A Smart Doorbell Company Is Working With Cops To Report 'Suspicious' People, Activities (vice.com) 273
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Smart doorbell company Ring is making it easier for customers to call the cops on "suspicious" people and activities. The startup, which Amazon acquired for reportedly "more than" $1 billion this year, uses security cameras to let people monitor their entryways. Now, it's launching its Neighbors app -- a platform for reporting crime that, so far, police in Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, and the Ventura Sheriff's Department, have access to. "Over the next days and weeks, law enforcement across the U.S. will be joining Neighbors," a Ring spokesperson told me over email.
The app, while presented as a crime-fighting aid, could also be a new place for paranoid people to profile fellow citizens, as similar platforms in the past have turned out to be. According to the company's statement in a press release for Neighbors today: "In addition to receiving push notifications about potential security issues, app users can see recent crime and safety posts uploaded by their neighbors, the Ring team and local law enforcement via an interactive map. If a neighbor notices suspicious activity in their area, they can post their own text, photo or video and alert the community to proactively prevent crime."
The app, while presented as a crime-fighting aid, could also be a new place for paranoid people to profile fellow citizens, as similar platforms in the past have turned out to be. According to the company's statement in a press release for Neighbors today: "In addition to receiving push notifications about potential security issues, app users can see recent crime and safety posts uploaded by their neighbors, the Ring team and local law enforcement via an interactive map. If a neighbor notices suspicious activity in their area, they can post their own text, photo or video and alert the community to proactively prevent crime."
Makes sense (Score:4, Insightful)
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Hmm...why don't you always keep one chambered?
Pretty much every gun in my house are loaded to full capacity +1 in the chamber, ready to go when I might need them.
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I hope you live alone.
I hope no burglar can find any of your weapons before you can.
I really hope your heavy rounds don't penetrate your walls should you miss.
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I have no children living with me, but even if I did, I'd train them to know and respect and LEAVE weapons alone, like my parents did with me.
Kids aren't stupid, they just have to be trained right.
I have a LOT of guns. I have many of them staged within the house, I'm never far away from one, so, got that covered.
Most of the home defense round
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Re:Makes sense (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, it worked for me.
We had a gun in the house, and I was a young child, I think I was likely in about 5th-6th grade when we got it.
My dad showed me how the pistol worked, and let me shoot it, etc.
They also put the fear of God into me if I ever so much as thought about touching it without supervision.
I was a latch key kid...both parents worked, I came home alone most school days and when I was about 13yrs, I would spend summer days home alone.
I was told where the guns was, and I knew it was loaded.
One day when home alone, it was raining. A strange man came up and stayed in our door way, He was asking for a drink of water, I refused behind the locked door. I was frightened....as per my parent's instructions, I was then ok'ed for me to get the gun.
I retrieved it, I chambered a round and held it, till the storm passed, and he finally left.
After I felt safe, I dropped the magazine, un-chambered the round, put the round back in magazine and put magazine back in gun, and replaced it where it was usually hidden.
After I did that,I called my Mom at work and told her what happened, etc.
Are kids more stupid today and can't handle this?
Re:Makes sense (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously?
You don't think a young teen, home alone, with a ragged looking man hanging out on their doorstep, not going away, would be a reason for you to be somewhat concerned or frightened????
Yes, I grabbed that gun, just to be ready in case this person, that was NOT from the neighborhood (we all knew each other) tried to force his way into the house and defend myself.
Wow....I guess you're more trusting than most folks I know, especially THESE days, of home invasions, etc.
Re:Makes sense (Score:4, Insightful)
It is insanely EASY....as long as no one attempts to break into my house/property and steal or do harm to myself of ones I care about, they they will NOT get shot.
If they choose to commit these crimes, then of course they deserve to and will be shot.
I don't see what's so difficult for you to understand.
it is 100% up to them....don't do the crime.
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Try dealing with a raged-out, roided-out cop who's pointing a gun at you because some idiot neighbor reported you "breaking in" to your own home.
