SketchFactor is an app that lets you – among other things – identify ‘bad’ neighborhoods, much to the canned outrage of the Usual Suspects. Seriously, if you click through that last link and see the next one, you’ll see what kind of language is being used about it:
But how well does it work? Ahh…
A District of Columbia news crew reporting on an app that identifies “sketchy” neighborhoods had their van burglarized while they were interviewing individuals who lived in a neighborhood the app identified as “sketchy.”
WUSA9 reporter Mola Lenghi said that he, photographer James Hash, and intern Taylor Bisciotti were in the Petworth area interviewing residents who lived there.
“We were doing a story on an app that describes ‘sketchy’ neighborhoods,” Lenghi said. “It led us to the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest, and I’m not going to call it a ‘sketchy’ neighborhood, but as folks were telling us that it was a good neighborhood, and that not much activity happens around there — as that was being told to us, our van was being robbed.”
…apparently quite well. Guess that they should have taken the app more seriously, huh?
Via
Irony, you harsh mistress. RT @allahpundit: Perfection http://t.co/PUQmC6XSuN
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) August 10, 2014
Moe Lane (crosspost)
PS: I’ve taken it to the judge (my wife) and she has ruled: yea, indeed, this is irony. The only reason that was in doubt was apparently my reflexive assumption that all things said to be ironic are not actually ironic. In my defense, that’s generally a good operating principle.
Gee, if only they had some way of knowing that this was a “sketchy” neighborhood, and avoid it.