These are questions being asked across the country as people experiment with services that bill themselves as a way to prevent crime, but also expose latent biases. The application “SketchFactor,” which invited users to report “sketchy” people, faced allegations of racism in both the District and New York. Another social network roiled Oakland, Calif., when white residents used Nextdoor.com to cite “suspicious activity” about black neighbors. Taking it even further was GhettoTracker.com, which asked users to rate neighborhoods based on whether they thought they were “safe” or a “ghetto.”
Now “Operation GroupMe” is stirring controversy in Georgetown. In February of last year, the Georgetown Business Improvement District partnered with District police to launch the effort, which they call a “real-time mobile-based group-messaging app that connects Georgetown businesses, police officers and community members.” Since then, the app has attracted nearly 380 users who surreptitiously report on — and photograph — shoppers in an attempt to deter crime.
The correspondence has provided an unvarnished glimpse into Georgetown retailers’ latest effort to stop their oldest scourge: shoplifting. But while the goal is admirable, the result, critics say, has been less so, laying bare the racial fault lines that still define this cobblestoned enclave of tony boutiques and historic rowhouses that is home to many of Washington’s elite.
Comments to the WP:
* Why don’t you tell us the statistics of who is committing crimes in these businesses? That would help us assess whether any group is being unfairly profiled. I imagine that DC police has those statistics readily available for use by journalists and anyone else with a legitimate interest.
* I’m not sure the point of this article. What are the shop owners supposed to do when there is a fight going on in their alley? Not report it because it is black people fighting?
* Go to MPD’s Second District police station. Ask to see the offense reports for shoplifting and theft from the Georgetown area/Wisconsin Ave./M Street. Look at the suspect descriptions for those crimes. Care to take a wild guess what color 95% of them are? The other 5% are hispanic. The police cant be everywhere and these roaming groups of black thugs are stealing those stores blind. So yes, the shop owners need to do something.
* As others have pointed out, what are the facts as to who commits the crimes?
Blacks would help improve their group image if many of them volunteered to help catch and punish their wayward brothers.
* Most shoplifting, otherwise known as larceny, is committed by blacks. If the writer had bothered to do any research, he would have learned this fact. You can weep and wail and complain about racial profiling but those are the facts. Blacks commit crimes of all kinds at a higher rate than any other group. A sad fact, but a fact nonetheless.
* Go to the second district police station. Ask to see the reports involving theft or shoplifting from the Georgetown area-Wisconsin Ave/M Street. Look at the suspect descriptions: 95% black, 5% Hispanic.
* Most of us profile or make some type of judgment about others based on our life experiences in general, and whether the person is a stranger, or someone we know marginally or well. Plus everyone gives off some kind of vibe and you are foolish to ignore it.
A lot of this is common sense and survival. And all of us make judgments about who we want to spend Friday night with.
* I have worked in retail in a similar situation here in Atlanta at an upscale shopping center. Every robbery, car break in’s, assaults were perpetrated by young Black men. This is not rumor – it has been confirmed with videos, eye witnesses and arrest.
Yes, when we see young Black men that fit similar description of the perpetrators of earlier crimes, yes, security is notified immediately and it has probably prevented even a greater number of crimes.
Sorry, but not willing to risk my life in order to be politically correct.
* Let’s be honest here. Whenever you see one of those videos of kids over running a store and stealing items, what color are they? I have yet to see one of white kids doing that stuff.
* It would have been nice for the reporter to take a look at all the shoplifting convictions in Gtown for say the last 5 years, and give us a breakdown of the races committing the crimes. I’m guessing those numbers would not have fit his narrative though. I wouldn’t profile by race. I would profile by the class of the person entering my store. If you have a person with facial tattoos, poorly groomed, dressed poorly, no teeth, and can’t speak English properly then I’ll assume you have no class and are more likely to commit a crime because you probably come from a poorer background. I don’t care if you’re Asian, black, or white.
