'Public shaming' through social media

COEUR d’ALENE — The guys who killed a tree in front of Coeur d'Alene Crossfit last weekend got a taste of modern-day public humiliation.

Derek Hutchison said social media played a vital role in identifying the vandals who damaged the tree in front of his downtown business early Sunday morning.

"I think that's the only reason these guys got caught for what they did," the Crossfit coach and owner said Friday afternoon. "I posted that video Tuesday morning and 24 hours later it had 200,000 views, which I thought was pretty cool. When people watched it, they just got fired up and upset. It's just a tree, but that's not the point. The point is it's needless vandalism and it upsets people."

The video shows five males walking south on the sidewalk on Fourth Street and stopping to pull down a small tree outside the business. One of the males involved recorded the incident on a mobile device.

Hutchison said he had a surveillance camera installed about six months ago to counter other incidents of vandalism Crossfit has experienced, including a vinyl graphic-covered window that got smashed and cost $6,000 to replace.

Hutchison reported the tree incident to the Coeur d'Alene Police. Det. Jared Reneau said the people involved were interviewed by police, but as of Friday evening, none had been charged. The investigation is ongoing.

But Hutchison said the fact that so many people have seen the video is punishment in itself; he said he heard from one of the suspects once the video went viral.

"One of them actually called me to apologize. His boss made him do it. That was kind of interesting," Hutchison said. "The worst part for these guys is at this point, over 300,000 people have seen this video. Their moms have seen it, their girlfriends have seen it, so public shaming is the worst thing that could happen at this point. It's a good punishment of itself, knowing you're an idiot and seeing it."

In an update to the original post containing the video, Hutchison thanked everyone who shared it and helped get the word out. He didn't expect so many people to react.

"Most people who live in Coeur d'Alene realize we live in a beautiful town and we want to protect it and they see idiots like that destroying it and they get really mad," he said. "I think that's why people get so fired up about it, they care about this area. I think everybody's had something stolen from their yard or vandalized at one point.

"It was kind of cool to get that (video) on there and get these guys."