Look Ma, I'm Getting Arrested! 238
robotissues writes "Cnet reviews 'I'm Getting Arrested,' an Android app that alerts your lawyer and loved ones if you have been arrested while peacefully demonstrating. The app makes it easy to broadcast a message via SMS in case all hell breaks loose."
All Hell? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think when all hell breaks loose, it looks like Darfur, not Occupy Wallstreet.
Re:All Hell? (Score:5, Funny)
The problem is that everyone has a different definition of all hell breaking loose. For some it's blood running in the streets, for others it's that their portfolio dropped by 20%.
go long on guillotines (Score:3, Insightful)
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Don't worry. If you don't, so won't a few thousands/million others. And a lot of them will already have rifles, machetes and rope, due to the nature of their profession, and I guess they'll be very willing to let you tag along. The more the merrier, as I always say when going to a lynching party.
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If you are expecting the possibility of a civil insurrection, it's better to already be prepared, than to try purchasing the necessary supplies at the last minute. Rifles, as most weapons and ammunition, will be in short supply. At very least, those supplies will be in high demand, and the prices will be adjusted accordingly.
Think of it like trying to buy water, canned foods, survival supplies, and building supplies, the day a hurricane is expected to hit. You may want to buy them, but you'll be hard pr
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My money is NOT on the guy with a bunker full of baked beans and 30 cases of ammo. He's a loner with a highly valuable stash. My crystal ball says he gets p0wned on day 3 by gang bangers, who understand organization without appeal to law.
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Nope gang bangers are predators, and they'll be preying on the weaker members of suburbia, only the really stupid bustas are going to hop the fence next to the sign that says trespassers will be shot and survivors will be shot again. That also presumes there are any bangers left after day 3 and the settling of scores.
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I think people would flee urban centers due to the resulting chaos, and most people would die from lack of fresh water from public sources and the inability to locate any other sources.
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Personally, I think that in an extended period of breakdown of social order, all these people who buy gold and silver will look like fools - ammunition will be currency.
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... and in Zuccotti park it's "shit man I ran out of weed"
Thank you Freewheelin' Franklin! [freaknet.org.uk]
I betcha the 1% never thought of this!
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That just gave me the idea for a "I'm Getting Shot!" app.
Re:All Hell? (Score:4, Funny)
Well, why not an "I just died" app. Have a blue-tooth wristband that measures your heartrate- if your heart stops beating it sends an e-mail out to your loved ones.
"If you are reading this, I just died.
- Peace & Love
Oswald McWeany"
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Its a service that you register with that periodically sends you emails you must respond to. If you don't respond to the email the service assumes you've passed away and then sends out an email to the people you indicated previously. I haven't given it a try yet but it might be handy to have for when I keel off and business partners need access to my data.
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I'm just waiting for the first smart guy to come up with a service that responds automatically to that message so you don't have to. Ya know, saves you work...
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That has the same inherent problems as an automated layoff script. If you fail to check in, it will do the action without positive verification.
Someone was telling me just a few days ago about an ex-employee who had a layoff script in place. She worked every day, and only took a weekend at most. She safely left a 7 day window for her to do the action that told the system that she was still employed. The action required her to have physical access to the network. It was some
Re:All Hell? (Score:5, Funny)
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Sending your loved ones false messages of your death is rather cruel.
Well, I'm not sure that one applies to everyone.
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Well, if it was set up properly, a dead battery wouldn't give a false alarm. It should expect a signal being sent from the wristband saying that there is no pulse. Now, the wristband coming loose or being torn off, could result in poor results. Friends and family will stop ignoring the alerts after the 2nd or 3rd time you died. :)
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What if your arm got chopped off? No blood circulation, but the battery would still be good and the strap would still be intact.
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Re:All Hell? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:All Hell? (Score:4, Insightful)
Everyone else uses the phrase as a relative term. But go ahead and complain that your unique language choices aren't globally accepted.
Personally I think the phrase should only be used to refer to situations in which some crazy vampire opens a hellmouth, but I don't complain when nobody agrees with me.
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Why would the unemployed have a bone to pick with the top 1%?
Enough time? (Score:3, Interesting)
Would you mr policeman give me time to run this pretty app before you use your handcuffs on me?
Re:Enough time? (Score:5, Funny)
I was thinking exactly that. I guess if you see the cop coming and reach into your pocket quickly for your phone it might work. What could possibly go wrong?
Re:Enough time? (Score:4, Funny)
Frogs and jokes don't fare well by discetion...
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That seems the be a common trend among dark lords in general. Not really known for their senses of humor, despite all the MUHAWAHAHA's and such.
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Maybe you could rig it with a dead man's switch. While it's active, you periodically have to click on the "I'm okay" button. If you don't, it broadcasts a "Something is wrong" message. Should work, unless the cops think to pull the battery.
