4 ms·

I'm not sure the crime solving utility is wholly relevant here, police have other duties like maintaining public safety. The obvious utility seems to be monitor

I'm not sure the crime solving utility is wholly relevant here, police have other duties like maintaining public safety. The obvious utility seems to be monitoring different protest zones for signs that violence is beginning to break out. If x people are suddenly tweeting about a fire or gun shots near an active protest then you know it would probably be wise to at least send a scout over there to evaluate the situation. This method also has the benefit of removing the need to have riot-ready police pre-emptively deployed to zones where everyone is keeping things calm. Anecdotally, I was able to spectate active looting in my own city's downtown when the protests first came to us via various livestreaming instagrammers and while it was mostly a curiosity for me I imagine it would have been useful to a dispatcher who had to decide where to send officers. I don't see why twitter couldn't serve a similarly useful purpose.

aspaceman 6y ago
> The obvious utility seems to be monitoring different protest zones for signs that violence is beginning to break out. There's an easier way of knowing when violence is happening. Just have the cops report when they decide to start beating and shooting innocent civilians. I'm sure they'll be thrilled to let folks know when their partner decided to kill someone innocent or beat some faces in. After all, their duty is to "maintain public safety".
- pnako 6y ago
  I would say this is a 5-year-old's understanding of the police, if not for the fact that 5 year olds (at least boys) typically like anything related to the police.
  - gophicer 6y ago
    You must be white.
    - textgel 6y ago
      Does anyone know mechanically what this^ is? The account has sat dormant for 2 years after making 2 comments in 2018 and after 2 years of silence it spits out this. Is it part of some sort of farmed bot network? Or is it an old account that got cracked and used by spammers?
      - sitkack 6y ago
        It is rude to talk about someone in the 3rd person directly in front of them. These topics bring out a lot of emotion in people, coupled with regular HN passive aggressive snark volleyed back and forth, of which your comment<T> fits.
      - incrimintal 6y ago
        One of the past comments mentioned "Trumps base" when talking about a musician he doesn't like. People who don't like people who voted for Trump are usually Democrats. Democrats hate white people, which explains the racist comment. The guy probably just lurked for two years until that comment triggered him.
      - gophicer 6y ago
        Yeah not hacked but thanks for confirming your whiteness.
      - iron0013 6y ago
        Your account is less than 2 months old.
UncleMeat 6y ago
> police have other duties like maintaining public safety This duty has been used to justify arresting peaceful people and creating violent situations for decades. "He was gonna cause trouble".
jMyles 6y ago
> I was able to spectate active looting in my own city's downtown when the protests first came to us via various livestreaming instagrammers and while it was mostly a curiosity for me I imagine it would have been useful to a dispatcher who had to decide where to send officers We all watched the same thing in our cities. And we watched as the police chose to launch projectiles into crowds of protestors instead of doing anything about the smashing and looting. On the first night of large protests (May 29), I found myself in my city of Portland, OR, on SW 3rd and Yamhill. On one side of me (to the East), where a small group of matching black-clad people had gone, were the unambiguous sounds of windows being smashed and building alarms going off. In other directions, especially South and West, there were huge groups of protestors, simply occupying the area. The police engaged, without a single exception that came to my awareness, in the latter group, breaking them up into smaller and smaller contingents as the night went on, while doing nothing about the much smaller group going around smashing. I described my experience in detail the following morning.[0] The same story has emerged from streamed video throughout the USA. So I don't think there's any evidence at this time that the police view stopping rioting or "active looting" as a goal. 0: https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/gtj1zm/what_i_saw_last_night/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/gtj1zm/what_i_saw...
nullc 6y ago
> police have other duties like maintaining public safety In the US it is not legally correct to claim that the police have any duty to provide any specific police service. (Warren v. District of Columbia) But pedantry aside, they could monitor twitter and whatnot for violence outbreak without collecting any identifyable information.
banannaise 6y ago
"This method also has the benefit of removing the need to have riot-ready police pre-emptively deployed to zones where everyone is keeping things calm." Let's take a moment to determine how likely it is that the cops will stop sending small battalions of riot police into situations where they are highly unnecessary. As protests have gotten smaller in many cities, police have started sending riot police that outnumber the protestors. They have shown no interest in measured responses. It would be nice if the police used data to reduce their use of force, but that appears to be antithetical to their way of thinking.

