Warning: This article contains language that may be offensive to some readers
A social media page called ‘Prince George Slimeballs’ has been removed for violating Facebook’s community standards.
The admins of the page said it was formerly known as Prince George Thieves Exposed, but according to them, the name was changed because “it’s time to take off the baby gloves and break out the brass knuckles.”
The group used a photo of people lining up outside of St. Vincent De Paul, a local organization that provides food for those in need while saying “we are coming out swinging and we don’t give a f*** who we piss off in the process. It’s open season on junkies, thieves, slimy f****** who are just screaming to be posted on here.”
Kelsey Todd, who works at Native Health, reposted the group and was shocked by the message they were sending.
“For people to post pictures of other people when they are struggling and not in a great place is just cruel, mean and unempathetic. These people are getting their worst moments posted and then getting bashed about it,” she said.
“You don’t know these people’s stories.”
David Troya-Alvarez is a spokesperson for Facebook who confirmed with MyPGNow that the group was removed by the company for violating the Community Standards policies for Violence and Incitement.
“While we understand that people commonly express disdain or disagreement by threatening or calling for violence in non-serious ways, we remove language that incites or facilitates serious violence,” said Troya-Alvarez.
Corporal Craig Douglass with the Prince George RCMP said things like this aren’t uncommon.
“Social media is very powerful in the way that people who would normally keep their mouths shut about things suddenly aren’t scared to say things on social media by using a false name or little chance of detection of who they are.”
“We get these types of things where people have this self-confidence on social media where they wouldn’t usually speak up publically.”
To that point, Douglass said while the connotations of the Facebook page are obviously concerning, the Northern Capital hasn`t had a problem with people attacking the homeless.
“I can’t even think of a single issue where somebody has been targeted specifically because they’re homeless, which would be considered a hate crime.”
MyPGNow reached out to the admins of the page but they did not respond for comment by the time of this publication.