I actually had something like that once. I'd fallen asleep and woke up to cop in the house because someone had reported someone climbing through a window and my living room window was wide open, but luckily no one here has a gun and the cops less so so after a 5 minute chat everyone was back to business with zero bloodshed.
Re:Makes sense (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, I'm guessing you're not from America, so I'd have to start the answer by, "If I have to explain it to you, you'd not understand."
As for lives lost, well, ONE life lost for most anything, that isn't justified (criminal acts) is too many.
If you take the gun death numbers in the US, and correct them.....say, remove suicides from that number, since well, that is a self induced act, a choice and if you're determined to kill yourself, then you'll find any method to do so.
The number here we're concerned with, is person to person shootings resulting in death. If you drop that number, you'll see the number of gun deaths is about the same as the number of deaths from automobile crashes.
You take that number, and look at I believe it is like 40% or so of those, are gang related deaths....criminals shooting criminals....if guns weren't here, they'd find other ways.
Heck, last I heard, that in London, the crime rate was rivaling New York City...and that they were now considering "sensible knife laws". So, I guess a criminal will find whatever they can use, as that they don't by definition care if it is legal or not.
The VAST majority of gun owners in the US, are law abiding citizens, whose weapons will never be used against another person, nor be used in an illegal manner.
Why then, should we cater to the lowest denominator, a few crazy folks and some criminals....and take away rights the vast majority of people have now?
I very much LOVE having my gun collection. I regularly go out target shooting. I go through quite a bit of ammo monthly. It makes me happy and I enjoy it.
And, unless I do something illegal with them, no one and no entity has need to know what I have.....no more so than they need to know what knives, or lawn mowers I've purchased. Guns like any other things, are merely tools.
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Even if I did not have a single of fear someone breaking in, I'd still be a gun owner.
I enjoy them a LOT.
I collect them, like other folks collect coins.
I take them out to the various ranges around, or to friend's place
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Seems reasonable to me. If the stranger kicks the door in, it's too late to go get the gun. As long as the kid doesn't actually open fire, I don't see the problem.
Lots of self-defense courses tell people to trust their instincts about when they're in danger. This was the same sort of thing.
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Well, you're a fool. Just because your (imaginary) children are responsible Boy Scouts (err, just 'Scouts' now) and learned safe gun handling in the womb doesn't mean their friends are.
One kid. One chambered round. A few seconds. That's all it takes.
If you're THAT paranoid about your person, either up you meds, move or just carry the damned gun with you.
(Says someone with close to a dozen guns locked in a gun cabinet. No kids. Bears and other local miscreants get pepper sprayed.)
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Well, who says I don't carry when out in public? CC licenses are easy enough to get.
I don't allow a bunch of kids to run around my house unsupervised.
And a gun that is unloaded or unaccessible is pretty much about the most useless thing in the world.
I hope for your sake a criminal breaking into your house gives you plenty of notice to run to wherever your gun safe is, take out your guns, find the am
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A good idea, in Florida? (Score:2)
A lot of my neighbors have doorbell cameras and will post suspicious stuff to community Facebook groups, occasionally to law enforcement. Lets just hope there are limits put in place. They're security cameras, not public tracking devices.
Re:A good idea, in Florida? (Score:4, Interesting)
It would be difficult for police to set up a network to do this throughout neighborhoods (cost, potential constitutional issues), but it's perfectly legal for a group of private civilians to collect images of the public, tag it almost however they want (as long as it's opinion-based), and upload it wherever they're allowed. They can label as suspicious a minority in an overwhelmingly white neighborhood, a teen in a beater car, or a child without his or her parents as long as they're stating an opinion about it being suspicious, completely ignoring (or oblivious) that the person recently moved in, the teen lives there and just bought their first car with their own money, or the kid is ten and playing just a couple of doors down from home. Having police respond to these wastes resources and contributes to the further deterioration of neighborhood relations.
