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Comment by creato | Hacker News Reader

> and a letter signed by at least 1,666 Google employees demanding the company stop selling technology to police departments.

I had to read this link to see what it was talking about. Maybe some ridiculous AI crime prediction algorithm?

> Google employees also expressed frustration with Google's praise of police departments like Clarkston PD that used G Suite software

Err, what the hell? Is someone supposed to be ashamed of selling email and docs/spreadsheet software to police departments? Of all the things Google does, selling G Suite is probably one of the most "moral". It's a simple exchange of money for basic useful services, with few/no strings attached.

What am I missing?

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It's trendy this week to take simplistic positions regarding law enforcement, so people jump into that train. It costs them nothing, it makes them look good, and it makes them feel good about themselves without actually changing anything.

Are we going to get angry at staples because they buy paper there too?

There are the AI principles now that are meant to prevent the ridiculous abuses of the advanced tech. The conversation has moved on to the level of "should we do any business with orgs we have moral doubts about". Anything "less moral" would raise an eyebrow.

complicit: “choosing to be involved in an illegal or questionable act.”

If you feel that the act is questionable, you know that you are involved, and you choose to remain involved, you are complicit.

Trying to morally distance yourself by coming up with justifications is self-hypnosis. Which is fine, but it’s deceiving yourself.

yeah, they're using the wrong word as there's nothing questionable going on.

how people "feel" on the other hand...

Should Google and everyone else also stop paying taxes, because they fund the police?

If you are assuming that this would be absurd, that assumption and the belief system it rests on may be preventing you from seeing and understanding what is happening.

There is a long history of people doing personally uncomfortable things after checking their internal moral compass.

> If you feel that the act is questionable

The "act" of law enforcement in general? Is anyone (a few very confused people aside) even arguing that?

It's about this post: https://gsuite.google.com/customers/clarkstown-police-depart...

and the fact that Google chose this PD "while facing lawsuits for illegal surveillance of Black Lives Matter activists".

It's not about G Suite itself but this PD.

Seriously man, english is not even my native language but I could understand that.

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