Houston attorney Paul Kennedy found this the other day – it’s a website that uses a Google Maps overlay to tell you which of your neighbors have been convicted of any sort of crime. While it’s called “FelonSpy”, it also catalogs misdemeanors, and they’re hoping that they’ll be able to include people who’ve been accused but either acquitted or had the charges dismissed, too.

We could make a list of all the ways this is wrong-headed and offensive, but that’d take too much time, given that they’re the sort of people who dismiss the suggestion that someone might be listed on their site in error with the following line:

“There are no mistakes in this site, and if you think there is, you’re probably the exact sort of criminal we all need to beware of.”

They’d probably just ignore the list if we made one. I’m betting, though, that just like the folks behind Busted! In Austin, if the site’s founders’ mom was arrested, they’d be a little less quick to include her on the map.

Labels: exploitation, presumption of innocence, tacky

posted by Dan   permalink   0 Comments