Possibly somewhat ironically (and hypocritically?), the CEO seems very anti-police based on twitter: https://twitter.com/stewart/status/1268749287615156230 https://twitter.com/stewart Disclaimer: I am a happy user of slack and do not have an opinion on the blog post
Slack Removed a Blog Post Showing How Police Use Its Tech
71–80 of 283 posts
Re: Slack Removed a Blog Post Showing How Police Use Its Tech
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don’t get it. Are we now advocating that police is overall more of a force of evil than good? Legitimate question. Police, in the abstract, are still a force for good. But it's becoming clear to more and more people that the police we actually have commit an intolerable quantity of evil acts.
If your city had a ballot initiative to defund and disband the police department, would you vote for it? EDIT: I'm a little confused about the downvotes. If the answer is "no", then what's the problem with police using slack? Isn't it just a basic tool for communication? Is selling them radios also bad? I should also say that my answer in my city would be "no".
Re: Slack Removed a Blog Post Showing How Police Use Its Tech
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don’t get it. Are we now advocating that police is overall more of a force of evil than good? Legitimate question. Police, in the abstract, are still a force for good. But it's becoming clear to more and more people that the police we actually have commit an intolerable quantity of evil acts.
If your city had a ballot initiative to defund and disband the police department, would you vote for it? EDIT: I'm a little confused about the downvotes. If the answer is "no", then what's the problem with police using slack? Isn't it just a basic tool for communication? Is selling them radios also bad? I should also say that my answer in my city would be "no".
Re: Slack Removed a Blog Post Showing How Police Use Its Tech
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is a lack of accountability for the bad police. If good police are standing by while the bad police are abusing their power, they aren’t really good police. If the bad police are walking away without repercussions or, in some cases, even retaining their taxpayer-paid pensions, we can’t trust the police force as a whole. The job of police is to maintain order, not to protect their own.
You're absolutely right but I don't think holding someone's retirement account over their heads is a good move. Let them keep their pension for the number of years they actually did serve. Strip them of their right to serve sure, but don't go back in time and pull their paycheck.
Re: Slack Removed a Blog Post Showing How Police Use Its Tech
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would being publicly traded keep them from choosing their customers?
I assumed that it's his/their fiduciary duty to maximize profit, and if the current excutive team doesnt do that, they will be replaced with a team that will.
This would be a very defensible decision legally (not a lawyer). You're right that it could plausibly lead to some sort of shareholder rebellion, but I'd be surprised.
Re: Slack Removed a Blog Post Showing How Police Use Its Tech
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is a lack of accountability for the bad police. If good police are standing by while the bad police are abusing their power, they aren’t really good police. If the bad police are walking away without repercussions or, in some cases, even retaining their taxpayer-paid pensions, we can’t trust the police force as a whole. The job of police is to maintain order, not to protect their own.
You're absolutely right but I don't think holding someone's retirement account over their heads is a good move. Let them keep their pension for the number of years they actually did serve. Strip them of their right to serve sure, but don't go back in time and pull their paycheck.
Re: Slack Removed a Blog Post Showing How Police Use Its Tech
#77Are we saying that: (a) police are a net good, but slack is aiding/encouraging particular bad behaviors; or (b) police are a net bad and we should just deny them anything that enables them to do their jobs; or (c) police are a net good, but it's bad PR to associate with them
Re: Slack Removed a Blog Post Showing How Police Use Its Tech
#78I don’t get it. Are we now advocating that police is overall more of a force of evil than good? Legitimate question.
A BLM co-founder is on NPR advocating to "defund the police." "It’s not possible for the entity of law enforcement to be a compassionate, caring governmental agency in black communities. That’s not the training, that’s not the institution."[0] There's a continuum of what "defund" means, but the idealists are pushing for actual, no-hyperbole defunding and disbanding. Police cannot be made good. They believe would be e…
(a) Get used to it.
(b) Get ready to join up. More officers who care about justice mean that it's easier to get rid of the unjust officers.
(c) Get ready to defund/disband, or at least reduce the scope of, the police department.
It doesn't shock me that (c) is being mentioned. It's probably a bluff, but might have enough credibility to change the power dynamics.
Re: Slack Removed a Blog Post Showing How Police Use Its Tech
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
If your city had a ballot initiative to defund and disband the police department, would you vote for it? EDIT: I'm a little confused about the downvotes. If the answer is "no", then what's the problem with police using slack? Isn't it just a basic tool for communication? Is selling them radios also bad? I should also say that my answer in my city would be "no".
It's pretty disingenuous to suggest that there's only a binary choice about how to deal with this problem. If you look at the policies of a site like Campaign Zero [1] you'll see that there's a lot of options that can help. 1 - https://www.joincampaignzero.org/
Re: Slack Removed a Blog Post Showing How Police Use Its Tech
#80One way techies can affect change is to not do business with the government, particularly law enforcement and military. However, this won't happen, because at the end of the day the only thing people actually care about is money.
Although I do care about money, I also support my government and my local police force, and would be happy and proud if my work could be used to make their efforts more efficient as well as more open, transparent, and fair. I don't agree with everything my government does, and I believe that there are bad cops that need to be corrected, but don't presume to speak for me.