zlacker

> Minor offenses are still offenses

The problem, as is always the case, is that "minor offenses" are not equitably enforced.

So if the local white kids are hanging out at the corner of the park smoking weed, no one cares. No one posts to Nextdoor. The police don't show up. But four young hispanic men walking through the same white neighborhood (to get to a job, say) will freak someone out and a busybody post to nextdoor will end up getting them stopped. Oh, and it turns out that one of them has weed in his pocket. There's your "minor offense". It's still an offense, right? It deserves police attention?

You're looking at this with a microscope. No one is saying don't enforce boring laws. People are saying do it fairly. Nattering busybodies on Nextdoor are the opposite of fair.

>>newacc+(OP)
> Nattering busybodies on Nextdoor

What is more fair than locals choosing which stuff is bothering them?

>>jquery+kb
When the things bothering them are "having black neighbors", I'd say most other systems are more fair.

>>joshua+Ld
You’re assuming the locals are “bad people” and making decisions on their behalf, then?

>>jquery+tx
I'm assigning no blame. I'm giving an example of the kind of behavior that ultimately was encouraged by ND.

>>jquery+tx
If they're bothered by their black neighbors, then yes, of course they are.

>>joshua+CA
How was ND encouraging it?

>>jquery+Hk2
By offering this very low friction way of contacting the police, you end up enabling people to reach out to the police for minor inconveniences that they wouldn't otherwise have.

There may be noble outcomes from this, but there are also clearly negative ones. Once again, I'm not claiming it was ever ND's intent to do this. Just that in practice the design of the system enabled and tacitly encouraged these behaviors.