Ep. 97: Porch Pirate Panic and the Paranoid Racism of Snitch Apps
Added 2020-01-15 15:45:31 +0000 UTCEverywhere 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.
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Guests
Sarah Lustbader, senior legal counsel at The Justice Collaborative and contributor to The Appeal magazine. She was previously senior program associate at the Vera Institute of Justice and a criminal defense attorney at The Bronx Defenders.
Steven Renderos is the co-director of MediaJustice, a national racial justice organization fighting for a future in which all people of color are connected, represented, and free.
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Show Notes
Neighborhood Crime Apps Stoke Fears, Reinforce Racist Stereotypes, And Don't Prevent Crime
Sarah Lustbader | June 4, 2019 | The Appeal
Michael Harriot | June 28, 2019 | The Root
Amazon’s Ring Is a Perfect Storm of Privacy Threats
Matthew Guariglia | August 8, 2019 | Electronic Frontier Foundation
‘FUCK CRIME:’ Inside Ring’s Quest to Become Law Enforcement’s Best Friend
Caroline Haskins | December 4, 2019 | VICE Motherboard
Ring’s Hidden Data Let Us Map Amazon's Sprawling Home Surveillance Network
Dell Cameron and Dhruv Mehrotra | December 9, 2019 | Gizmodo
A homeless Oakland couple moved into a $4 million Piedmont home. Then came the calls to police
Otis R. Taylor, Jr. | May 2, 2019 | San Francisco Chronicle
The rise of fear-based social media like Nextdoor, Citizen, and now Amazon’s Neighbors
Rani Molla | May 7, 2019 | Recode
Amazon’s Home Security Company Is Turning Everyone Into Cops
Caroline Haskins | February 7, 2019 | VICE Motherboard
Neighborhood security apps are making us wildly paranoid
Willian Antonelli | February 22, 2019 | The Outline
Kaveh Waddell | May 4, 2016 | The Atlantic
Andrew Marantz | July 29, 2015 | The New Yorker
Nextdoor, the social network for neighbors, is becoming a home for racial profiling
Pendarvis Harshaw | March 24, 2015 | Splinter News
Video doorbell firm Ring says its devices slash crime—but the evidence looks flimsy
Mark Harris | October 19, 2018 | MIT Technology Review
For Nextdoor, Eliminating Racism Is No Quick Fix
Jesse Hempel | February 16, 2017 | Wired
Racial Profiling Is Still A Problem On Nextdoor
Caroline O'Donovan | May 16, 2017 | BuzzFeed News
How the internet ruined the Neighborhood Watch
Catherine Garcia | August 10, 2017 | The Week
Tone-Deaf App Helps Naive Travelers Avoid "Sketchy" Neighborhoods
Lauren Evans | August 7, 2014 | Gothamist
Nextdoor's unexpected killer use case: Crime and safety
Sarah Lacy | January 22, 2013 | Pando
New Neighbors and the Over-Policing of Communities of Color
Community Service Society | January 6, 2019
Community art as medicinal practice
Ricardo Levins Morales | August 26, 2011
No Broadband, No jobs: New Report Links Economic Hardship in Mississippi to Poor Internet Service
Center For Social Inclusion | February 10, 2010
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Transcription
For a full transcript of this episode, go here.
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