Jennifer Pawluck Arrested For Instagram Photo Of Ian Lafreniere Graffiti

This happened a couple of weeks ago but her trial is today so I thought it would be relevant to post.

Link to story on Huffington Post

Blog I found the Story on

A 20-year-old Montreal woman was surprised when police showed up at her home to arrest her for an Instagram photo she took of graffiti showing Montreal police spokesperson Ian Lafreniere with a bullet in his head.

Jennifer Pawluck took the photo in question in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood of Montreal last month.

"Many of my friends do not like the police," Pawluck told the Huffington Post Québec, in French. "I thought it would be funny to put the picture on Instagram. I do not even know who he is, Ian Lafreniere."

The photo in question depicts a hand-drawn image of Ian Lafrenière with a gunshot wound to the head flanked by the words “Ian Lafrenière” and “ACAB” — a popular graffiti acronym that stands for “all cop[per]s are bastards.”

According to what she told the Huffington Post, Pawluck was brought to the police station and detained for nearly four hours. The arrest warrant alleges that Pawluck acted with intent to harass Lafreniere and gave him reason to fear for his safety.

Asked why she thinks the Montreal police targeted her, she replied, “I don’t think that, it’s just ridiculous. A ridiculous story about a photo on my Instagram.”

Her trial date is set for April 17, but until then Pawluck must not come within one kilometre (~1,000 yards) of police headquarters or Lafrenière’s home.

The incident is sure to cause concern for social media users across the continent. This incident comes on the heels of a report last week by DNAinfo that explained that the New York Police Department is using Facebook and Instagram photos to track criminals.

This is the image itself:



and here is the link to the her instagram where the image was posted.

Apparently she was not the original creator of the image and had no knowledge of Ian Lafreniere. Though I'm not too sure I believe the last statement. I think being arrested is a little extreme for reposting a picture, whether or not it was done with knowledge of who the person was or not, especially when she wasn't even the original creator of the image. I honestly don't think she had any intention to personally threaten the officer and I hope this gets thrown out of court.

Do you guys think this is a threat or that there might be more to this? Or, is this just another case of the police cracking down on a person they find suspicious because of their views?

Next time I hear one of my Canadian friends talking about how much better Canada is than the USA, I'll just point them to this story.

What i find stupid is that the picture she took is still up and running on her page.

No, we do not have any freedom of speech in Quebec/Canada

Nice to see freedom of expression and speech are alive and well in Canada...

I remember on a trip to Vancouver BC I saw a new story about a man going to jail for making anti-Semitic remarks.

Atleast for now we still have those freedoms here in the US, but who knows for how much longer, I may not like whats said but ill defend your right to say it.

Wait...

If the graffiti is already out in the open for the general public to see, why would it matter if it's being posted on a person's private Instragram account? I'm betting far fewer people can view her page than the general population at large.

What law did she exactly break again?

reply to post by MystikMushroom


Apparently, reposting the image with tags of his name on a website is intentionally threatening him. It just seems like good classification to me.

reply to post by dug88


We need to reset the laws and start over by making new laws that are unwavering in their definitions. There should be no such thing as arguing laws. You either did what the definition says or you didn't. The definitions are too skewed - especially ones like this and the man who was charged for farting near a police officer.

reply to post by dug88


Not a big deal but for some reason I'm glad they busted her chops. She mentions when asked if she would do it again, her reply "art is art". If someone painted a picture of me with a bullet wound on my head I would want something done which includes some young dopey girl who thinks it's cool to rebel to get seriously inconvenienced which includes four hours in jail...

The use of art to try and circumvent laws or public opinion ranks right up their with affirmative action...both abused...love to know what her parents income is...I suspect they are doing well...