Blast E-Mail Warnings Under a Microscope
The blast e-mails like this one warning friends and neighbors about suspicious activity in the area can be a good thing. But the practice is on the rise. It’s a super fast way to spread word on potentially harmful situations that could impact our community, but where we do we draw the line? Is it always better to be safe than sorry? Are there unwritten rules of responsiblity for shooting out concerns to your contact list? Should there be?
There were an alarming number of new blast e-mails circulating last week, one passed along information about an attempted child abduction but the police had no record of such an event.
When should the warnings go viral and when are they counterproductive? Or even worse?
100 – (# mentions “children” or derivatives thereof) – (# exclamation points) – (every missed space between words) + (10 if i know you, 5 if i’ve heard of you) = relevance grade.
I don’t want to receive anything that scores below 90.
Competition
Also MSM doesnt like to report on crimes in concert with DPD who changes the stats so Big D can look “better” to the outside world
even the FBI denounced DPD new methodology
DMN didnt report on NP criminal activity especially at the end of Jan with at least 3 known holdups
DMN doesnt report the 2 realtors who were robbed at gunpoint
if you follow the news, you know what I am talking about
eblasts from citizens will be challanged by those who want to keep a tight reing on info/their jobs BUT THEY WILL CLEVERLY ( but not so) pick on the eblasts and citizen empowerment by pointing out when some HONEST mistakes occur
So what!!
The powers that be commit so many mistakes, honest or otherwise and they’re still in business
Power to the people
I second matt.
And really, if you strip all the subjective crap (weird! creepy! strange! shock of my life! horrible feeling!) out of a note and there’s nothing left but “I saw a man wearing a glove — in a park”, then there’s objectively nothing of substance to forward or post.
Particularly if the note includes something like “do not hesitate for 1 minute to call 911 if you suspect anything strange, ever”. That is the dumbest bit of emergency advice I’ve ever heard.
matt & Matt, I concur.
Tina, this is my response to whatever that was.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0
@matt- that was beautiful. it fits so many situations. do you mind if i refer to it frequently?
Wow, rock on Matts…agree with it all, including the video.
matt:
Patent that formula ASAP.
Merritt my muse, refer away…the clip has served me well.
@matt: that was the single funniest response ever on this blog. I award you the acadamy award of bloggers.