Darkoshi

I've found out the following about Ring's Neighbors app:

You can install and use the app without having any Ring devices:
https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005447323-Joining-Ring-Neighbors-without-a-Ring-Device

Once you install the app and set up your account, you can also log in from a browser on a computer. You can view and post to your feed from either the app or your computer.

In the app you enter your address, which controls what messages you see on your feed. The default area for which you get messages is a circle of some large radius centered on your address. You can customize it to a smaller polygonal area by means of 8 draggable vertices.

I believe you can create an account at ring.com without using the app, but I think the rest won't work unless you set it up in the app first. When you login via a computer, if it doesn't take you directly to your feed, look for the link labeled "Neighborhood Web".

From what I've seen so far, unlike Nextdoor, the post topics are limited to safety, crime, and lost/found pets. Neighbors by Ring Community Guidelines indicates what kind of content is allowed.

How Public Safety Agencies Use Neighbors (ring.com)
A Helpful Guide to Request for Assistance Posts (Posts by Public Safety Agencies) (ring.com)

Ring's police problem never went away. Here's what you still need to know (CNET - 2021/09/27)
You shared Ring footage with police. They may share it, too (CNET - 2019/09/04)

ACLU app for recording police incidents, uploading video to cloud:
https://www.aclu.org/issues/criminal-law-reform/reforming-police/mobile-justice

In the past there were separate apps for several states; the Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACLU_Mobile_Justice) mentions 16 states. But the Google Play site currently only has one, which it seems is now for all states:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/31/us/aclu-mobile-justice-police-misconduct-app/index.html
(from May 2020) says "In the upcoming months, the app -- which is currently available in 17 states and the District of Columbia -- will be accessible to everyone in all 50 states while respecting each state's laws, Benigno said."

I searched for more info on how it works, and this page has the most details I was able to find: https://www.imore.com/how-use-aclu-mobile-justice-app

But I still wish it were explained more. What happens after you submit the video; is it also saved to your phone? Can you access it online after the upload, or not? One of the comments on the Google Play page said that if you don't enter report data right after the upload, you can't do it later, and if you don't enter the data the video won't be reviewed by anyone. Is that true, and if so then how good is it if the cop takes away your phone before you can enter any report details?

The app has a lot of one-star reviews that say the app crashes all the time. I wondered if police departments or others might be posting some of the bad reviews, to discourage people from installing it.

(I haven't installed it or tried it out yet.)

Other more general info:

https://www.consumerreports.org/audio-video/how-to-record-video-during-a-protest/

https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/protect-phone-privacy-security-during-a-protest/

New Police Strategy in New York – Sexual Assault Against Peaceful Protestors

Interesting police tactic... provoke protestors into attacking them or defending each other, so that the police will have "reason" to use force and arrest them.

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I think that having a police force is generally necessary. And I think there are probably a lot of good police officers doing good work in many places, which one doesn't hear much about. But the more I hear, read, and experience, the more I feel that police and law-enforcement are at best, of not much use, and at worst, dangerous thugs to be avoided.

(That's not very different from my default view of humans, actually. It's not until I get to know people that I start thinking they may be nice, interesting, etc. But even then,... different topic.)


I grew up with the viewpoint that police are a force of good, there to fight crime and help people. That if you were the victim of a crime or a witness, that you should report it, and that the police would then proceed to take care of the problem (to the best of their ability).

Now, I'm finding myself agreeing with the viewpoint of Lisbeth Salander in the Dragon Tattoo books - that one may as well take matters into one's own hands rather than relying on the police to protect you.

If you're the victim of a crime, sure, the police may come to take a report. And they may go through some motions of looking into the problem. But is anything good going to come of it? Probably not. In the unlikely event that the perpetrator of the crime is identified, caught, convicted and incarcerated, they'll eventually get out of prison and most likely still be a potential future threat to you and other people. One may as well stock up on self-defense weapons, locks, surveillance cameras and alarms - in fact (::nudging self::), one should do that to begin with, not after the fact.

If you're not the victim of a crime, the only interactions you're likely to have with the police are ones where from the police's viewpoint, you're the suspect of a crime or an adversary in some way. In that scenario, the police are even more dangerous than regular criminals, because legally, it seems that you're not even allowed to physically defend yourself from the police. Criminals can't legally lock you in jail like police can.

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Gah. I already avoid watching the news, to avoid getting into more of a funk than I already am. I need, really NEED to stop myself from reading web pages like that too. I have this urge to "know about things" that are going on in the world. But there's no POINT for me in being aware of bad things going on in the world. It doesn't improve my life in any way. I NEED to stick my head in the sand, even though doing that doesn't make life feel any better. Reading about bad things going on in the world just wastes my time and makes me feel worse.

Even writing entries like these just wastes my time and doesn't improve my life in any way.

Every f*ing thing about life just wastes my time.

Time which has no better use anyway, than to be wasted.

But I should at least try to avoid those activities that make my mind hurt more than otherwise.

2011/08/31 Police action outside my yard. They were chasing a pickup truck, which had gotten a flat, and was finally stopped right there behind the wood fence. Lots of commotion. An ambulance came too. I think I heard the word "crack" a few times. They are in the process of towing away the truck now, and the lights have finally stopped flashing.

And Qiao is missing *all* the excitement. If he hurries home he *might* still see a cop car or two...