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by saghm 21 days ago
Depends on what they consider "destructive", and it's not like there isn't already a way for contacting law enforcement when the circumstances warrant it.

The Nextdoor analogy is even more apt because it's kind of notorious for being used by people to complain about all sorts of ridiculous things that don't deserve attention
1 comments
Manuel_D 21 days ago
Sure, but nobody tries to portray NextDoor as an "intelligence sharing network operation" and a "nationwide surveillance apparatus".
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saghm 21 days ago
Yes, because Amazon, etc. are not the ones using Nextdoor. My point is that if you think this is just "Nextdoor but for Seattle companies", consider what you think the equivalent of a frivolous and out-of-touch comment like "oh no there's a person who isn't the same race as me walking down my street" is for a billion dollar company and what type of effects setting up a place for them to funnel things like that to law enforcement outside of the normal public channels might have on society.
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Manuel_D 21 days ago
Put yourself in the shoes of the police here:

A store keeper emails this shield group and says "hey this person came into my store and engaged in disruptive behavior."

An Amazon security personnel emails this shield group and says "hey this person came into our office and engaged in disruptive behavior."

What makes one of these so much more impactful than the other?

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saghm 21 days ago
I'm saying that the alternative is "An Amazon security personnel or store keeper reports a crime via the normal public channels and there's the usual paper trail for it". Your premise that this is only ever used for anything benign is what I'm disagreeing with here; obviously if you assume it, then nothing sketchy is going on, but at that point the argument is circular.
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Manuel_D 21 days ago
It sure sounds like the contents of this channel are retained and subject to public records requests. From the article:

> Through public records requests, Prism obtained the Seattle Shield bulletins, as well as a full list of Seattle Shield members who had access to the program as of 2020

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