The secret surveillance of ‘suspicious’ blacks in one of the nation’s poshest neighborhoods

[brer cat]

Racial profiling isn't news to anyone in this group, but the use of apps to label and track "suspicious" customers is chilling to me. I am glad to see it get coverage in a national newspaper.

It was nearing closing time in March last year when a manager at Boffi Georgetown dispatched a series of alarmed messages. Observing two men yelling outside the luxury kitchen and bath showroom, Julia Walter reached for her phone and accessed a private messaging application that hundreds of residents, retailers and police in this overwhelmingly white, wealthy neighborhood use to discuss people they deem suspicious.

“2 black males screaming at each other in alley,” Walter wrote. “.?.?. Help needed.”

One minute later, a District police officer posted he would check it out, and Walter felt relieved. But as weeks gave way to months and the private group spawned hundreds of messages, Walter’s relief turned to unease. The overwhelming majority of the people the app’s users cited were black. Was the chatroom reducing crime along the high-end retail strip? Was it making people feel safer? Or was it racial profiling?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/the-secret-surveillance-of-suspicious-blacks-in-one-of-the-nations-poshest-neighborhoods/2015/10/13/2e47236c-6c4d-11e5-b31c-d80d62b53e28_story.html

[Blue_Tires]

1. I was about to post this...

Good luck finding any DUers who'd want to discuss it though, since there's no "Snowden/NSA" in the headline...

[brer cat]

2. It is vastly more important

than a lot of the discussions on DU, but you are probably right that it isn't going to generate much interest.

[YoungDemCA]

3. A white male Libertarian who thinks the U.S. federal government is so bad...

....that he fled to Russia ( yes, Russia!) rather than facing the consequences of his actions.

Sounds like a real Left-wing progressive hero!

[randys1]

4. I am surprised there arent more of these apps and people.

Was just on the phone with my son, he was walking in a mid sized city where he lives and he started to describe a scene unfolding in front of him.

Latino male in his twenties pulled over, for no reason my son could see, and was thrown down on the grass by the cops.

I suggested my son video tape what is going on but he said no way, they would take his phone and smash it if he did, and he has no way of replacing it without someone else paying for it so he cant risk it.

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. No Snowden and No Bernie ... So discussion beyond AA Group regulars will be thin. n/t

[Blue_Tires]

6. fwiw, I've heard rumors about stuff like this going on at high-end retailers

but I'd never have guessed it was THIS advanced...

[brer cat]

7. Me either.

I think these apps are allowing sales clerks to play investigator, judge and jury and with their biases on full alert. Since March of last year they have generated 6,000 messages and 70% of those involved black people. There is no way that isn't racism on display.

[Number23]

8. Using something new (technology) to do the oldest trick in the book (racially discriminate)

This is absolutely terrifying.