11 ms·

Ask HN: How can a programmer help with current events?

• giantg2 6y ago
  There have been several threads covering this in the past week or so.
  • brundolf 6y ago
    I saw one for a site aggregating videos of police violence, and then the data one I mentioned. Do you have links to others?
    • DoreenMichele 6y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23382330 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23382330
• easterncalculus 6y ago
  One big thing that I think people can do is start saving police footage. It's pretty easy to do but can be especially helpful. Even just seeding a torrent of that is a way to passively help, I think. I was also wondering about this question, so I hope that people might have some good ideas. One that I haven't thought my way through completely (as it's not my domain whatsoever) is a generic way to round up online sales totals. Maybe a browser extension that lets users round up what they're set to spend to the nearest dollar, and donate what's rounded to a relevant charity or fund? Charities could maybe partner with the developers of that open source app (or write their own extensions) to plug into it, and it would allow for people shopping online to choose where the money goes. As we've moved to online shopping being asked at the counter to round up for (possibly out of date/favor) charities has left a lot of people's lives, so an open source team that works to put that on major sites as an extension could be very beneficial. The ability to add charities with software and without waiting on large corporate partnerships could really benefit this system. I figured it'd use PayPal for the actual payment maybe. There might be serious holes in that, but it's something that came to my mind earlier today. I think ideas that could incorporate protesting while being mindful of coronavirus could also be interesting.
  • Jarwain 6y ago
    So basically Acorns, but the money goes to charity instead of your own investments
    • easterncalculus 6y ago
      I guess, I hadn't heard of Acorns before. Thanks for the tip.
• austincheney 6y ago
  Build websites, databases, and automation for charities and community organizations. * Find what community organizations and support groups exist in your local area. Your local police department and food banks can help point you to some. See if national organizations that interest you have local chapters. * Go to city counsel meetings to see some real problems and also some of the insanity your local leaders have to deal with. What I think everybody would like to see is a dishonesty database containing police brutality, false criminal complaints, false accusations of misconduct, resisting arrest, ethics violations, so forth. Data can be a positive tool to keep everyone honest and embarrass liars.
  • _hplx 6y ago
    > Your local police department...can help point you to some Sorry if I wasn't clear, but to put it lightly, I do not plan on asking the police for suggestions. That said I think the rest of the ideas are valid. > Data can be a positive tool to keep everyone I agree, but data solutions are tricky because there's so much misinformation going on right now. It's really easy for data to be fabricated (other than video (kind of)), and even if it's not, people would (rightly) be cautious to trust it. Data validation might be an interesting problem to tackle but I don't know how you solve that with tech.
    • aaron695 6y ago
      > Sorry if I wasn't clear, but to put it lightly, I do not plan on asking the police for suggestions. It's still not clear what you want. You want to protest in the USA about George Floyd (so not current events or a broader helping) and treat all the police as adversarials?
      • _hplx 6y ago
        I was trying to be diplomatic. It's my belief that the police have decided to make themselves adversarials of virtually everyone else.
        • 6y ago
• mydongle 6y ago
  You could scrape Twitter and Facebook to compile a list of everyone who has attended and been involved with the protests/riots and provide this to employers/hiring agencies.
  • CM30 6y ago
    What are you implying here? I can see two ways this could work, and both seem disturbingly orwellian in nature.
• machinehermit 6y ago
  The problem is these protest are not effective, period. All this is ultimately doing is making racist people more racist. I am a white guy and my girl is black. You know how much we talk about race? None, zero, never. It only ever comes up when racist people point out we are not of the same race. Our values, taste and upbringings are literally the same. If you think black people can't be racist try dating a black woman as a white guy, lol. The way to get past racism is not to be a racist and divide people on the basis of race. That is it. What is happening right now is going in the wrong direction. You would have a hard time helping the cause of racist assholes more than these protest.
  • _hplx 6y ago
    For what it's worth I personally do think that the focus on race is missing the bigger point, which is police brutality and impunity. They've been beating up white people too.
    • ng12 6y ago
      I think about the shooting of Daniel Shaver very often. A cold-blooded execution of a middle class white man caught on video and the officer was acquitted. We need to address both police brutality as well as racial inequality, and I wonder if it's more difficult to do both at the same time.
      • thephyber 6y ago
        > We need to address both police brutality There's a bigger legal+cultural problem if people are cold-blooded executed by police and the officer is tried and acquitted. The investigators, prosecutor, and jury are complicit.
  • thephyber 6y ago
    > The problem is these protest are not effective, period. I struggle with this one because I think it's true. > The way to get past racism is not to be a racist and divide people on the basis of race. That is it. > What is happening right now is going in the wrong direction. You seem to think the protests are primarily about race. I don't. I frame this as only police reform.
