Breakfast Links: Daleks, Dolphins & RateMyCop
Man, SFX is running one of the greatest competitions ever. I mean, I guess the competition itself isn’t that great but the prize is - a full-size replica of a Dalek! No, not that Dalek. Y’know, the big robots? Exterrrminate! ExTEEERRRRMINATE! Ringing a bell? Eh. Oh well. You know you’d be the coolest kid on the block with one o’ those in your pad. Sadly, it’ll only be you if you happen to be in the UK. Sigh. (via)
And for you other people who don’t live in the US, if you happen to live in the greatest country ever - New Zealand (and I mean that totally without irony) - you’ll know that yours was the site of a great inter-species refloating! That’s what she said! What?? Anyhow. A pair of whales got stranded and the lame humans couldn’t save them, they were even thinking of euthanizing them till Moko the dolphin came swooping in and led the whales straight out to the big wet. Sweet! Right? Wish there was a video. I thought we were living in the video age? Huh.
But you know I wouldn’t let my US living and loving readers down, no? Well for you, I bring you RateMyCop! Ok, well, I would have, but the site has already been shuttered by it’s hosting company, GoDaddy. I mean, come on. Who thought that site was a good idea. You know the cops were furious at it. And any claims of increasing police transparency were never going to be fruitful because in what world was the signal going to be anywhere remotely close to the noise?? If I thought RateMyTeachers was bad news just asking to happen (and it still being around and not sued out of existence means I was probably wrong on that front, huh), RateMyCop? Man.
March 12th, 2008 at 11:35 am
A site that rates cops is a fantastic idea. After allt hey do work for us right? There is no reason we should not keep tabs on them. They keep tabs on us. And the thing that pissed the cops off most was probably the fact that they would always know that someone was watching them, which is the way it should be in public service. It’s not like there are no REASONS to have a site like that. Speaking form personal experience cops can be abusive and downright illeagal in some of the crap they pull. Remember that site that showed all the cops in Manhattan parking wherever they wanted? They made a stink about that too.
March 12th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Heh, I’m not saying that cops don’t need a layer of transparency. I’m just saying that a site where anyone can anonymously rate cops is just… well… just asking for trouble. For everyone concerned.
March 12th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
With the proper admin I disagree. The only trouble it would be asking for is that people can keep tabs on the few bad seeds that the police are always talking about. They can’t seem to filter them out themselves so maybe their victims should get the chance. They should embrace this concept and consider it a tool. Is Go Daddy the people to run a site like that? I’m guessing no but the concept stands as legitimate to me. Then again I was randomly pulled over and had a handgun put to my head…. not pointed at me but placed on my forehead for no reason. I was never issued a ticket or a warning for anything (because I was not doing anything wrong) It is a long story and if it happened when I was older I would have handled it differently, as in done something about it. A site like this would have given me the chance to warn others, particularly their superiors who would probably only acknowledge abuse when others already know about it.