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Chicago Pre-Crime - Racism Cloaked in Science

posted by LaminatorX on Wednesday February 26 2014, @07:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the studies-show-poverty-causes-cancer dept.

Angry Jesus writes:

"The Chicago Police Department is mis-applying epidemiological science (the study of entire populations) to target individuals in a real-life version of Minority Report. They have decided that it is a good idea to put people on a secret list based on a Big Data analysis of their social networks. But don't worry, it isn't racist or abusive because, Science!"

 
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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday February 26 2014, @08:11PM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@soylentnews.org> on Wednesday February 26 2014, @08:11PM (#7657) Journal
    Yes, it is possible but there is a problem there. Someone looking at poor neighbourhoods with higher than mean crime rates and ordering more police patrols is not being racist unless they did it with the intention of arresting more black people. You cannot judge intentions reliably absent evidence, so you do not get to call racism unless you know that race was a component either directly or based on real evidence of the decision-maker's intentions. That he's a cop or white is not evidence.
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by keplr on Wednesday February 26 2014, @08:19PM

    by keplr (2104) on Wednesday February 26 2014, @08:19PM (#7659)

    Which tallies exactly with what I said in my original comment. I don't believe this system is racist, but the mere absence of race as data being fed into it is not positive proof that it is not.