• DoreenMichele 6y ago
  You are going to do what you are going to do, but you might try looking up The Shirky Principle first (organizations tend to keep alive the problem they are designed to combat). Years ago, I used to say on some email list I was on that "fighting against the fighting is still fighting." People don't really want to be protesting. What they want is justice and they don't know how to get it. If you really want solutions, look for things that already exist that genuinely help promote justice and better treatment for disempowered peoples or build something which does so. /2 cents
• airza 6y ago
  It's money. Give money. We as developers and engineers have a lot of extra spare cash around. Donate to mutual aid funds or bail funds.
  • brundolf 6y ago
    That's fair. I'm biased to look for an interesting problem to solve but you're probably right that, realistically, money is where I can have the greatest impact.
    • deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  • 2020throwaway 6y ago
    I want to bail out peaceful protestors but not looters. Is there an organization that is doing some vetting?
    • yurishimo 6y ago
      Most of the 2020 presidential candidates have posted links. I know for sure Bernie has. If you can trust their team, then that seems like a safe bet.
    • horsemessiah 6y ago
      Police aren't really distinguishing between the two. Besides, even looters don't deserve to stay in jail if they can't afford bail - they'll still see their day in court.
• badrabbit 6y ago
  If there was an app that can be used to identify the DA, mayor, chief of police, congressman and senator(state and federal) of a police abuse of power incident and pester them with complaints, that would be useful. Or help people vote by sending them alerts for their area to vote out politicians that took no or little action when such an event occured. A harder challenge would be to counter-monitor police including stingrays and aerial attacks. Both offensive and defensive tools would be useful.
• readme 6y ago
  Here are some of my ideas: "Who's got the loot?" This app could be used to keep track of which stores have and haven't been looted yet. No one wants to loot a store that has already run out of stuff. "Children Inside" This app could help rioters decide whether to burn down a building, if there's kids inside they can pick another one. "Bail Me" This app would be just like gofundme or kickstarter, except it would be for posting bond.
  • ManlyBread 6y ago
    >This app could help rioters decide whether to burn down a building, if there's kids inside they can pick another one. I've seen the phrase "this is like a Black Mirror episode" getting tossed a lot but this is the first time I feel like it genuinely is. Not to mention you didn't even consider a case where someone would lie or list your own house.
• rmrfstar 6y ago
  Don't build, operate, or maintain the infrastructure of the surveillance state. That's a big one. For what it's worth, here is a story from WW2. A B-17 came back from a run over Germany with a dud shell lodged in its fuel tank. When the intelligence units opened the shell, they found it completely empty apart from a note written in Czech saying, "this is all we can do for you, for now."
  • thephyber 6y ago
    > Don't build, operate, or maintain the infrastructure of the surveillance state I don't suppose the open source library you choose has any hope of rejection by some government lawyer? I've heard the federal government has the ability to ignore contract law when it plays the national security card, but I haven't verified this assertion.
  • richajak 6y ago
    At least, that's we can do. Most of us in HN are blessed with brain, not muscle. We should not help governments or entities who oppress the weak ones, discriminate the minorities, bully one another. However, we should not help the rioters, incite futher hate, provoke the society, destroy small business, etc. I read news, however I do not forward any of photos, videos from those media to my friends and family members. I wish there's a modern day Gandhi or MLK who promote peace and forgiveness. All of us should be kind to another. We should not help any side to start a civil war, government instability, etc.
• truth_be_told 6y ago
  >not interested in supporting violence or doing anything illegal Who defines what is illegal? When the System and its laws are completely stacked against you, any change can only be brought about by going outside the System i.e. by engaging in "illegal acts". You are allowed to use anything and everything to bring about real Societal change. Racism and Police Brutality need to be stamped out once and for all in the US.
• babycake 6y ago
  You can't fight politics with tech, because politics win every time. Some of the things you listed don't make much sense when people are angry enough to spill into the streets to protest. For example, > - Combatting disinformation and/or processing data, about police abuse for example There's already a lot of transparency on police brutality; we even have civilian oversight groups dedicated to this, but they have either been taken over by cop-friendly leaderships or they have no power to do anything. > - Mobile panic button? And who will come to help? Police? No, they will beat your ass for revealing your location. Protestors? No, they are too busy protesting to check their phones 24/7. Just look all the people with their hands up and chanting; their eyes are all on the police who may beat them at any time. > - Mindfulness/mental health assistance for people trying to cope There may be people who are depressed, but people are angry enough to be outside and protesting. Those who are clinically depressed need actual professional help, an app will not do that. Plus there are already a lot of these types of apps in the stores already, none of which replaces an actual professional ... and in any case, the government can shut any of these solutions down if they truly wanted. I think the most direct, practical way to helping with current events is to either, or all: - Join the protestors in the streets, see the issues at hand with your own eyes instead of from media spin. - Get in touch with your coworkers, an existing union, or start a tech union underground. Organize a walk-out, to join the protestors. White collar jobs can cause some real financial pressure and bring politicians to their knees for the cause (like how some workers at fast food restaurants refused to cook for cops during the protests). They (literally) fight for our rights, we should get serious about what we can do too.