Dallas PD Asks Residents To Snitch On Protesters, Gets A Load Of K-Pop Videos Instead

from the broadening-officers'-horizons dept

Once again, the people that serve the public have failed to understand the public. Trying to turn citizens into narcs never works out as well as government agencies envision. The end result is almost always a useless waste of limited resources.

Eons ago when the coronavirus was still a concern, the mayor of New York City set up a snitch line for residents to report social distancing violations. Instead of hot neighbor-on-neighbor action, the city's 311 line received a bunch of middle fingers, dick pics, and Hitler memes.

When Ohio's government set up a snitch line for employers to report employees who were collecting unemployment instead of coming to their COVID-encrusted workplaces, an enterprising coder put together a script that clogged the tip bin with algorithmically-generated garbage.

Now that it's civil unrest all over the place in response to the latest killing of a black person by a white police officer, the Dallas PD is asking citizens to step up… and report other citizens for exercising their First Amendment rights. It has not worked out well for the police, as Caroline Haskins reports for BuzzFeed.

In response to the tweeted request from Dallas Police, hundreds of K-pop fans replied with photos and videos of their favorite artists. Many people also claimed to have submitted videos of the police harming protesters, as well as fan edits of K-pop artists, to the iWatch Dallas app.

It took less than 12 hours for the public to run the iWatch Dallas snitch app into the ground. The app's listings (for both Google Play and the iOS App Store) were flooded with one-star reviews while the Dallas PD was flooded with footage of foreign celebrities. It's unclear whether the app was trolled to death or if the PD simply got tired of wading through K-pop footage to find recordings of, um… "perps" participating in First Amendment protected activities. Either way, the app is down and no further submissions are being accepted.

Behold the power this social medium:

The digital protest started when a tweet from Twitter user @7soulsmap, which showed a screenshot of the original Dallas PD tweet, got retweeted thousands of times. A few hours later, @7soulsmap responded to their own tweet with a video and said, "If y’all post this one on their app I’ll send you a $1, I promise."

Who would win: a well-funded police department or a single account waving dollar bills at Twitter randos? (Since we already know the answer, I will be removing this question from the final exam.)

If you want citizens to contribute to your efforts, you might want to make sure you're all working towards the same goal. Asking people to turn in other people for stuff most people don't think other people should be turned in for is never going to work out well.

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Filed Under: dallas, dallas pd, dallas police, kpop, snitch, snitchline, texas, tipline


Reader Comments

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  1. identicon
    Baron von Robber, 3 Jun 2020 @ 2:18pm

    I would send them the George Floyd video but that's porn to them.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Jun 2020 @ 2:18pm

    The no snitch code. How can they complain when police are just copying their example?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Jun 2020 @ 2:58pm

    Maybe they should set up an anonymous snitch line for their law enforcement officers so they can tell the truth if they so please.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Bruce C., 3 Jun 2020 @ 3:00pm

    Snitches...

    "Trying to turn citizens into narcs never works out as well as government agencies envision."

    Well, it can if the people fear the crime/criminals more than they fear the police. But if the people fear the criminals too much, they won't report at all. Neither apply in the current case.

    OTOH, the cops can just go on Snapchat and get video evidence against looters.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Crafty Coyote, 3 Jun 2020 @ 3:11pm

    Yes, if the cops ask us to snitch on protestors, make them time travel back to 2012, when PSY's "Gangnam Style" was the biggest thing. Have them try to sing along to the lyrics.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Jun 2020 @ 3:12pm

    Re: Snitches...

    the cops can just go on Snapchat and get video evidence against looters.

    Evidence! Cheap! Act now!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    DeComposer (profile), 3 Jun 2020 @ 3:36pm

    It's spreading to other right-wing outlets

    K-pop stans are flooding right-wing hashtags like #BlueLivesMatter and #MAGA

    As protests go, this seems to be surprisingly effective.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Jun 2020 @ 5:42pm

    Re: It's spreading to other right-wing outlets

    Ha!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. icon
    DebbyS (profile), 3 Jun 2020 @ 5:50pm

    Some snitching okay?

