Quote:
Originally Posted by Acey
More and more people will disable them because of the lack of differentiation between nuclear war and an abducted child. The end. JFC. Why can you not understand this? Nobody with a brain is criticizing the notion of alerts for abductions, merely the implementation. Get off your high horse and actually read what is written here.
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I appreciate some will think this sounds sanctimonious but when I pull over driving or am woke from sleeping due to the flashing lights and screaming sirens of an emergency vehicle I take it as a brief opportunity to hope whoever is in trouble will be ok and to be grateful it’s not me or my family (that I know of in the moment).
When I got startled awake by the recent amber alert I thought the same things...and then went back to sleep. If our sense of community and empathy has become such that we would rather miss an alert that could directly affect us individually because we are so upset at having to also endure the sound of an occasional alert that can only possibly save children we don’t personally know (and all of their friends and family members from eternal unimaginable grief) then I suppose I can see why this has become such a debate.
I am all for trying to have the best system possible, but disturbing a significant number of people who couldn’t possibly assist the emergency seems inevitable if you are implementing a blanket alert system intended to reach an unknown group of people who can.
To me that’s the ultimate point that gets lost in these debates. If police knew who had most recently seen the missing children, they would just call them directly. But they have a small number of individuals who could have the highest of value information to save lives. Neither the police nor those individuals know who they are unless they can communicate to each other...and the value of the information can drop dramatically over short periods of time.
From my perspective having solid criteria to meet before issuing the alert is the way to limit annoying the public. Once the criteria are met, the public is part of the emergency and the possible difference between life and death. Waking up to the sound of an alert you did not need to hear then becomes one of the costs of being part of a society that benefits from having lifesaving alerts.