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Maybe it should be like a "dead man's switch". If you don't press a button in a certain amount of time, it will send a "Help, I'm being arrested" message.
Re:Enough time? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Help! Help! I'm being repressed!!!
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Siri, tell everyone I'm getting arrested.
Time for an iPhone app - it should be on iTunes after just a few weeks of Apple review.
Re:Enough time? (Score:4, Funny)
Phone starts dialing everyone - (000) 000-0001, (000) 000-0002, ...
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That's "Wheatley, tell everyone I'm getting arrested."
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Needs live streaming (Score:2)
An app that streams live audio and video to the web (in case the phone is confiscated or destroyed) would help catch those abusing their power. The key is to make it automatic and impossible to prevent, short of jamming mobile networks. Evidence is the most important weapon in the war on abusive authorities.
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Corporate shills! (Score:3, Insightful)
This is awesome. So while I'm out protesting corporations, I can use my phone, produced by a corporation, to notify my family that I've been arrested. Maybe I can get one of them to bring me a frapacino [motifake.com].
Re:Corporate shills! (Score:4, Insightful)
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Exactly.
Because GOOG, SSNLF, 2498.TW, and T are unconnected in any way to Wall Street.
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But we are talking about a smartphone.
If a person can't leave off buying a smartphone + voice and data and texting plan, with 0 degrees of separation between the seller and the stock market, it causes me to question their level of commitment and true understanding of what you describe as "everyone is connected to Wall Street". You'd have to win a contest to get a phone with fewer people between you and an actual 1%er.
If this movement could more accurately focus on chrony capitalism versus capitalism, the du
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and
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correct.. i have no problem with a publicly traded company.. i do have problems with companies whose goal and purpose is to manipulate the market for their own benefit and not the benefit of society as a whole.
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It goes farther than that...a group of publicly traded companies assisted by lapdog government that turn around and stabbed the whole country in the back.
The group there doesn't have a problem when corporations compete fairly and aren't manipulating the government.
Of course, no one anti-OWS wants to hear facts. They just want to shoot off personal attacks.
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YES!
But only good looking people. Fat Ugly people are just there because they are pervs
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except facebook has sold stock to investors who are the very people the protesters are protesting.
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How many of them have investments that are managed by financial managers?
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You are the most prolific strawman-builder I've ever seen.
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You just don't like the point he makes, because it's true.
You really believe that? Were the civil rights protesters during the 60's hypocritical because they wore clothes manufactured by corporations controlled by white people? Were those that fought in the American Revolutionary war hypocritical because they used weapons that were copies of British design?
Perhaps you could get congress to pass a law stating that free speech should be limited to the use of technologies not controlled by corporations, thereby effectively eliminating the "problem" of free speech al
Re:Corporate shills! (Score:4, Insightful)
Protests such as this don't serve to resolve any problems. They only serve to draw attention to the problem. Would one, ten, or ten million people standing around complaining about a problem make a difference? Not really.
It would be more effective if those protesters, their friends, and their families, all cashed in their stock, paid off their loans (so as not to pay further interest), closed their bank accounts, and effectively said "hell no, we won't let you have any more of our money!"
I've been doing my part towards this. I am open about problems I've had with banks. A recent even was with Wells Fargo. They started charging me fees which were contrary to federal law. I went to the bank first to discuss it. They refused to accept the fact that they were breaking the law. I filed a federal complaint over it. When faced with this they begrudgingly agreed to waive the fees, but still refused to admit that they were at fault. Basically, they claimed it was my fault that they were illegally applying fees. In the end, I closed my account without needing to pay the fees. Several friends did the same. I'm just one person, and it was only a handful of accounts that were closed because of this. If every person who was wronged did the same thing, it would have a severe impact on banks and other companies that are viewed as "doing wrong". These companies can only thrive for as long as they have these huge customer bases, that pay fees and interest.
In other words, don't complain about the problem. Do something about the problem. Stop paying them to be the problem.
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That's nonsense. Those people out there are fighting the big corporations with the power of their MacBooks!
Re:Corporate shills! (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps (as your post seems to infer) everyone should just STFU and accept the wonderful economic condition the US is in, due in no small part by the factors mentioned above, eh? I'm sure "Corporate America" thanks you for your support.
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I suppose it would be more "pure" to eschew anything produced by a corporation while protesting their influence, but then the protesters would need to carry around stone tablets and chisels to communicate, all while wearing animal skins (or protesting in the nude). However, I see no hypocrisy in using all available technologies at their disposal to make their point. After all, the protests are not against technology, but rather corporate greed, government corruption and the undue influence of power and money on the political system.