Crafting laws to cover this without blocking legitimate reports would be difficult, if not impossible. This can only change through social pressure. If a group like this forms in your neighborhood, it could be helpful to join even if you don't want to if only to talk some sense into those who read too much into perfectly innocent activities.
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Neighborhood Watch (Score:5, Interesting)
My daughter's neighborhood had several cars broken into. The neighborhood watch has a facebook group that alerted members. They all polled their surveillance cameras and each found the same van casing their houses throughout the area. They emailed all the pictures to the local Sheriff's department and they caught the van in another area the next night. Cameras are everywhere now and if neighbors unite they have an amazing amount of coverage.
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My daughter's neighborhood had several cars broken into...They all polled their surveillance cameras and each found the same van casing their houses throughout the area.
The objection isn't to this sort of thing. Crimes had taken place in the neighborhood, and individuals worked together to submit useful evidence to the police to assist in convicting the criminal(s). This is excellent teamwork, and there is relatively little objection to this sort of scenario.
What's being suggested here, is that Ring is giving police direct access to citizen-owned cameras. Herein lies the problem: my neighbors paying for me to be surveiled, with no crime and no cause, to a police department
Re:Neighborhood Watch (Score:4, Insightful)
That is because you understand that freedom is far, far more important than security. Unfortunately, that makes you part of a tiny minority. The others will gladly welcome the next fascist catastrophe as long as they get promised "security".
Changing times (Score:2)
Joking aside, I wonder if this will do more to create false perceptions of danger than it will to keep people genuinely informed.
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Some women checking out of an AirBNB in California ended up getting a huge police response and detained for a few hours because a neighbor saw them loading their luggage into a car and assumed they were robbing the place.
This shit already happens without a "Neighbors app" and is bound to get worse with one.
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Or the three black teens shopping at Nordstrom Rack who clearly had to be shoplifters.
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I purposefully didn't mention it because I didn't want this to turn into a political argument. But it's true; had they been white nothing likely would have happened.
Either way, apps like these will just allow for more such casual racism to happen. I don't see it being a good thing in the near-to-medium term.
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You forgot to mention they were BLACK women checking out of an unlicensed AirBNB, so obviously highly suspicious.
If it had been white people checking out of an unlicensed AirBnb, you'd have never heard about it. It's probably happened many times and just wasn't news worthy until it was a minority.
Apart from when the police shoot the white woman who called them
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Of course it will. Pearl-clutching, old, white hags are gonna start calling the cops on any black person they see through their doorbell camera. Walking while black will be the new crime of the day.
Re:Changing times (Score:4, Insightful)
Are the stereotypical old ladies of the future going to monitor their Neighbors app instead of a police scanner? Joking aside, I wonder if this will do more to create false perceptions of danger than it will to keep people genuinely informed.
Have you ever read the police log of a small town? People are afraid of their own shadows. Your average person is not qualified to assess what is a threat and what isn't.
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Nah, in my small town it's just PD picking up people with 'altered mental status', a few trash can maulings by bears and the occasional sea lion snoring. We save shadow jumping for the City Assembly meeting.
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Hardship stories already don't work. I've had two people come to my door with sob stories about a stalled car, trying to get to work, need $20 for gas, new to town, taking my kid to the hospital, etc etc.
I fell for it once 25 years ago when the dude walked into my video store looking for $2 bus fare. When he came in with the same fucking story two weeks later (he must tell it so often he forgets his audience) I knew I had been scammed and threw his ass out.
I told the last two they had 60 seconds to get ou
Network security (Score:2)
Skybell is better (Score:2)
It's unfortunate that Ring gets all the press, as Skybell is such a better product.
Wider working temperature range (rather important for us in the deep Northeast), and no charge for cloud access to a week's worth of videos. We've been loving ours... integrated just fine into SmartThings.
It's like Norton/McAfee.... the lesser product in the class gets all the name recognition, while better alternatives go around relatively unknown.
