How can a programmer help with current events?

The problem is these protest are not effective, period.

All this is ultimately doing is making racist people more racist.

I am a white guy and my girl is black. You know how much we talk about race? None, zero, never. It only ever comes up when racist people point out we are not of the same race. Our values, taste and upbringings are literally the same. If you think black people can't be racist try dating a black woman as a white guy, lol.

The way to get past racism is not to be a racist and divide people on the basis of race. That is it.

What is happening right now is going in the wrong direction.

You would have a hard time helping the cause of racist assholes more than these protest.

One big thing that I think people can do is start saving police footage. It's pretty easy to do but can be especially helpful. Even just seeding a torrent of that is a way to passively help, I think.

I was also wondering about this question, so I hope that people might have some good ideas.

One that I haven't thought my way through completely (as it's not my domain whatsoever) is a generic way to round up online sales totals. Maybe a browser extension that lets users round up what they're set to spend to the nearest dollar, and donate what's rounded to a relevant charity or fund? Charities could maybe partner with the developers of that open source app (or write their own extensions) to plug into it, and it would allow for people shopping online to choose where the money goes. As we've moved to online shopping being asked at the counter to round up for (possibly out of date/favor) charities has left a lot of people's lives, so an open source team that works to put that on major sites as an extension could be very beneficial. The ability to add charities with software and without waiting on large corporate partnerships could really benefit this system.

I figured it'd use PayPal for the actual payment maybe. There might be serious holes in that, but it's something that came to my mind earlier today.

I think ideas that could incorporate protesting while being mindful of coronavirus could also be interesting.

If there was an app that can be used to identify the DA, mayor, chief of police, congressman and senator(state and federal) of a police abuse of power incident and pester them with complaints, that would be useful.

Or help people vote by sending them alerts for their area to vote out politicians that took no or little action when such an event occured.

A harder challenge would be to counter-monitor police including stingrays and aerial attacks. Both offensive and defensive tools would be useful.

Don't build, operate, or maintain the infrastructure of the surveillance state. That's a big one.

For what it's worth, here is a story from WW2.

A B-17 came back from a run over Germany with a dud shell lodged in its fuel tank. When the intelligence units opened the shell, they found it completely empty apart from a note written in Czech saying, "this is all we can do for you, for now."

You are going to do what you are going to do, but you might try looking up The Shirky Principle first (organizations tend to keep alive the problem they are designed to combat).

Years ago, I used to say on some email list I was on that "fighting against the fighting is still fighting."

People don't really want to be protesting. What they want is justice and they don't know how to get it.

If you really want solutions, look for things that already exist that genuinely help promote justice and better treatment for disempowered peoples or build something which does so.

/2 cents

It's money. Give money.

We as developers and engineers have a lot of extra spare cash around. Donate to mutual aid funds or bail funds.

Build websites, databases, and automation for charities and community organizations.

* Find what community organizations and support groups exist in your local area. Your local police department and food banks can help point you to some. See if national organizations that interest you have local chapters.

* Go to city counsel meetings to see some real problems and also some of the insanity your local leaders have to deal with.

What I think everybody would like to see is a dishonesty database containing police brutality, false criminal complaints, false accusations of misconduct, resisting arrest, ethics violations, so forth. Data can be a positive tool to keep everyone honest and embarrass liars.

You can't fight politics with tech, because politics win every time. Some of the things you listed don't make much sense when people are angry enough to spill into the streets to protest.

For example,

> - Combatting disinformation and/or processing data, about police abuse for example

There's already a lot of transparency on police brutality; we even have civilian oversight groups dedicated to this, but they have either been taken over by cop-friendly leaderships or they have no power to do anything.

> - Mobile panic button?

And who will come to help? Police? No, they will beat your ass for revealing your location. Protestors? No, they are too busy protesting to check their phones 24/7. Just look all the people with their hands up and chanting; their eyes are all on the police who may beat them at any time.

> - Mindfulness/mental health assistance for people trying to cope

There may be people who are depressed, but people are angry enough to be outside and protesting. Those who are clinically depressed need actual professional help, an app will not do that. Plus there are already a lot of these types of apps in the stores already, none of which replaces an actual professional

... and in any case, the government can shut any of these solutions down if they truly wanted. I think the most direct, practical way to helping with current events is to either, or all:

- Join the protestors in the streets, see the issues at hand with your own eyes instead of from media spin.

- Get in touch with your coworkers, an existing union, or start a tech union underground. Organize a walk-out, to join the protestors. White collar jobs can cause some real financial pressure and bring politicians to their knees for the cause (like how some workers at fast food restaurants refused to cook for cops during the protests).

They (literally) fight for our rights, we should get serious about what we can do too.

There have been several threads covering this in the past week or so.

>not interested in supporting violence or doing anything illegal

Who defines what is illegal? When the System and its laws are completely stacked against you, any change can only be brought about by going outside the System i.e. by engaging in "illegal acts". You are allowed to use anything and everything to bring about real Societal change. Racism and Police Brutality need to be stamped out once and for all in the US.

Here are some of my ideas:

"Who's got the loot?"

This app could be used to keep track of which stores have and haven't been looted yet. No one wants to loot a store that has already run out of stuff.

"Children Inside"

This app could help rioters decide whether to burn down a building, if there's kids inside they can pick another one.

"Bail Me"

This app would be just like gofundme or kickstarter, except it would be for posting bond.