Just posting this in good fun. If you want a better take on "porch pirate panic" than simply counter-pranking them, then check out Citations Needed episode 97 which I've linked below:

https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/episode-97-porch-pirate-panic-and-the-paranoid-racism-of-snitch-apps

Everywhere we turn, local media — TV, digital, radio — is constantly telling us about the scourge of crime lurking around every corner. This, of course, is not new. It’s been the basis of the local news business model since the 1970s.

But what is new is the rise of surveillance and snitch apps like Amazon’s Ring doorbell systems and geo-local social media like Nextdoor. They are funded by real estate and other gentrifying interests working hand in glove with police to provide a grossly distorted, inflated and hyped-up vision of crime.

One of the major factors fueling this misconception is the feedback loop where media — both traditional and social — provide the ideological content for the forces of gentrification. Police focus their “law enforcement” in low income areas, local news reports on scourges of crime based on police sources, then both pressure and reinforce over-policing of communities of color, namely those getting in the way of real estate interests' designs––All animated by an increase in police-backed surveillance tech like Amazon’s Ring.

On this episode we will break down these pro-carceral interests, how they create a self-reinforcing cycle of racist paranoia and how local “crime” reporting plays a role in creating this wildly distorted perception of “crime.”

We are joined by two guests: Sarah Lustbader, senior legal counsel at The Justice Collaborative, and Steven Renderos, co-director of MediaJustice.

  • spectre [he/him]
    hexagon
    ·
    4 years ago

    The spirit of what you're saying is correct and true, but $5-10k isn't going to make an actual difference in alleviating American poverty imo. Might as well do something like this (as long as the device doesn't call the local death squad over it).

    I will say that watching it was a bit sad at points (the part with the woman who wasn't exactly proud of it and her kid(?)). Also, understanding the social causes of poverty (and the resulting theft of personal property which I don't personally approve of, but who gives a fuck) makes this video much less of a "point and laugh" than Mark and his lib audience seem to think it is.