Uber Investor Suggests Addressing Police Killings With an App (usatoday.com)

An anonymous reader write: To address the problem of motorists killed by police officers, Shervin Pishevar, the Iranian-born VC who backed Uber, is suggesting an app that allows police officers to communicate with motorists during traffic stops without either party leaving their vehicles. USA Today reports that Pishevar "says he has slept very little in the past 48 hours as he seeks input from law enforcement, software engineers and designers, lawmakers and from community members," and he's now working with former New York City police commissioner. Engadget has criticized Pishevar's proposal, writing "Dear Silicon Valley, not everything can be solved with apps."

At midnight on Friday, Uber also shut down their service for one minute "to create a moment of reflection for the Uber Community,", and also added a peace sign to their app, encouraging its users to "take a moment to think about what we can do to help," and changed the countdown for the arrival of a car into the amount of time left "to reflect on gun violence".

Comments

Re:or ...

[Anonymous Coward]

you could just keep your hands on the wheel and not unexpectedly reach for something in the car.

Everyone needs to know these simple rules when they are approached by the police:

Rule #1 - Don't run.
Rule #2 - Listen to what the police officer says.
Rule #3 - Do what the police officer tells you to do.
Rule #4 - Keep your mouth shut.

If you don't want to follow these rules and you don't understand why we need the police, just chimp out and get shot. We are trying to have a civil society, you don't belong here.

Re:Do your job

[ShanghaiBill]

If Clinton's assault weapon ban been in force, 50 Pulse patrons and many police would be alive right now.

Maybe. Maybe not. Norway has some of the strictest gun laws in the world, yet Anders Breivik was able to kill 77 people. Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people with a pair of handguns. Timothy McVeigh killed 168 with a truck full of fertilizer. Assault weapons are responsible for less than 1% of gun deaths in America.

The US needs to join Australia and Venezuela in stricter gun laws if the country is to actually have an actual future.

Perhaps, but that has very little to do with police-on-civilian killings. Trying to change the subject from excessive force by police, to disarming civilians, is misleading and unproductive.

As it stands now, the US is in the world's top five countries when it comes to people being killed by guns.

Wrong. The US is #11.

More than one problem

[SeattleLawGuy]

The problem is how the police are chosen and trained.

No. There is more than one problem. That is sometimes one of the problems, because it is not like that is uniform either.

If people broke laws less, we would also have less need for police. So having too many laws is also a problem.

So is breaking the laws, and anything that incentivizes people to break the laws.

So is mistreating criminal suspects in ways which may be as you are trained to do, but which will cause their entire community to distrust police officers forever.

So is abuse of alcohol and inhibited judgment.

So is any society where the punishment for a simple misdemeanor includes not being able to rent an apartment.

So is a police culture where reporting a concern about a fellow officer's behavior makes you a pariah.

So is a society where police lives are at risk at every traffic stop.

It's not just one problem.

Re:Do your job

[AmiMoJo]

If you are attacked you have a right to reasonable defence. If you have a non-lethal option you are obliged to take it. If you can run away or otherwise avoid a deadly fight, you are obliged to. At least that's how it is in most developed countries.

Cops get some special powers because they have to arrest people. But those powers usually don't include executing people because they felt a little bit unsafe. For always has to be justified in terms of either preventing harm or making a lawful arrest.