Live data from Hacker News

Revolt of the Delivery Workers

curbed.com

201–210 of 223 posts

Re: Revolt of the Delivery Workers

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd rather compare the US with Western Europe. Homicide in the US is 5x that of Germany, and 10x that of Norway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention...

My point was not to defend the crime rate in the US, but to address a question that a person from Russia asked - why does it sound like living in NYC is like watching some Western movie, whereas the same cannot be said about Moscow? It sounded strange, because all it takes is a few YouTube searches to witness the level of violence that exists in Russia that far exceeds anything you'll see in the US. Russia really is…

Considering the US is notorious for mass shootings and gun violence, it's not at all surprising that someone would have that view. NYC is a fairly safe place, for now. So is Moscow.

Re: Revolt of the Delivery Workers

#202
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you expand on what this has to do with tazjin's point, which is specifically about delivery workers being attacked by robbers, and the police doing nothing about it, in specific cities?

He started off with "It's always strange to read these reports from American cities..." It's strange because it's exaggerated, and it's exaggerated because it has to be - otherwise nobody would care to read the article (and then nobody would pay for this poor reporter's salary who has to hit certain monthly pageview targets, etc). If you read something in the news and it sounds really strange, don't take it at face v…

I used to live by the bridge mentioned in the article as a place where people got attacked, and I believe it 100% fwiw.

Re: Revolt of the Delivery Workers

#203
post #9

These workers by and large aren't carrying money worth stealing they are being robbed of expensive e-bikes. If these bikes were configured to become inoperable if they couldn't either phone home or talk to the users device then there would be no point in stealing them because nobody would buy them. The end user could authorize their own new devices unless they lost access to both devices and info needed to do so and…

That's a good idea, although this: "He reported both to the police, but the cases went nowhere, an experience common enough that many workers have concluded calling 911 is a waste of time." Is so frustrating. The theft of thousands of dollars worth of equipment with the threat of violence in a known location and the police aren't interested?

Notice that there was also a part in the article where the police simply didn't understand the bikes were that expensive, and educating an officer on that changed their attitude.

Frustrating, still, but improvement seems at least possible.

Re: Revolt of the Delivery Workers

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure how is the state stats are relevant in discussing DeBlasio's performance or one week makes a trend though. Here are the annual stats for felonies: https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_... https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_... Some crimes are down, some (e.g. murder) are up.

Oops, didn’t notice the first link was for New York State. The CompStat link includes longer-term trends, though, which is what I was referring to. Crime is down overall, and I suspect that if you controlled for the murder rate increase in all US cities over the past two years it might be flat or down in NYC as well.

Murder rate is arguably the most useful crime metric because it's the hardest one for politicians/police to game. Changes in enforcement can change trends for assaults and property crime, but you can't really hide bodies.

Re: Revolt of the Delivery Workers

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was specifically talking about picking up packages at FedEx and UPS retail store locations not the USPS (United States Postal Service) The USPS usually has a line of 5-10 people and takes me 30 minutes but I go there about twice a year. FedEx and UPS are quick for me.

Oh wow, I totally missed that you were talking about forwarding packages across deliverers. That's wild, but makes sense!

I don't mean across delivery companies.

When I order something and it is being shipped via FedEx I can login to my FedEx account and see the package tracking info. From there I can redirect the package to one of the multiple FedEx / Kinko's retail stores in my area. Then I walk in show my driver's license and can get my package. This is great if the package requires a signature and I won't be home during the day.

UPS has a similar web site and redirection options.

Re: Revolt of the Delivery Workers

#206
post #90
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make your bikes uglier.

Unfortunately, this is the honest answer. The best bikelocks in the world can be cut with a $100 cordless angle grinder and $20 carbide blade. I watched the CCTV footage of the thief walk up with a Dewalt multitool and hack through my $50 U-lock in 30 seconds. The same technology that can propel a Tesla to 100km/h in under 5 secs is also the same technology in new cordless powertools. And the theives steal those too!…

For ebikes, removing the battery might be an option. Without it it's a (in my case) 60 lb beast that isn't good for much of anything. And it's very obvious that it's missing, so you wouldn't accidentally try to take it and then have to search for what's missing. It pops out in 5 seconds with a car-style key.

Re: Revolt of the Delivery Workers

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oops, didn’t notice the first link was for New York State. The CompStat link includes longer-term trends, though, which is what I was referring to. Crime is down overall, and I suspect that if you controlled for the murder rate increase in all US cities over the past two years it might be flat or down in NYC as well.

Murder rate is arguably the most useful crime metric because it's the hardest one for politicians/police to game. Changes in enforcement can change trends for assaults and property crime, but you can't really hide bodies.

Well, you'd have to show that murder rates correlate with rates for other crime. But more important is digging into the thorny issue of what — and who — defines "crime". Because there are a ton of aspects to it: what laws are on the books, what laws are actually enforced, what various special interest groups want to legislate, what people analyzing data choose to include.

For example, as of 2017 feeding pigeons was a misdemeanor in Las Vegas [1]. That will show up in crime data, but you'd be hard-pressed to convince me that it correlates with the murder rate. And if you wanted me to compile a report on crime data, I'd probably ignore it altogether (which is essentially what people are doing when they refer to "violent crime" states).

For a slightly more charged example, let's say property owners push a law against sleeping in public. If they succeed and police don't enforce it, are they "gaming" the metrics? What if most other locals actually oppose the law?

[1] https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-illegal-pigeon-vegas-20...

Re: Revolt of the Delivery Workers

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow, I totally missed that you were talking about forwarding packages across deliverers. That's wild, but makes sense!

I don't mean across delivery companies. When I order something and it is being shipped via FedEx I can login to my FedEx account and see the package tracking info. From there I can redirect the package to one of the multiple FedEx / Kinko's retail stores in my area. Then I walk in show my driver's license and can get my package. This is great if the package requires a signature and I won't be home during the day. UPS…

Oh, I see. That's a lot less useful since there are only two deliverers in my country that have pick-up locations anywhere within cities.

All the others (especially UPS) are way more oriented towards business customers nationwide, so there are basically no sellers using them for B2C shipping.

Re: Revolt of the Delivery Workers

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd rather compare the US with Western Europe. Homicide in the US is 5x that of Germany, and 10x that of Norway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention...

My point was not to defend the crime rate in the US, but to address a question that a person from Russia asked - why does it sound like living in NYC is like watching some Western movie, whereas the same cannot be said about Moscow? It sounded strange, because all it takes is a few YouTube searches to witness the level of violence that exists in Russia that far exceeds anything you'll see in the US. Russia really is…

This comment of yours however does smack of that run of the mill American xenophobia, "all it takes is a few YouTube searches to witness the level of violence that exists in Russia that far exceeds anything you'll see in the US. Russia really is something else in that regard." All it takes is a few YouTube searches to find some really fucked up footage of cops violating Americans' rights every day.

Re: Revolt of the Delivery Workers

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a HUGE difference between getting murdered by your friend in a drunken argument, and getting murdered by a stranger street criminal trying to rob you....

There is? Either way you're still dead.

Right before that there is a huge difference.
Post reply on HN