Welcome to the future (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
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...Caucasians
And wealthy blacks, too. Oh, not that many of them?? Fine; it still doesn't have a fucking thing to do with skin color, shitstain.
It's paranoia when they're really victimizing you? (Score:5, Insightful)
I've lived in large single family home residential neighborhood in a city (looks suburban, but is in the city) for 19 years and over the past 5+ years, the amount of nuisance theft has skyrocketed. Just on my *block* it's not unusual to hear about a car being rifled, strange "door to door" sales people with no materials/identification/logos. We had a rash of car entries using keyless entry repeaters and a couple of sneak burglaries (snatching purses from kitchen tables). Over a week last November, the entire larger neighborhood was hit by package thieves, including my house. 3 different people had footage of the car involved.
I had a long conversation with my council member about what can be done and was told that we should just report it and then do insurance or whatever. I asked why we couldn't get more police patrols and was told our area was "too low crime" (the numbers say we're the lowest crime area in the city) and there wasn't sufficient resources.
So what the fuck? Just put up with it? That's the answer? Or just change my thinking, it *must* be my racial bias?
Or this is somehow really ad-hoc redistributive economic justice, and I'm just too racist to notice?
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I had a long conversation with my council member about what can be done and was told that we should just report it and then do insurance or whatever. I asked why we couldn't get more police patrols and was told our area was "too low crime" (the numbers say we're the lowest crime area in the city) and there wasn't sufficient resources.
So what the fuck? Just put up with it? That's the answer? Or just change my thinking, it *must* be my racial bias?
Or this is somehow really ad-hoc redistributive economic justice, and I'm just too racist to notice?
So how about you, or someone in your neighborhood, run for city council and push for increased police patrols?
Re:It's paranoia when they're really victimizing y (Score:5, Interesting)
A losing effort.
The city has had at least two controversial shootings in recent years and activists are wholly opposed to anything involving "more police". One shooting involved an African American male who fought white officers and tried to take their gun and was shot and killed. The OTHER shooting happened about 1.5 miles from where I lived and involved an African American (first Somali immigrant police officer) officer who shot an unarmed white woman who had actually initiated the police call.
So it's a total political clusterfuck with the cops in this town. In last year's mayoral election, a major candidate actually suggested disarming the cops. Another major candidate rose to prominence in the precinct occupation/protest which went on for a month or two (in addition to disrupting things like the Park Board meetings, screaming racism and preventing the meeting from taking place). We use ranked choice voting and both candidates polled top 4, so there's that kind of crazy here.
The latter shooting (white woman shot by Somali cop) has everyone spinning in circles. The African American activists and white liberals don't know whether to be outraged or not because while they're trained to be outraged at police shootings, the racial role reversal here has them flummoxed. The pro-police "conservatives" who usually give the cops the benefit of the doubt are annoyed, but are equally flummoxed because a black cop shot a white woman.
The 100% democratic city government just wants it all to go away. The DA had to turn to the Grand Jury (after saying he would no longer use it after the previous shooting) to forcibly extract testimony as all the officers even tangentially involved in the Officer's career and training went blue wall of silence, making it take 8 months to get an indictment. The so-called legal experts are calling the odds of conviction 3-2 against due to the incredible lack of evidence (body cameras -- turned off, no witnesses, etc).
So yeah, run for city council on a "we need more police patrols" platform? Uh, no.
I'm not a fan of police state tactics by any means, but shit, what else can we turn to?
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The OTHER shooting happened about 1.5 miles from where I lived and involved an African American (first Somali immigrant police officer) officer who shot an unarmed white woman who had actually initiated the police call.
Was that the one with the Aussie tourist who called to report an assault and the trigger-happy cop shot her as she walked up to the car? The sad thing is, your case is precisely what we need police for: to patrol areas to reduce crime. However the increased militarization of police and the hostile "us vs them" mentality that is being trained into police these days (hell, soldiers in Iraq had a more restrictive ROE regarding firing weapons than police do these days) means an increasing distrust of police,
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Yes, Justine Dimond shot by Officer Mohammed Noor.