I see it as people having liberals having Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speak about human rights. I have no problem with them using technology, as long as the tech they use is not produced by the very people they are protesting. If they have a problem with Haliburton or Bank of America, they should protest Haliburton or Bank of America, not all of Wall St. See, much of my retirement is tied up in Wall St and I'm the working class schlub they are supposed to be protesting for. They are NOT helping!
Perhaps (as your post seems to infer) everyone should just STFU and accept the wonderful economic condition the US is in, due in no small part by the factors mentioned above, eh? I'm sure "Corporate America" thanks you for your support.
Taking down corp
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Just what technology would be that be, precisely? Flint knives and smoke signals?
Re:Corporate shills! (Score:4, Insightful)
See, much of my retirement is tied up in Wall St and I'm the working class schlub they are supposed to be protesting for. They are NOT helping!
That's a nice insurance policy Wall Street has. If the serfs get too uppity, just crash their retirement. That way you get a country full of Uncle Toms running to prop up the system. Aren't you upset about being in such a bind that you can't even speak your mind for fear of losing your retirement?
Putting your retirement in the stock market is a stupid idea to begin with. Workers should be paid enough that they can save what they need to retire on, without being forced to gamble, or fund unethical behavior.
Taking down corporations is not going to improve our economic situation
Very few people want to take down corporations. We just want them to play fair. They should pay their workers a fair share of the profits. The officers of corporations should go to jail when the corporation commits crimes. And they shouldn't have undue influence over the political process.
Do you disagree?
Then again, I don't see these guys as Nobel Laureate Economists.
At least one Nobel Laureate economist has strongly supported the economic ideas behind OWS.
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When you exist in a world where the dominant social relation is capital, the vast majority of the things you use will be produced by means of capital, dumbass.
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And these protesters want to get rid of capital. Dumbass indeed.
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They do? I've been following the protests and the only persons really talking about socialism are the anti-OWS types.
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I doubt that anyone wants corporations to go away. They're not protesting corporations or the products they make. They are protesting against the unhealthy intertwining of business and politics. They're protesting that they, essentially, pay for the manager's bonus payments with their tax money. They're protesting against the "privatize profits, socialize losses" policy that has invaded wall street and got the blessing of the government.
The products are not the problem. If there's a problem, then that you c
police state (Score:4, Insightful)
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Sad to say I totally agree. The police in practically every US state have shown time after time that they are fully willing to break the law and assault peacefully protesting citizens without cause. Not that this is limited to the US, but it seems to be rampant there now.
When peaceful protest becomes a crime, you know something is seriously wrong with the system.
Re:Canada (Score:5, Interesting)
Until a few years ago I would have said we were free from being in this state up here in Canada. But then we have the pepperspraying of peaceful protesters in Vancouver, followed many years later by the treatment of the protesters at the G8 summit - which appears to have been used by the Conservative Harper government as a training exercise in how to run a police state in all regards. They attempted to incite people to break the law using police undercover officers in the midst of the protesters, they kettled people with no reason, they beat up on hundreds of peaceful protesters, they announced they were enforcing a law that they KNEW was not on the books and which had never existed - arresting people under it. They held protesters who had been arrested in overcrowded cages,refusing them food, water, medical attention etc, without charges being layed, then released them 12-24 hrs later without explanation. All this against a backdrop of Conservative misappropriation of the vast funds spent on the event (1 billion total or so I think). I am thoroughly ashamed that my fellow citizens somehow saw fit to elect Stephen Harper to be our Prime Minister, then handed him a majority government in the following election. How enough of them could be so misguided as to vote for him is beyond me. I wouldn't buy a used car from that asshole, and I sure as fuck don't trust him as the PM. The only things Harper believes in as far as I can see, are his own manifest destiny and a strong desire to earn the praise of the US Republican party by doing whatever they want him to do.
Mostly Canada is pretty peaceful and calm, but if we dare object to something the Conservatives are doing, we get treated like we are criminals with no rights, and the Canadian constitution which guarantees those rights is trampled by the Police that run to do his bidding. I used to have immense respect for the various police forces in Canada - my father was a cop in Vancouver, and if I hadn't been accepted by the Canadian Military first, I would have been a cop there as well - but no longer after watching their behaviour in Toronto during the G8/G20 summit. Lies, Deceit, Corruption, these are all cards in the hand the Conservatives are playing - and my fellow countrymen/women appear to be too blind or too stupid to see it.
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break the law and assault peacefully protesting citizens without cause.
Theres the rub, isnt it? What makes you say the arrests were without cause? Because unsubstantiated, unofficial comments on youtube go on about the police state?
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It's a sad comment, but is it really about "our times?" Untrusted government isn't a new invention.
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The perceived value of this app will be most for people who intentionally set up situations to make the cops react strongly, so they can have a damning youtube video to post.