aspaceman 6y ago

> The obvious utility seems to be monitoring different protest zones for signs that violence is beginning to break out. There's an easier way of knowing when violence is happening. Just have the cops report when they decide to start beating and shooting innocent civilians. I'm sure they'll be thrilled to let folks know when their partner decided to kill someone innocent or beat some faces in. After all, their duty is to "maintain public safety".

pnako 6y ago
I would say this is a 5-year-old's understanding of the police, if not for the fact that 5 year olds (at least boys) typically like anything related to the police.
- gophicer 6y ago
  You must be white.
  - textgel 6y ago
    Does anyone know mechanically what this^ is? The account has sat dormant for 2 years after making 2 comments in 2018 and after 2 years of silence it spits out this. Is it part of some sort of farmed bot network? Or is it an old account that got cracked and used by spammers?
    - sitkack 6y ago
      It is rude to talk about someone in the 3rd person directly in front of them. These topics bring out a lot of emotion in people, coupled with regular HN passive aggressive snark volleyed back and forth, of which your comment<T> fits.
    - incrimintal 6y ago
      One of the past comments mentioned "Trumps base" when talking about a musician he doesn't like. People who don't like people who voted for Trump are usually Democrats. Democrats hate white people, which explains the racist comment. The guy probably just lurked for two years until that comment triggered him.
    - gophicer 6y ago
      Yeah not hacked but thanks for confirming your whiteness.
    - iron0013 6y ago
      Your account is less than 2 months old.

UncleMeat 6y ago

> police have other duties like maintaining public safety This duty has been used to justify arresting peaceful people and creating violent situations for decades. "He was gonna cause trouble".

jMyles 6y ago

> I was able to spectate active looting in my own city's downtown when the protests first came to us via various livestreaming instagrammers and while it was mostly a curiosity for me I imagine it would have been useful to a dispatcher who had to decide where to send officers We all watched the same thing in our cities. And we watched as the police chose to launch projectiles into crowds of protestors instead of doing anything about the smashing and looting. On the first night of large protests (May 29), I found myself in my city of Portland, OR, on SW 3rd and Yamhill. On one side of me (to the East), where a small group of matching black-clad people had gone, were the unambiguous sounds of windows being smashed and building alarms going off. In other directions, especially South and West, there were huge groups of protestors, simply occupying the area. The police engaged, without a single exception that came to my awareness, in the latter group, breaking them up into smaller and smaller contingents as the night went on, while doing nothing about the much smaller group going around smashing. I described my experience in detail the following morning.[0] The same story has emerged from streamed video throughout the USA. So I don't think there's any evidence at this time that the police view stopping rioting or "active looting" as a goal. 0: https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/gtj1zm/what_i_saw_last_night/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/gtj1zm/what_i_saw...

nullc 6y ago

> police have other duties like maintaining public safety In the US it is not legally correct to claim that the police have any duty to provide any specific police service. (Warren v. District of Columbia) But pedantry aside, they could monitor twitter and whatnot for violence outbreak without collecting any identifyable information.

banannaise 6y ago

"This method also has the benefit of removing the need to have riot-ready police pre-emptively deployed to zones where everyone is keeping things calm." Let's take a moment to determine how likely it is that the cops will stop sending small battalions of riot police into situations where they are highly unnecessary. As protests have gotten smaller in many cities, police have started sending riot police that outnumber the protestors. They have shown no interest in measured responses. It would be nice if the police used data to reduce their use of force, but that appears to be antithetical to their way of thinking.