While I think that "warrior" training and militarization have encouraged cops to shoot people, I often wonder if cops shooting so many people is a byproduct of the reduction of blunt force by police.
Cops used to all carry nightsticks, and many also carried saps or wore sap gloves and these were their first go-to weapons for dealing with uncooperative or physically violent people. But over time these weapons fell out of favor, and not necessarily for the wro
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I know those which you speak of, and what people need to understand is that it is less of a racial problem and more of a militarization of the police. Cops are trained not to see people as citizens to serve and protect, but as the enemy.
Is it a wonder than a sign materialized shortly after the killing of the white woman that read "Warning: Local Cops Easily Startled"?
Spoken like a PC jackass (Score:2)
You clearly have little exposure to Indians and Asians because if you did, you'd see a huge potential market there. In fact, I could see UMC blacks that I've known be even more open about who they're targeting with it.
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but the obsession with night prowlers, evil lurking in the shadows, drug addicts, and the paranoid gun culture was pretty shocking. This was a city thats biggest crime was a McDonalds truck that had lost its brakes and slid backwards into an adjacent sandwich shop, yet everyone on the block was geared up like a K-Town shop owner in the LA riots. It made zero sense...however if you're selling a doorbell that profiles people, ive got just the customer.
So, just to play devil's advocate, people who keep a sharp eye out for anything weird bafflingly (to you) have extremely low crime.
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I'm brown skinned and moved into a rural place last year. Way out of the city and predominantly Caucasian and old. Think farmers and retirees. Neighborhood is affluent. The town is extremely small - if you're doing 80 km/h down the clo
Or you could not be racist (Score:3)
Paranoid Caucasians living in isolated suburbs.
How very racist of you.
Do you not think that people of color might have reason to be concerned about property theft or break-ins? Do they not deserve some security also?
I guess you'd rather they all be fucked over by a system that is afraid to send patrols where they are and rely on 911 calls that could take 30 minutes or more for a response...
Is there any area that is truly without crime anymore? I truly think every homeowner (and apartment resident!) should
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So what, pointing out a pretty common observation is now racist?
That wouldn't be, instead you blatantly stated the equivalent to "only rich paranoid crackers care", the fact that you think this "observation" (vs. being actually OPINION) is in any way common just highlights what a racist piece of shit you really are.
I didn't even read the rest of your post because while racists are allowed to say what they like, I certainly don't have to read anything from anyone who judges people based on skin color. It's
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This works both ways.
If you're black, having one of those on your porch could help you when you're being harassed by neighbors or by the police.
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While some of what you experienced is over-the-top, neighbors being diligent about their safety and being informed regarding activities in their community does make a difference. Keeping crime low takes an organized effort. It doesn't happen by itself.
To put it another way, in many communities one can walk alone at 3 am and have virtually zero worry of being a victim of crime. Can one do that on a *consistent* basis anywhere in LA? Presumably not. Before responding that in some areas of LA one can walk alone at 3 am, ask yourself why that is. Gated community? Wealthier area? Private security?
I live in a community that actually probably has a higher crime rate than LA. I live in a very urban area and I walk around alone at 3am all the time and never even get hassled by the homeless people. During the day? The homeless people all hassle the hell out of you, but they’re very docile and polite at night. And no, no gates in my neighborhood, no private security, none of that. There certainly is crime in my neighborhood, but it usually consists of car burglaries. And no, I don’t walk
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An African-American daughter? Really? Dude, she's black, just say she's black. It's not offensive and it doesn't sound like some weird, forced, overly-formal PC bullshit.
I have one of these cameras... (Score:2)
I have one of these cameras and so far it's recorded a couple knock-knock thieves, my BMW M3 getting stolen (yanked onto a flatbed and gone in under 60 seconds) and also captured the boyfriend of a girl I know making out with another girl while they were alone on my porch.
