3 ms·

Can you explain what you mean by this? Are you saying crime is actually good or something else?

Nextgrid 4y ago
I don't think he's making an argument either way? He's just commenting that given the current situation, it seems that the snitching app has too many employees? I'd argue the title is wrong - it's not a "Crime app" as much as a "Crime reporting & monitoring" app.
- Vt71fcAqt7 4y ago
  Using the word "snitch" is itself an argument. It is used to paint someone who reports crimes as bad. Now, some laws are perhaps bad, but that would of course be on a case by case basis. Describing the app and it's users as a whole as "snitching" is certainly an argument. All this said, I just wanted GP to explain what exactly they meant.
RC_ITR 4y ago
The criticism against Citizen (and vigilantism in general) is that average citizens aren't actually that good at detecting crime and instead rely stereotypes and hunches. This is bad because it generally creates an unspoken appearance-based caste system, where 'non-sketchy looking' people can do things that others can't (like park their work van on the side of the road to take a lunch break).
- lovecg 4y ago
  Thankfully we have a professional police force to avoid all these problems.
  - Nextgrid 4y ago
    I'd rather have one idiot on the case than that idiot + a bunch of other, self-selected idiots prompted to show up by an app. At worst they will actually hinder police response and/or get themselves or others hurt. Keep in mind that the user base of Citizen is not a uniform distribution of the population either - certain classes (for the lack of a better word) will self-select and are likely to have similar issues to the police itself. In fact you might have the kind of people who can't even make the cut to join the police itself, which is not a good thing when you see how low the bar for the police is to begin with.
- Vt71fcAqt7 4y ago
  That's a valid critisism. So the issue is bias and not "snitching."

I don't think he's making an argument either way? He's just commenting that given the current situation, it seems that the snitching app has too many employees? I'd argue the title is wrong - it's not a "Crime app" as much as a "Crime reporting & monitoring" app.

Vt71fcAqt7 4y ago
Using the word "snitch" is itself an argument. It is used to paint someone who reports crimes as bad. Now, some laws are perhaps bad, but that would of course be on a case by case basis. Describing the app and it's users as a whole as "snitching" is certainly an argument. All this said, I just wanted GP to explain what exactly they meant.

RC_ITR 4y ago

The criticism against Citizen (and vigilantism in general) is that average citizens aren't actually that good at detecting crime and instead rely stereotypes and hunches. This is bad because it generally creates an unspoken appearance-based caste system, where 'non-sketchy looking' people can do things that others can't (like park their work van on the side of the road to take a lunch break).

lovecg 4y ago
Thankfully we have a professional police force to avoid all these problems.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  I'd rather have one idiot on the case than that idiot + a bunch of other, self-selected idiots prompted to show up by an app. At worst they will actually hinder police response and/or get themselves or others hurt. Keep in mind that the user base of Citizen is not a uniform distribution of the population either - certain classes (for the lack of a better word) will self-select and are likely to have similar issues to the police itself. In fact you might have the kind of people who can't even make the cut to join the police itself, which is not a good thing when you see how low the bar for the police is to begin with.
Vt71fcAqt7 4y ago
That's a valid critisism. So the issue is bias and not "snitching."