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I love @99piorg. I think the podcast gives us so much about how to think about the world around us...
...which is why I& #39;m so troubled by hearing @romanmars promoting fearmongering ads for SimpliSafe security systems about "a break-in every 26 seconds." (1/9)
...which is why I& #39;m so troubled by hearing @romanmars promoting fearmongering ads for SimpliSafe security systems about "a break-in every 26 seconds." (1/9)
The ads aren& #39;t just selling a product--home camera & security tech you might also object to on privacy/surveillance grounds--but is popularizing an unfounded fear of crime that has so damaged our cities & neighborhoods. (2/9)
The ads hook on @romanmars reading the copy that there& #39;s a "break-in every 26 seconds" in this country. The solution, the ad suggests, is a home security system that can keep you safe and then summon the police.
This sounds scary! But let& #39;s look at that statistic. (3/9)
This sounds scary! But let& #39;s look at that statistic. (3/9)
Let& #39;s generously assume all the break-ins in that statistic are *home* break-ins, since that& #39;s what the ad is selling. That would mean there are 2.308 break-ins per minute, 138 every hour, 3323 per day, and something like 1,212,923 home break-ins in the US per year! (4/9)
But what does that actually mean? It means that, with over 128.5 million households ***you, dear podcast listener, have a 0.94% chance of your home being broken in to in a given year***. In other words...on average, you& #39;re part of the over 99% (invisible) on this front. (5/9)
Of course, risks like this aren& #39;t evenly distributed... It& #39;s the people who definitely don& #39;t have money to buy a SimpliSafe system that are MOST LIKELY to be burglarized. ( @PrisonPolicy). (6/9) https://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/burglary_victimization_and_income.html">https://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/bu...
What& #39;s more, for the higher income folks listening to @99piorg now getting frightened about (their extremely low probability of) home break-ins, there& #39;s little evidence that things like cameras actually help (better off with locks and lights). (7/9) #Sec3">https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/sj.2014.30 #Sec3">https://link.springer.com/article/1...
What& #39;s going on here? It& #39;s an advertisement pegged to America& #39;s racialized fear of crime that drove mass incarceration and sustains it to this day. More fear--despite the reality of victimization--justifies more repression & residential segregation. (8/9) #111">https://www.nap.edu/read/18613/chapter/6?term=fear #111">https://www.nap.edu/read/1861...