It's also exposed my ring-using neighbors as a (virtually) huddled bunch of paranoid slut shaming racists who aren't aware of due process, or even innocent until proven guilty.
It really is disgusting.
I'm getting rid of my Ring, mostly beca
Why? Just have china report it. (Score:2)
or, report suspicious activity by minorities (Score:2)
Cops who were called to stop a robbery in progress had never heard of AirBnB and attempted to arrest 3 black women this week.
scare quotes (Score:5, Insightful)
Just be honest... (Score:2)
Call it the Armed Response for Racist Cowards app...
Or maybe Dial-a-Lynch?
Another example ... (Score:2)
Dangerous Idea (Score:2)
Re:In Florida? Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
In Florida it was decided that it was OK to shoot someone much larger than yourself who had you down on the ground and was slamming your head into the concrete. That's not the same thing as just shooting anyone who looks suspicious.
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I was out of work at that time so I watched the entire trial. Trayvons girlfriend told the court under oath that trayvon was home, then told her he was going back out to confront "that cracker"
BR so in short, trayvon instigated the issue, as walking behind someone isnt a crime, and trayvon was also racist.
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, his death solved the problem that neighborhood had.
You can't study a neighborhood in a vacuum. Can you support the notion that absolutely nothing else in that neighborhood changed? Nobody moved out, nobody changed jobs, police presence didn't change, taxes didn't change? Many things changed at the same time that had nothing to do with the senseless murder of a teenager. You cannot support the notion that his death somehow magically changed the neighborhood into Utopia.
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>he thinks it was a senseless murder!
Martin was killed by Zimmerman because Martin was assaulting him. Zimmerman showed in court he feared for his life and the use of deadly force was justified. It was not murder. It was not even manslaughter. I invite you to have someone slam your head against concrete and tell me with a straight face you wouldn't be afraid for your life. Zimmerman shooting Martin to stop the attack is actually the most reasonable course of action in that circumstance.
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>he thinks it was a senseless murder! Martin was killed by Zimmerman because Martin was assaulting him. Zimmerman showed in court he feared for his life and the use of deadly force was justified. It was not murder. It was not even manslaughter.
Zimmerman broke the first rule of self defense that they teach in gun safety course: don't put yourself into situations where you are not safe. He could have remained in his vehicle to follow Martin or, as advised by the 911 operator, not followed him at all. His reckless actions started him down a course that ended with him being in a position where he felt he needed to fire his weapon. And I would say that the fact that he keeps getting in trouble for threatening people and waving his gun around demon
Re:In Florida? Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
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>arguing against evidence entered into the public record in a court of law and conflating two separate events. I am flabbergasted you think assault is a reasonable course of action when someone is following you. Here's a thought: why didn't Martin just, oh I don't know, walk away? Why did he escalate the situation?
Wait, so its ok for one party to escalate the violence but not the other? Zimmerman was justified in his shooting because he was afraid but Martin should've just walked away?
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last i checked, walking behind someone isnt a crime
Willfully following someone who doesn't want you to do so is harassment. Even in Florida, even "following" someone on social media is illegal (cyberstalking) if it's intended to cause emotional distress.
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Forensics at the trial showed that Martin had straddled Zimmerman, with the latter being on his back, when the shooting occurred. This position is what is colloquially known as a 'ground and pound', with the explicit purpose of limiting the range of motion and ability of someone to defend themself.
This is why 'stand your ground' never even entered into this particular case. Martin had blocked Zimmerman's ability to escape.
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Re:In Florida? Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
Depends on the state laws, etc....
A few years back, here in LA, there was a case where a guy came out on the balcony of his 2nd story apartment, and saw just below in the parking lot, 2 thieves in his car rummaging around stealing stuff.
He pulled out his gun and opened fire, killing one and wounding the other I believe, that ran off.
They actually tried to try him, but no jury would convict him.
