'Everyday sadism' in Cambridge? Facebook photos shame the homeless

Staff from Sanguen Health Centre say they are frustrated by community members who take pictures of the homeless and drug users without consent to post them online to shame them — a behaviour which one researcher said falls into "everyday sadism." 

In the Facebook group A Clean Cambridge there have been instances where members posted photos of people sleeping on the streets with their belongings or being passed out on grocery carts in Galt.

In the five examples CBC K-W discovered, most of the photos posted are zoomed in and pixilated. Below the posts are comments shaming people in the photos, some saying they are "disgusting and garbage" and "starting to infest the beautiful areas of Galt." 

Allaina Lucier, a public outreach nurse at Sanguen Health Centre, is one of the people who are outraged. 

We can't expect them to be happier and healthier people if we keep telling them that they can't do anything right.-Allaina Lucier, nurse at Sanguen Health Centre

"When someone has to go out of their way to take a photo of you secretively, you know it's not going to be for a good reason," she said. 

"So many people have been pushing down this community and telling them that they're not worth it and they're not good people, taking photos of them feeds into that... We can't expect them to be happier and healthier people if we keep telling them that they can't do anything right." 

'Everyday sadism' 

Erin Buckels, a psychology researcher and postdoctorate graduate from the University of British Columbia said this behaviour can fall into what she calls "everyday sadism" — "the tendency to enjoy being cruel to others." 

In her research, Buckels found that sadism exists in the average person, not just in criminals and serial killers. 

"One thing we found is that 'everyday sadism' predicts trolling tendencies, so people who like to cause havoc and mayhem online, they tend to enjoy being cruel. It's also a predictor of cyber bullying and online shaming," she said. 

Buckels said there's also a tendency for people to dehumanize people of "low status and disliked groups, like the homeless." 

"They're viewed as almost subhuman and not worthy of empathy," she said. 

'Bringing awareness' to crime 

Mary Jane Sherman, one of the administrators of the A Clean Cambridge Facebook group said the purpose of the group is to "bring awareness" to the issues of poverty, drug use and crime that the city is facing. 

Since the group was made aware of the photos and negative comments, she said administrators have changed the rules that regulate posts. 

"People can post pictures, but commenting will be turned off so it can't turn negative," Sherman said. 

"Anything that shows a face, we don't want posted... unless it's videos which they are doing crimes and stuff," she said. "We'll share that because that's criminal activity."

Anything that shows a face, we don't want posted... unless it's videos which they are doing crimes and stuff.- Mary Jane Sherman, A Clean Cambridge Facebook group administrator

Sherman said these photos also "bring awareness" to the crimes community members have to deal with.

For example, she said it was through the Facebook page that Lynn Perry, head of The Bridges shelter, was recently made aware of damage some of her clients had done to residents's bikes. Within an hour, Sherman said Perry's staff were on hand to clean up the mess. 

"If that picture had not been posted, then that would've still continued to go on," Sherman said.  

"If people actually could put a face to the person, it's harder to be angry. People are mad at the actions people are doing, they're not mad at people," she said.