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Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

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Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#111

Post by vgel »

BigW1lly wrote: post #74
awal2 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also don't think I witnessed much crime until I moved to Seattle. In the six years I've been here though I've witnessed: 1. Somebody broke into my Aunt's place while nobody was home and took some jewelry and a cell phone. Police came by, handed her a form, said nice things for five minutes then took off. Never heard anything about it again. 2. My car window smashed after being parked on the street overnight. I call…

You live in Seattle, there's your main problem. The local government keeps the police department hogtied, cops can't do much outside of their narrow rules of engagement. On top of that, the city's residents don't seem too enthusiastic about the 2nd Amendment either. So who or what is going to protect the flock?? Nothing it seems.

SPD is infamously brutal [1]. They just don't give a f** about actually helping people, just destroying homeless encampments and covering their badges at protests.

Source: Lived here for 5 years and have never seen an SPD officer do anything helpful or solve any crime, but have seen them be brutal at multiple protests. My wife literally saw someone be set on fire at a local park, but I never saw a cop there until they decided to sweep a homeless encampment a year and a half later.

[1]

https://www.seattlepi.com/local/crime/article/12000-complain...

https://www.king5.com/article/news/what-the-federal-consent-...

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#113

Post by asdff »

kodah wrote: post #88

We talk a lot about mobs here. It seems someone has monetized the mob. Not only am I disappointed in the proponents of mobs and call out culture, but I am doubly disappointed in the people who profit from them. Social media, Citizen/Vigilante, to the mainstream news. We are so lost.

It's been like this forever. Tribalism is nothing new. We are predisposed to think like this, because our violent and tribal ancestors hundreds of thousands of years ago killed off lineages who might have been more predisposed to peaceful, collective thought. Look at the abhorrant acts that charismatic leaders were able to make their fanatics do to other humans throughout history. Ancient times were no different. Fearing the dangerous other may have even meant survival in a warlike time. Humanity went through a bottleneck and we are what emerged bloodied over warring for resources. To fight this natural tendency take serious education in critical thinking to recognize these biases, and root them out.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#114

Post by [deleted] »

sdflhasjd wrote: post #55
retrac wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In reality, Americans are generally more physically safe from violent crime and property crime than they have been for decades. Right now may well be the most peaceful time in American history. However, it seems most people believe crime, particularly violent crime, has been getting worse over the same period: https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/FT_16... from this study: https://www.pewresearch.org…

2015 seems like a long time ago in this context. I feel like things have changed in the past 5 years

[deleted]

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#115

Post by annoyingnoob »

wolverine876 wrote: post #44

In case people are missing the broader point of the article, beyond the horrifying incident at the beginning: "The whole idea behind Protect is that you could convince people to pay for the product once you’ve gotten them to the highest point of anxiety you can possibly get them to," one former employee said, referring to Citizen's subscription service. "Citizen can’t make money unless it makes its users believe ther…

I don't use Nextdoor or the Neighbors app but I get the impression that they work in a similar fashion - get the worried people in the area all worked up about every little thing - keep them thinking they are under constant threat.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#116

Post by AlexandrB »

BigW1lly wrote: post #74
awal2 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also don't think I witnessed much crime until I moved to Seattle. In the six years I've been here though I've witnessed: 1. Somebody broke into my Aunt's place while nobody was home and took some jewelry and a cell phone. Police came by, handed her a form, said nice things for five minutes then took off. Never heard anything about it again. 2. My car window smashed after being parked on the street overnight. I call…

You live in Seattle, there's your main problem. The local government keeps the police department hogtied, cops can't do much outside of their narrow rules of engagement. On top of that, the city's residents don't seem too enthusiastic about the 2nd Amendment either. So who or what is going to protect the flock?? Nothing it seems.

What has "hogtied" the police is 30 years of the war on drugs. The framing of citizens as "the flock" is also needlessly condescending. Police are, first and foremost, public servants - not a domestic security force. Following up on the crimes listed in the parent doesn't require guns, SWAT teams, or no-knock warrants. Just phone calls and paperwork. Unfortunately individuals who think they're "sheep dogs" find that shit boring.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#117

Post by [deleted] »

vmception wrote: post #91
jkr42 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Must be nice, actively exploiting human nature and then calling the humans dumb and gullible for having said nature and falling for your exploitation. Absolves you of any liability for being no better than a troll because what, you’re smarter than everyone else, I guess? You and your “publicist” (what are you, Ryan Gosling?) figured out dark marketing patterns and now you’re on a different plane of existence from the…

I/Execs don't care My publicist definitely doesn't care You/Commenters care and that's whats funny Publicist gets results and I decide to pay their monthly retainer again or not I occasionally look at what they're doing and sometimes it demystifies what other trends I see on social media like LinkedIn, a perpetual crowdsources A/B test that they keep falling for. I don't think it is human nature, as different humans…

[deleted]

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#119

Post by vmception »

underwater wrote: post #109
vmception wrote: post #21

> Citizen does moderate comments, but "two people having an argument about whether or not someone’s comment is racist drives engagement," LOL, my publicist does this on linkedin and other places for us because people are gullible. Source article: Executive of does a thing 0 engagement, nobody knows Social Media version: [First] Executive of does a thing 15,000 comments, 2 million reach, supporters and detractors argu…

Plenty of people are smart enough to manipulate others, but don't because they're not assholes. Manipulating people for personal gain doesn't make you smart. It just makes you a psychopath.

Bring it up with the publicist. They're all third party and they all share the same tactics with each other for engagement. I have been willing to concede that there are a lot of people inspired by people that look like them and otherwise wouldn't even notice if it weren't for categorized headlines and lists. It is icing on the cake that different people are triggered by that, and even greater icing on the cake that all platforms have convergent evolution to promoting this kind of engagement and anxiety.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#120

Post by heavyset_go »

duncan-donuts wrote: post #60
neom wrote: post #29

About 5 years ago I met these guys when I was building a smart city startup in NYC. We helped cities unify their data from various vendors they use, one of the data streams was a computerized 911 dispatch. Vigilante (at the time) was interested in getting access to the 911 dispatch API. I had a long conversation with them and they couldn't understand/answer any difficult questions - I was extremely uncomfortable- nev…

What do you mean by, “they couldn’t understand/answer any difficult questions”?

They were pretending to be dense in order to not have to face the truth about their product, or at least to not have to admit to it.
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