    Local Albuquerque news has broadcast some scenes of Sunday night-Monday a.m. destruction (windows broken, spray painting, etc. in sleepy downtown, oddly not in a wealthy area of the city). I'm hoping people recognized the young fascists and call in tips. Further, the thugs being arrested I hope are charged heavy fines and given hefty prison terms... with maybe some time off for squealing on who paid them, gave them weapons and helped them come into town. The many peaceful protesters (all races, including children), who were out Sunday afternoon, should be easy to find if need be as they have important things to say and have been on camera for interviews.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Pixelation, 3 Jun 2020 @ 6:44pm

    Re: Snitches...

    People don't like snitches, and then complain when police officers don't snitch on other officers. We have a double standard. I think this is a case of snitches "with stars upon thars".

    I'm sure I'll get ripped for saying it, but...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. icon
    Miles (profile), 3 Jun 2020 @ 7:08pm

    This is almost as much fun as when the Bundy cell of Y'Al-Qaeda took over the bird sanctuary. They asked for supplies and got boxes of dildos.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2020 @ 5:15am

    Re: Snitches...

    I have read that, presently, the general population fears the police more than the typical street criminal, and with good reason.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2020 @ 5:17am

    Re:

    The funny thing was, they got upset about it.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    dr evil, 4 Jun 2020 @ 5:29am

    go snitch

    you have been set up for it and have proven yourselves willing. neighbor breaking quarantine, call the 'authorities'. welcome to 1984. (or East Germany, North Korea, Maos China...hell, China now, Stalins Russia, and yes, Hitlers Germany)
    the youth have been trained, and they are you.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2020 @ 7:27am

    Re: Some snitching okay?

    "The many peaceful protesters (all races, including children), who were out Sunday afternoon, should be easy to find if need be"

    If need be .... for what?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. icon
    Trails (profile), 4 Jun 2020 @ 8:37am

    Mistake in article

    Once again, the people that are supposed to serve the public have failed to understand the public.

    FTFY

    link to this | view in thread ]

  17. identicon
    RD, 4 Jun 2020 @ 9:39am

    Muppets

    Yet all you muppets think contact tracing is a good idea, or will even work.

    good lord, do you even hear yourselves? You decry orwellian-level snitching, yet plow wholeheartedly into justifying literal surveillance of everyone's movements.

    It's like some kind of diseased NIMBY virtue signalling: It's even when other countries do it, but its OK if we do it.

    And then you twist yourselves in knots to justify the literal looting, property damage and injury of people completely innocent of or not involved in any of the wrongdoing being protested!

    You all better start seeing the world for how it really is, or you will be next on the pike, and no one is going to stop to listen to your protestations of support and solidarity

    link to this | view in thread ]

  18. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2020 @ 11:59am

    Re: Muppets

    "Yet all you muppets think contact tracing is a good idea,"

    • Who does? You muppets of course!

    "And then you twist yourselves in knots to justify the literal looting, property damage and injury of people completely innocent of or not involved in any of the wrongdoing being protested! "

    • Wut? Who twists what now?

    "You all better start seeing the world for how it really is, or you will be next on the pike, and no one is going to stop to listen to your protestations of support and solidarity"

    • Tom Cotton? Is that you?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  19. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Jun 2020 @ 9:45am

    Re:

    Remember when Tweetolini's minions tried to outsource one of their propaganda operation by setting up a tip line for reports of crimes committed by "illegal aliens"?

    A snarky suggestion went viral, and the line was flooded with reports about the lawless behavior of visiting space aliens.

    (They never did get back to me about the laundry thief I reported. You'd think the perp would be easy to find, what with the highly distinctive mechanical rice picker damage to his ears....)

    link to this | view in thread ]


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