I wrote yesterday about watching that new movie Mercy and how it made me want to watch Minority Report. So I did. That is how I spent my evening last night, and the movie holds up well. The one note I will make is if the movie were made today it would be AI instead of the pre-cogs.
This is a direction that our society is going. We have analysis, spreadsheets, and algorithms that show us where and when crime is likely to happen. Our response isn’t pre-arresting anyone, yet, but it is to install curfews and increase police presence. The only issue is it can become a self fulfilling prophesy.
Virginia Beach’s recent response to a shooting at the Ocean Front was to enact a 7:00 PM curfew for any unaccompanied minor. It wasn’t to solve the crime or do anything like that. It was to punish a bunch of people that weren’t even there, and compared to other major tourist destinations the Virginia Beach Ocean Front is safe. One shooting every five years does not equal a crime wave and is not a reason for draconian laws.
The issue will come later. It will come when police officers start harassing guests to our city to go back to their rooms at 7:00 PM. People might want to get a nip after the sand soccer tournament or something and police won’t know immediately who is and is not a minor. The only end result of these types of laws is more violence, not less.
This is the problem with predictions. They give us insight but they don’t give us facts. That is somewhat the point of Minority Report. As we hurtle towards a certain future how much is happening because we know it is happening vs how much was going to happen if we never knew?
The police predict there will be more violence at the Ocean Front, there are more police, the police make a pestilence of themselves, and then there is violence. It is a pattern created by prediction, not interrupted by it.
People don’t want to be bothered by the police on their vacation and 99.9999% of the people coming to the Virginia Beach Ocean Front of no interest in shooting anyone, and while protecting people is good, increasing the risk of violence in the name of protection is outright dumb, and that is how this city operates.
Violence happens when large crowds gather. It is unfortunate, but it is also reality, and when it happens real cities put on their big boy pants and investigate the crime, not make draconian laws that punish a bunch of random people. It is high time Virginia Beach put on their big boy pants and then we might be ready to join the 21st century and be a real city.
David Huzzard Writes 