WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Neighborhood Watch 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:06.080 Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:08.800 there's Chuck and this is short Stuff because Jerry's here 0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:12.559 for Dave and we're talking about the neighborhood Watch. So 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:13.119 look out. 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:14.160 That's right. 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:18.280 I think the fact of this podcast is right off 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:21.599 the bat. Yep, Because if you've ever seen a neighborhood watch, 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:25.560 like the official neighborhood Watch sign is in the National 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:29.800 Neighborhood Watch program official organization. If you've ever seen that 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:33.360 sign and that I was going to say silhouetted, but 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:36.080 it's really just sort of a kind of a cartoony 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:39.440 black figure on those orange and white signs. It looks 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.760 very much like a film noir villain. That guy actually 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:45.440 kind of peering back over her shoulder. That dude has 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:47.360 a name, and it's Boris the Burglar. 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:48.120 Yep. 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:51.000 Very get nice little trivia point. 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:53.559 Yeah, I think one of the things that fascinates me 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.000 about this and why I picked this one, And also 0:00:56.040 --> 0:01:01.520 thanks to Terry Yarlegata and Adoya Johnson, the first from 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.240 How Stuff Works, the latter from the Howard University School 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:07.800 of Law. But like, when I see signs like that, 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:13.440 they seem like an urban archaeological find because they're from 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:16.080 the seventies, the very early seventies, and sometimes in old 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.360 neighborhood and you know, Atlanta's chuck full of old neighborhoods. 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:21.920 You can tell that sign was put up in nineteen 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:24.679 seventy two. Yeah, yeah, and that neighborhood watch probably hasn't 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:28.360 functioned for forty years, you know, And I just find 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:32.560 that super fascinating. So because of that fascination, I've dragged 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:36.520 us into the discussion about neighborhood watch as it is. 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:40.080 That's right, which was formed officially in nineteen seventy two 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:42.520 after a rise in crime in the late sixties. 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.080 Thank you leaded gas again. 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:47.600 The National Neighborhood Watch Program is the official name, and 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:51.160 that's under the umbrella of the National Sheriff's Association, and 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:54.960 it's a national organization in that they have guidelines. You 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:57.920 can get some information in pamphlets on kind of how 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:01.440 to run one in your neighborhood. Although so we'll see 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:04.280 that kind of depends on your neighborhood what you want 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:05.360 to do with this program. 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.519 Sure, but they don't like there are way too. 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:11.960 Many neighborhood watch programs, you know, local ones for them 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:14.639 to really be involved in matter on a national level. 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:16.320 It's just sort of the umbrella organization. 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:19.800 Yeah, which can be a criticism, as we'll see, but 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:24.760 the whole idea is basically, you can the cops can 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:27.920 get an assist from people who are kind of looking 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:31.600 for problems in their neighborhood, or at the very least 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:34.560 are on enough lookout that when it happens, they notice 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.280 it right, they don't just walk right past it, and 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:39.480 then you can call the cops, and then the cops come, 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:42.960 and then the burglar boris the burglars thwarted. And all 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:45.359 of this is kind of based on what's called the 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:50.160 Chicago School of social disorganization theory. It's a sociological theory 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.080 from the twenties and the thirties which basically says, if 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:56.360 you have a neighborhood that doesn't have very strong social ties, 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:58.160 so neighbors don't really know each other that well, they 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:01.720 don't trust each other that well, very little community control, 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:06.600 where people feel very confident about just committing crimes. That's 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:09.600 the most vulnerable kind of neighborhood. And so a neighborhood 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.360 watch essentially is meant to at least take care of 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:14.839 the second one, where it's like, you know, we're going 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:17.400 to make sure you don't feel confident about committing crime, 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.440 but it doesn't necessarily fulfill the first one, which is 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:22.000 to bring communities together. 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:25.200 Yeah, that's right. We should mention kind of briefly that 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:29.480 For a little while. After nine to eleven, the NSA 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:31.840 got a grant from the Department of Justice where they 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:35.960 rebranded as USA on Watch, where they're like, hey, not 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:38.800 only should you just be looking out for boris the burglar, 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.040 but you should be looking out for terrorists in your neighborhood. 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:45.600 But that grant ran out and they said, yeah, maybe 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:47.760 we should just stick to being a neighborhood to watch. 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:51.080 Yeah, it went from keeping an eye on your neighborhood 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:53.400 to spying on your neighbors. I think was essentially the 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:54.080 spirit of it. 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:55.480 Yeah, it's pretty read. 