-so-slowly trickling into the court system, finally) and the publicity surrounding how Facebook pages and copious cellphone evidence was used to nab the guilty parties - didn't the London mob realize the same thing was going to happen to them?
Didn't anyone, while lighting a police car on fire or vandalizing something, look over his shoulder and see a forest of people standing behind him with their iPhones out and think maybe, just maybe, their identity was being compromised?
It turns out the all-seeing, all-knowing and ever-watchful Big Brother we feared from George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 isn't the government at all.
It's us.
And I don't know about you, but after last weekend in London, I've definitely had my fill of watching dumb criminals.