I was actually surprised it went to trial at all, as that here in LA, the car is considered and extension of your home.
In TX, I believe you can freely open fire if you find someone on your property stealing stuff.
Frankly, I have no problem with that....if they'd not been committing the crime on property they didn't now own, they'd be happily alive and processing oxygen.
If I'm home and someone breaks in to my house, I assume 100%, that the person means bodily harm to myself, family/friends within and I won't even be checking the body till I'm loading my 3rd magazine generally.
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I used to think similarly, and then I realized that not having a problem with that meant that I assumed that the ability to judge of people and ability to assess the intentions of people are not likely to be wrong. If your own teenage kid sneaks out one night and re-enters the house in a manner consistent with that of a burglar, I sincerely hope you pause long enough to not kill them. It's a scenario that has happened more than once.
That aside, I don't think capital punishment is appropriate in cases whe
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You obviously don't know much about guns, shooting under pressure, etc.
You NEVER draw a weapon, unless y
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You know the break-ins in that neighborhood stopped after that teenager was killed, right?
If you were a thief, would you want to break into houses in a neighborhood where they kill people just walking down the street? I'd stay away from that neighborhood too!
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You know the break-ins in that neighborhood stopped after that teenager was killed, right?
Citation sorely needed. Really, Trayvon Martin was responsible for all of the break-ins in that neighborhood, such that after his death burglary ceased to be a thing that happens there? Somehow, I'm skeptical.
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If I were breaking into homes in an area and then some vigilante started killing people that he found suspicious, I think I might stop breaking into homes around there, too.
Maybe until they do something about the guy shooting everyone he didn't like the look of.
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he was a racist, and he picked a fight with the wrong buy. zimmerman is a dbag, but so was trayvon
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If you have off-duty cops who pull guns on people for suspicion of stealing Mentos then they deserve shooting, yes.
(And does your friend think that pointing guns at people is a friendly gesture?)
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That guy with the Mentos had paid for them. This was not good behavior for the off-duty cop who pulled the gun. Very bad optics, and scared the crap out of that guy.
So the question really is... Who in the heck buys Mentos anymore?
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The fruity Mentos are great.
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Re: In Florida? Really? (Score:2)
Re:In Florida? Really? (Score:5, Informative)
You're conflating "Stand Your Ground" with "Castle Doctrine".
Stand Your Ground applies anywhere - not just your home. In states without Stand Your Ground even if you feel your life is in danger, you have whats referred to as a "Duty to retreat". IE, run away if you can. Stand Your Ground states that you have no duty to retreat and if your life is in danger then you can respond with deadly force.
Castle Doctrine applies in your home, and it not only means that you have no duty to retreat, but also that the mere presence of an intruder in your home is by default considered a threat to your life, and so you can use deadly force immediately. IE, if you come downstairs and there's a stranger standing in your living room you're clear to shoot - even if they have said or done nothing else. Their mere presence is considered a threat.
Castle Doctrine does have it's limits though. It's not applicable cases where home owners have "baited" criminals into the home, or where the criminal has already surrendered then the threat is considered ended (ie, you can't tie up an intruder and then shoot them, nor can you leave your door open with a stack of cash visible while you wait in the corner with a gun).
Re: (Score:2)
Think of the US version of more a public private partnership. With the FBI, DEA, NSA, CIA buying into a bulk commercial product that has every face and license plate in a state.
In the UK you know your face is going to be tracked.
In the USA your never really sure what agency is actually tasked to collect domestically*.
*Unless its a new camera in a new box on a very old
Re: (Score:2)
I love it how Americans ridiculed the UK for the high amount of CCTV Cameras and surveillance. Yet When Americans do it to themselves , and hand over their "sovereignty" and "rights" to a company, not a government entity, it's "Freedom"
And everytime a kid goes missing or we need to figure out what happened last night we're glad they're there.
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah...
In related news: SMS reports of incidents of "person of color hanging out in a wealthy area" have spiked 500%. News at 11.