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:59.200 But this was the era when the postal workers, the 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:04.320 mail carriers, we're expected to spy on everyone. Yeah. It 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.440 was a very paranoid time, understandably, so it was a 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:09.320 really rough time for the United States. 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:12.120 Yeah, some some would say there was a privacy grab 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.880 that happened, Oh I hadn't thought about that, or a 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:18.800 you know, a lack of privacy grab. 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:20.920 I guess no, I get, I get what you mean. 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:23.880 An intrusion, an intrusive intrusion. 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:28.159 Yeah, take a break for saying it just right. 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:30.960 Yeah right, Let's take a break, man, and we'll come 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:33.559 back and talk about whether these things actually prevent crime 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:57.800 in the first place. All right, we'll be right back, So, Chuck, 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.239 the idea of neighborhood watch makes sense, but not everything 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:05.200 that is intuitively right actually pans out when put under 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:09.360 scientific scrutiny. It turns out neighborhood watch programs do hold 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:13.000 up under scientific scrutiny. At least one study from all 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:14.640 the way back in two thousand and six, not a 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:18.559 lot of studies about neighborhood watch programs. Apparently, they found 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:23.600 eighteen other studies, and fifteen of those showed that neighborhood 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:28.240 watch programs seem to prevent crime, Like the neighborhood watch 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:31.880 program came along in a decline in crime happened afterward. 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:34.880 So it does seem like they can prevent crime. They 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:39.560 don't necessarily thwart crime in progress. 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:41.040 I guess yeah. 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:43.120 I mean they will tell you, and proponents of the 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:45.680 program will say, like, hey, just having that sign up 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:49.640 in your neighborhood is going to prevent crime somewhat because 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:54.360 you know, if a ne'er do well sees that you're 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:57.760 under neighborhood watch, they'll just move on to another neighborhood. 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:01.599 Yeah. I don't know about that, but that's what they say. 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:06.159 Well, it makes sense, Like, especially a non professional who's 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:08.680 just like I'm going to break into houses, they might 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:11.520 give them a second thought. So and if it prevents 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:13.880 one burglary, it's a crime to trent. 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:14.919 Sure. 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:18.719 If you want to organize one of these things, you 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:20.799 can recruit people and get together. 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:22.040 You can schedule some meetings. 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:24.760 You can get some local law enforcement in there maybe 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:26.120 to come to one of those meetings and kind of 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.360 discuss how these things go. If you're like a really 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.920 buttoned down neighborhood watch group, you might have an actual 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:36.599 liaison with law enforcement. You might have a group coordinator 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:38.279 and block captains and stuff like that. 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.880 They might have sashes. In the well funded neighborhood. 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:45.360 Watch group, they might they might even have patrols. And 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:48.120 this is where it can get a little dodgy. Yeah, 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:52.679 because there have been plenty of instances in the United 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:56.400 States where these things have turned from sort of neighborhood 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:58.400 watch where you see something and you maybe called the 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:01.839 cops to people kind of acting on their own vigilanti style, 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:05.839 or people on their own calling the cops just because 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:09.359 someone is guilty of, you know, being a person of 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:10.560 color in their neighborhood. 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:12.400 That certainly happens all the time. 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.560 Yeah, it does. So you talked about a lack of 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:20.960 oversight and the fact that the National Neighborhood Watch Association 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:24.760 just doesn't they can't possibly keep up with them. I 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:28.680 think there's something like twenty twenty eight thousand neighborhood watch 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.160 groups that are registered right now, and probably a lot 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.160 of them are defunct, but there's still that's way too 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:40.920 many for this probably just paper thin funded organization to 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:43.960 keep up with. So they're just like, hey, you know, 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:46.320 they register with us, so we tell them best practices, 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.360 but if they turn into vigilante groups we don't know about, 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:51.800 it has nothing to do with us. Some people are like, 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:53.880 I don't know if that's true. You're actually encouraging the 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.680 formation of these groups in the first place. You can 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.280 make an argument that a neighborhood would come up with 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.680 their own content of a neighborhood watch anyway, probably right, 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.520 So it does seem like the National Neighborhood Watch Association 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:09.680 is probably fairly at least not guilty. Their hands aren't dirty, 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:12.600 I guess, is what I'm trying to say. But even still, 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:15.200 they're quite aware that some of these neighborhood watch groups, 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:19.360 whether they're registered or not, do evolve INDI vigil anti groups. Yeah. 