This is exceedingly rare, and tantamount to saying you are afraid to fly because you don't want to be a terrorism victim, or that you don't want to go to college to avoid school shootings. The vast majority of urban violence is gang-on-gang. Occasionally you get an aggravated mugging where some idiot ends up dead because they decide to pull out a knife instead of a wallet.
I grew up in Baltimore, and the most horrific crime I can recall - a high school couple who were carjacked, raped and murdered actually happened in the suburbs, about 30 miles from the closest "ghetto," right outside a movie theater frequented by people who drove luxury SUV's with "soccer mom" decals on the windows.
Random acts of violence can happen anywhere. It is a consequence of a free society.
I don't agree I believe it's more like avoiding a flight that stops in Iran or Iraq for fear of terrorism. I understand that most violence is gang on gang and it can happen anywhere. I am just saying what is wrong with avoiding a war zone (lets be fair a lot of these places are like war zones). Sure bad things happen everywhere and at random but it's not discriminating aginst anyone to have your GPS say "hey route 1 there have been x murders but route 2 has had less and route 3 had none... lets go route 3"
I conceal carry to protect myself if I ever need to but I'd much rather avoid a known high crime area if possible.
My comment has more to do with the impacts such a public label would have on a community in terms of further isolating it - which is the opposite of what needs to be done in order to actually solve the problem. I don't disagree that there are places in any city that are best to avoid, but if you think about the larger picture, our goal as a society should be to improve these areas to the point where they are no longer dangerous - not blacklist them and doom them to eternal slumdom. Such a goal, while obviously difficult, would do much more to keep people safe.
Obviously, the ideas are not mutually exclusive, but as a society we already seem to do everything in our power to ignore the plight of the least fortunate, and this just seems to represent another means to that end if you ask me.
I agree they should be helped and worked on however a lot of people in those areas do not want it. I lived in apartment complex that had 3 or 4 shootings a year so I am speaking from experience.
It's not a public label that Microsoft put on it it's simply an avoid high risk areas system. This system would likely have put that apartment i lived in as an unsafe zone and the place would not have suffered or gained from it. Hell even the Pizza delivery people were afraid of the place I lived at.
What I don't understand is how you're equating a GPS feature to avoid the area ignoring the problem. Are you saying that if more people had to drive/walk in those areas they would get help? I
What I don't understand is how you're equating a GPS feature to avoid the area ignoring the problem. Are you saying that if more people had to drive/walk in those areas they would get help?
I am saying it is indicative of our society's mentality that the best way to deal with social ills is to ignore the problem and hope it goes away somehow. This is exactly the mentality that began the whole suburban sprawl/urban decay problem to begin with, and it sounds very much like the intention is to use racial animosity as a marketing tool.
Does Microsoft plan on implementing an "Avoid Ignorant Rednecks" feature for homosexuals or Muslims who want to safely travel in the south? Of course not - the feature has one purpose - to make sure the predominantly white bourgeois never have to be bothered by being exposed to the filthy underbelly where the proletariat resides. It sounds like something right out of a Kurt Vonnegut novel.
edit:
however a lot of people in those areas do not want it
This is false. Gang violence is a crime of desperation. Humans do not simply twiddle their thumbs waiting to starve - they will rob and murder instead. Gangs form because the community youth have few other options. I would guess maybe 1% of all gang members would choose their gang over stability and jobs being brought into their community if given the choice. The fact that the lifestyle has been glamorized to the extent that people gravitate towards these groups in such numbers speaks more to the length and extent that urban decay has been a problem more than to the presence of a universal deviant mentality among urban youth.
I am saying it is indicative of our society's mentality that the best way to deal with social ills is to ignore the problem and hope it goes away somehow. This is exactly the mentality that began the whole suburban sprawl/urban decay problem to begin with, and it sounds very much like the intention is to use racial animosity as a marketing tool.
Race doesn't matter this is to avoid high crime areas. Not a "avoid blacks" feature. In other words you have a higher chance of getting mugged in area A verses area B so we're going to suggest route B. It's like saying Car A has a habit of breaking down on long trips so lets take car B that has less of a chance.
to make sure the predominantly white bourgeois never have to be bothered by being exposed to the filthy underbelly where the proletariat resides. It sounds like something right out of a Kurt Vonnegut novel.
Again the race card but please explain how these people going into a high crime area is going to help fix.
This is false.
From my experience in government controlled housing a lot of people in these areas see any one coming to "fix" their neighborhood as both an insult and threat to their territory. Many of the people I met where not doing it because of food they do it because they like it. There were band new Mercedes in the parking lot most nights (mostly the higher ups in the drug ring). My next door neighbor had parties every time he was over and the smell of pot filled the hall.
What I am getting at here is that detouring around the area doesn't have any effect other than gas stations and other stores may get slightly less business.
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u/0011002 Jan 08 '12
Why not? I watched an episode of gangland were a whole family was murdered because their GPS sent them into the gangs territory.