I mean, it would be great if everyone had this just in case a police state were to come about (I guess), but probably 80% of the people who have this are people who would resist arrest just to get tasered so that they could go on about police brutality.
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In the US, you're at least nominally allowed a call. If anywhere, you'd need it ... well, everywhere else.
Another tool (Score:2)
Another tool for the cops who are having a bad day to use against you.
"Ron, first confiscation you make from a subject is no longer the gun. It's the mobile phone."
I jest, I jest. Or do I?
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Jest? I would be surprised if it isn't already so.
Suggestion. (Score:5, Funny)
An amazing AI app: (Score:4, Funny)
How would it know you were protesting rather than doing something else?
"I'm sorry. I can't send a message. You were holding up a liquor store. That's not peaceful protesting."
Hey Dad! (Score:2)
Also makes "Hey Dad, I'm in Jail!" by Was (not Was) your ring tone. I like it here!
The classic version: (Score:2)
"Busted, down on Bourbon Street, Set up, like a bowling pin. Knocked down, it get's to wearin' thin"
Speaking from experience... (Score:2)
Limited usefulness at demonstrations. (Score:2)
Although this will be great for motorists being bagged by overly zealous traffic cops, I don't think it will be much use at demonstrations. Government agencies have already demonstrated their willingness and ability to shut down cellular infrastructure or use jammers in order to disrupt protesters' ability to communicate, and this trend will only escalate in the coming years.
Lots of the posts below remind me... (Score:2)
... of a phrase from (oh boy) a TV show. [Paraphrased, of course]- "There are 3 sides to every situation. Side 1, side 2, and the truth." The good thing is that with increasing video coverage, we can see what happened rather than just each sides views of what happened. Of course, there is the downside of always being watched for no reason
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Re:Look Ma... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Look Ma... (Score:5, Informative)
You haven't spent a lot of time in jail, have you? :) My experience is based on being the good guy, not the bad guy.
There are usually numbers for bail bondsmen posted by the phones. That's who you need to talk to, not your mom, significant other, etc. They want their 10%, so they'll call everyone you ask them to.
You have the right to legal representation. If you cannot afford legal representation, an attorney will be appointed for you. That may have a familiar ring to it. The only thing you should say is "I want a lawyer." It may take a few hours to a day, but one will show up.
You can make calls once you're booked in. The calls are collect, so hopefully the other side will take the calls. It's a good idea that people know where you were going, so they'll already know to accept the charges.
Since the charge is only going to be a minor charge, they'll probably book you, and release you ROR. That is, unless you took a swing at a cop or something. You'll be given a court date, and kicked to the curb.
Regardless if you're being arrested for being annoying, or murder, you're not just dropped into some dark hole that no one will ever hear from you again. You just may not be allowed to leave.
Jails don't generally have the capacity to take in hundreds of people at once, and keep them. They have logistics issues. They may have cells and bunks available. They may not have enough food coming in. So the trivial BS arrests (like these could be), will be processed and released.
I think now there no limit on call other then cost (Score:2)
I think now there no limit on call other then the high cost of makeing them.
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and why is it good news that the protests will go away?
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"We demand jobs!"
Ah. That's all it takes! Just demand a job from the people who could be hiring, but who aren't hiring because
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Because they don't know what they are protesting.
They are angry that there are some people who are excessively rich while a lot of them struggling.
The problem is they think these excessively rich people (who probably should be paying a lot more for taxes) are like Scrooge Mc'Duck and have this big vault filled with cash they they are just sitting on. These people wealth is in their net worth, not their Cash on hand. Their worth is in investments and a lot of thing where their money is floating around the ec
Mod Up (Score:2)
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It isn't offering a solution to the problem, all it is saying yea we are angry. So what.
Standing up and making noise is the first step towards getting a problem fixed. Obama, Boehner, Cantor and the rest would be happy to ignore the problem that's been growing for 30 years. [ritholtz.com]
Do you really expect solutions from a bunch of unemployed college grads? They're not economists. The fact that they have trouble articulating a solution doesn't mean they haven't identified a real problem. The solution should come fro
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Didn't stop the union protesters in WI last year (although that was freezing rain, not just frost). Of course, they had something concrete that they were protesting against and an easily definable goal. The Madison police also managed to not arrest anyone unnecessarily in that case (possibly because they are public sector union employees themselves, although the law doesn't effect them directly). And then again, the protesters in WI were smart enough and careful enough not to do anything remotely illegal
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I dunno, but "I'm sorry boss, I won't be in to work tomorrow, I'll be in jail" isn't quite what I'd want to text. It might lead to very uncomfortable consequences without a very good explanation, I'd prefer the leisure of interactivity when informing my boss of that.