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:21.840 I mean, I think nationally their aim is pure. But 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:24.200 then when you get the wrong neighborhood and a wrong 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.360 group of people, like happened here in the state of Georgia, 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:30.760 you might have a neighborhood watch group targeting a family 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.960 that they don't like being there and sitting outside their 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:36.720 house and digging through their trash and photographing the family 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:41.640 and digitally audio recording them and monitoring their movements. That 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:45.920 has happened in Springfield, Missouri. The Klan set up a 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:49.839 neighborhood watch and had signs saying neighborhood watch. You can 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:51.600 sleep tonight knowing the Klan is awake. 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.080 Yeah. Other we talked about well funded groups too. Some 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.000 of them will use police scanners. Some of them even 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:03.160 have invested those flashing dome lights like all nake a 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:08.600 Gunyah or police squad for their cars when they're going 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:10.000 to respond to a report. 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:11.320 Yeah, you're not a cop. 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.240 Still, this is your neighbor who works in it during 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:18.120 the day and frankly drinks one or two beers too 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:22.079 many each night, showing up with a flashing light at 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:25.760 your front door because your neighbor across the street thought 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.360 that you were doing something suspicious or somebody was doing 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.720 something suspicious at your house. Yeah, that is not okay 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:36.280 under basically any circumstance. Again, like you said, the concept 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:40.240 is pure, it gets perverted way too easily because it 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.040 gives power to the people who want the power, because 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.560 those are the ones very often who volunteer for this stuff. 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:48.400 Yeah, for sure. And you know, I talked about different 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.960 crimes that were committed. Of course, the most obvious is 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:57.640 when George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:01.160 in Sanford, Florida, in twenty twelve. And Zimmerman, you know, 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:05.160 supposedly was a neighborhood watch volunteer. And I think their 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.040 neighborhood watch was not one of the official under the 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.480 National Neighborhood Watch at least a National neighborhood watches, like 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:14.960 they weren't us, right, but that's how far it can go. So, 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:17.840 you know, we want to keep our neighborhood safe, but 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:18.680 settle down. 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:22.120 Man, that was this seems like a lifetime ago, doesn't it. 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:22.520 Yeah? 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.480 Man, yeah, that's it was sort of. I mean, what 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:28.520 twenty twelve? How many years ago is at thirteen? 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:34.080 Yeah, yep, right on the nose, so there is. Yeah, 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:36.920 there's nothing inherently wrong with keeping an eye on your neighborhood, 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:40.160 especially if it helps you meet some of your neighbors 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:43.200 and you guys work together to prevent people from breaking 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.520 into your homes or selling drugs on your street or whatever. Like, 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:51.040 it's totally understandable. It seems like, according to the National 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:56.440 Neighborhood Watch Association that the kind of the steps that 0:10:56.480 --> 0:10:59.720 they've laid out since nineteen seventy two are not necessarily 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:03.160 fall But that doesn't mean that groups are just not forming. 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:07.360 They're forming in other ways through like text chains, like 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:11.360 you know, neighborhood text threads. There's a lot of neighborhoods 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:17.320 at Facebook pages. Next Door is a big one. Yeah. Yeah. 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:19.600 If you want to read some crazy off of the 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:21.960 chain stuff like go on to next door. It can 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:26.200 be pretty entertaining and then ring, which is that that 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:28.920 camera video doorbell, the first one I think now is 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:32.040 owned by Amazon. They partner with law enforcement and they're 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.640 really doing their best to fill in the gaps in 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:35.320 the police state. 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:37.240 Yeah, and if you're. 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:40.160 If you want to get one of these started in 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:41.599 your neighborhood and want to be on the up and 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:43.640 up and do it the right way, you can go 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:47.520 to that National Neighborhood Watch website and get officially registered. 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:50.360 They will have some resources to kind of guide you along. 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:53.080 But again, you know, do it, do it the right way. 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:56.320 It's not a crime to just be in your neighborhood. 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:00.680 And you see plenty of, you know, the videos every 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:04.199 day on social media where somebody, you know, sometimes someone 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:07.480 that does live in that neighborhood is even accosted because 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:09.640 they're a person of color who dares to park in 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:11.840 their own driveway and walk to their own front door. 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:17.360 That has happened before. Yeah, yeah, I think won't jeez 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:19.600 check the show stuffs out on that bomber note. 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:25.199 I think, so okay. Stuff you should Know is a 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:29.080 production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:31.520 the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts, or 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:33.320 Wherever you listen to your favorite shows.