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2012-01-19 -Short Attention Span Theater-
App That Would Guide Users Away From High-Crime Areas Proves Controversial
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Posted by gorb 2012-01-19 02:13|| || Front Page|| [11125 views ]  Top

#1 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
Posted by Procopius2k 2012-01-19 07:24||   2012-01-19 07:24|| Front Page Top

#2 How soon before the Department of (in)Justice argues that it is racist to consciously attempt to avoid being a victim of violent crime?
Posted by M. Murcek 2012-01-19 07:59||   2012-01-19 07:59|| Front Page Top

#3 So what they are basically saying is:

High Crime Neighborhood == Black Neighborhood


(I'm not saying it - they are saying it)

This just extends what the local people already do anyway - Avoid the crime ridden areas. I don't know which neighborhoods of LA or Detroit I should avoid at night because I don't live there.
Posted by CrazyFool 2012-01-19 08:37||   2012-01-19 08:37|| Front Page Top

#4 I live near Chicago. I know perfectly well which neighborhoods to avoid, and I don't need an app for that.

I don't live near Detroit but I've figured out, based on news reports, which parts to avoid: all of them.

As to Dallas, the app sounds handy. All it is in the end is a crime map, and all that does is overlap publicly available statistics on a map. Ms. Wallace may not like it, but those are the facts.
Posted by Steve White 2012-01-19 08:57||   2012-01-19 08:57|| Front Page Top

#5 Whites, Asians have their gangs too ya know.

Besides, ever do something like drive a blue car through a red neighborhood...its awkward.

Besides, if it avoided all crime areas, nobody would be able to drive to DC.
Posted by swksvolFF 2012-01-19 08:58||   2012-01-19 08:58|| Front Page Top

#6 Microsoft could make a witty reply to this by saying that the NAACP should instead spend its time criticizing city governments for naming streets in high crime areas after MLK, and forcing black people to live there.
Posted by Anonymoose 2012-01-19 09:46||   2012-01-19 09:46|| Front Page Top

#7 Back in the late 90s I worked for a mapping compay. We made maps intended for auto navigation. This was before it really took off. We created very detailed maps, had teams scouring the nation double-checking maps and addresses. A few of these maps came back for correction with notes "Man flashed gun at us" "Crack house" "Did not feel safe to make a second pass for addresses".

At the time we had an icon we would place on the map that would ensure mapping software didn't route someone through a private neighborhood. A rich area. Because those areas didn't want the extra traffic. I suggested why don't we use the same icon to ensure no routing past these clearly dangerous areas with crack houses and warnings that our own people felt were pretty scary. My suggestion seemed reasonable enough but it was quickly ignored and it was suggested that although I didn't mean it the suggestion was a bit racist. ??????

I just thought to myself eventually someone is gonna get killed because the mapping software sent them somewhere scary (there was a case of a German driving his car into the water because mapping software put a road there, long before Michael Scott on the office did so) and our maps are gonna end up in court showing that we also thought they were scary areas and yet we did nothing. The whole thing was really eye-opening to me.
Posted by rjschwarz 2012-01-19 09:49||   2012-01-19 09:49|| Front Page Top

#8 Oh and lastly our program would have made the decisions to route through bad parts invisible to the user. Mapping software would have routed you around unless your destination was actually there. And still they shot it down. Guess some folks at my company understood this mindset better than I did at the time.
Posted by rjschwarz 2012-01-19 09:52||   2012-01-19 09:52|| Front Page Top

#9 LOL, 'moose. Glad I'm not the only one who, out of an abundance of caution, won't pee or get gas at any exit for MLK Jr. Drive/Blvd/etc. I feel bad, but not enough to risk getting carjacked or otherwise accosted.

I see why the app is controversial, but it just adds precision to an unpleasant reality people already take into account. Certainly it will be useful for foreigners. I know several who have been chased out of such areas by frustrated police who pulled them over to ask if they were bleeping crazy.
Posted by RandomJD 2012-01-19 10:56||   2012-01-19 10:56|| Front Page Top

#10 Fuck you, NAACP. If you actually tried to help the problem rather than make money off it, I might be more sympathetic.
Posted by DarthVader 2012-01-19 11:23||   2012-01-19 11:23|| Front Page Top

#11 Just allow th alogrithm to be reverseable and it can be used as a "Good Places to Buy Crack" app - or a "Places That Need Social Investment" app for local governments. Everybody wins!
Posted by Hellfish 2012-01-19 12:18||   2012-01-19 12:18|| Front Page Top

#12 So is it not OK even to verablly tell a family member or friend to avoid an area? Just asking?
Posted by jack salami 2012-01-19 12:32||   2012-01-19 12:32|| Front Page Top

#13 Having a chat about 'positive discrimination' earlier and the surmise was an ethnic person gets away saying a lot more racist comments than a white person with NO implications to them (see Diane Abbotts recent BLATANT RACIST statements).

What we are effectively saying is; RACISM EXISTS AND WILL CONTINUE TO EXIST so let's have it the other way for a while and make whitey suffer in whiteys house.

What we should be saying is NO TO RACISM, NO EXCUSE!

The liberal 'PC' troop are just perpetuating racism.
Posted by Kojack 2012-01-19 13:25||   2012-01-19 13:25|| Front Page Top

#14 Jesse "I get scared when I see a couple of black guys walking down the street toward me" Jackson could not be reached for comment.....
Posted by Barbara 2012-01-19 13:53||   2012-01-19 13:53|| Front Page Top

#15 No death Toll is too high for the priests of political correctness.
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2012-01-19 15:37||   2012-01-19 15:37|| Front Page Top

#16 “Can you imagine me not being able to go to MLK Blvd. because my GPS says that’s a dangerous crime area? I can’t even imagine that." Dallas NAACP President Juanita Wallace
“If a friend calls you on the telephone and says they’re lost on Martin Luther King Boulevard and they want to know what they should do, the best response is ‘Run!’” Comedian Chris Rock
Posted by Glolugum Hitler1017 2012-01-19 17:41||   2012-01-19 17:41|| Front Page Top

23:40 Anguper Hupomosing9418
23:31 texhooey
23:25 gorb
22:53 Bugs Glomoque3110
22:30 USN, Ret.
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21:26 Frank G
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