OK, first there was this bit of whiny hand-wringing:
Smiling Young White People Make App for Avoiding Black Neighborhoods
The “app” under discussion is called “Sketchy.” What it does is collate local crime data and tells you what neighborhoods are more or less crime-riddled, i.e. “sketchy.” It seems a reasonable enough sort of app to have if you are going to visit some city that you are unfamiliar with. As everyone knows, every sizable city *does* have sections that are higher or lower in crime, and if you are a stranger, it might be unwise to go wandering into The Bad Part Of Town. But this idea bothers some people, such as the author of the piece (one Sam Biddle), who bleated:
Is there any way to keep white people from using computers, before this whole planet is ruined? I ask because the two enterprising white entrepreneurs above just made yet another app for avoiding non-white areas of your town—and it’s really taking off!
The app doesn’t factor in local ethnicities, just the crime rates. That Biddle equates “crime” with “non-white” says more about *him* than the makers of the app, I would think.
Anyway, over the past day or two this opinion piece has gained some notoriety online, as happens often enough. But spectacularly, a local news crew decided to actually procure and use the app. WUSA9 sent a film crew into a “sketchy” neighborhood and, well…
WUSA9 Crew vehicle burglarized in DC
The crew had locked their news van on a street in Petworth in Northwest, D.C. while they were out in the neighborhood conducting interviews. When they returned they found the lock had been popped out of the door of their news van, and that the most of the crew’s gear had been stolen.
So… it would seem that the app does *precisely* what it says it’s supposed to do.
