The reader who sent me this story writes,
D.C.
Ya gotta love my hometown.
I wonder if the U.S. Congress is highlighted by the app?
In New York, people don’t leave valuables in their cars for even five minutes in a strange neighborhood, or their own neighborhood, if blacks or Hispanics live there. Notice I didn’t say “poor people.” There is little likelihood of one’s car being broken into in a poor white neighborhood, but there is a prohibitive risk of such occurring in the richest black neighborhood. The poorest whites have lower crime rates than the richest blacks. Thus, one can and must generalize by race.
I left the following comment:
Your headline is false: The crew was burglarized, not “robbed.” And it is neither “surprising” nor “ironic” for people to leave a van full of electronic equipment in a black neighborhood that they have been notified is dangerous, only to return to find it burglarized.I tried to determine the crime situation in Petworth, which is a chunk of the 20011 zip code. I found a site, Area Vibes, devoted to crime stats for sub-municipal areas, but found it dubious because distinguished between “Washington” and the “District of Columbia,” as if they were two different municipalities, with different crime rates.
Since the poorest white neighborhood is safer than the richest black neighborhood, forget the “class” fairy tale, which is usually just a redundant euphemism for race (“race and class”), but you absolutely can and must generalize about race and crime, if you want to survive. That’s why lefties live in neighborhoods with the fewest blacks in America. They protect themselves, while lying, in order to try and get whites of more modest means murdered.
The app saves lives. The assertion that it is “racist” was initially made by the NAACP, and for one reason only: To get white people murdered, when they accidentally travel into a racist, violent, black neighborhood (if you’ll
pardon the redundancy). There is no other reason to denounce the app.
This story is a factual and logical mess: The “news” writer attacks the app, and insinuates that it is wrong, yet not only does he fill the story with tales of crimes being committed against journalists working in “sketchy” neighborhoods, he even exaggerates the crimes in his main story. Is he engaged in triangulation, dishonesty, or incompetence?
• The estimated Petworth crime index is 17% lower than the Washington average and and the Washington crime index is 6% lower than the District of Columbia average.
• The estimated Petworth violent crime rate is 17% lower than the Washington average and and the Washington violent crime rate is 9% lower than the District of Columbia average.
• The estimated Petworth property crime rate is 17% lower than the Washington average and and the Washington property crime rate is 5% lower than the District of Columbia average.
Crime Vibes also claimed that crime was lower in Petworth than in 41.2% of D.C., er, “Washington” communities.
• Petworth is safer than 41.2% of the neighborhoods in Washington.
The site gives no indication of where its crime stats come from.
A more impressionistic yet more accurate sense of the neighborhood crime situation can, I believe be had by determining how residents and businesses are reacting to crime. I found a story reporting that, after an Indian restaurant, Fusion, in Petworth, had been broken into four times in the past year, its owner gave up and pulled up stakes, after six years.
D.C. news crew robbed [sic] while conducting interviews, suspects still at large
Christian Savoy
Jacksonville News Examiner
August 10, 2014
In a surprising twist of irony, a D.C. news crew was robbed while they were doing a story on an app that identifies “sketchy” neighborhoods. The news crew made sure they had locked their van doors while out in the neighborhood which the app identified as "sketchy." As reported by CBS News today, crew members were shocked when they returned to find that the van had been burglarized while they were out conducting interviews. Burglars stole most of the crew's gear, which included several backpacks full of electronic devices and cameras worth thousands of dollars.
[Am I missing something? What is “surprising” or “ironic” about people leaving a van full of electronic equipment in a black neighborhood that they have been notified is dangerous, and returning to find it burglarized?]
One of the news crew members, WUSA9 reporter Mola Lenghi, said: "We were doing a story on an app that describes ‘sketchy’ neighborhoods. It led us to the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest, and I’m not going to call it a ‘sketchy’ neighborhood, but as folks were telling us that it was a good neighborhood, and that not much activity happens around there — as that was being told to us, our van was being robbed.” Lenghi continued...“We got back to the news van and noticed that the lock was popped out. Got in there, and noticed that all of our stuff was gone. I had a backpack full of electronics.”
[The “folks” lied to you, you imbecile! And you believed them. And you still promote the lie, even after being burglarized! You know what? You deserved to be burglarized!]
I wonder if that app would call Ferguson sketchy.
ReplyDeleteThe police in Philadelphia did something like this app a number of years ago during a labor dispute.
ReplyDeleteCops at the airport passing out maps with the dangerous neighborhoods highlighted so the tourist would know where to be wary and where you could be less wary. [always on your toes of course where ever you are.]