Legal Definitions - whitecapping

Whitecapping is a specific criminal offense that involves threatening an individual with violence.

The central aim of these threats is to force the person to either move away from a particular location or to stop engaging in a specific business, occupation, or activity. While historically associated with organized intimidation against minority groups, the law applies to any instance where threats of violence are used coercively for these purposes.

• Example 1: Intimidating a New Business Owner

  A family from a different cultural background opens a popular grocery store in a small, established neighborhood. A small group of residents, resentful of the new competition and the family's presence, begins leaving anonymous, threatening notes on the store's door and vandalizing their delivery van. The notes explicitly state that the family should "pack up and leave" or face more severe consequences.

  This illustrates whitecapping because threats of violence (implied by vandalism and explicit in the notes) are used to compel the family (often a minority group in such contexts) to cease their business and move away from the area.

• Example 2: Forcing a Homeowner to Sell

  An elderly homeowner lives in a house that a powerful real estate developer wishes to acquire for a large commercial project. After the homeowner repeatedly refuses to sell, unknown individuals begin making late-night phone calls with menacing messages, suggesting "accidents" could befall the property or the homeowner if they don't agree to move out and sell.

  This is an example of whitecapping because threats of violence are being employed to coerce the homeowner into moving away from their property.

• Example 3: Silencing a Community Organizer

  A community leader is actively organizing local residents to protest against a proposed industrial development that many believe will harm the environment. Individuals connected to the development project start sending anonymous emails and social media messages to the leader, containing veiled threats against their personal safety and family if they do not immediately stop their organizing activities.

  This demonstrates whitecapping as threats of violence are used to compel the community leader to cease their specific activity (organizing protests).