Couple robbed at gunpoint after rental car GPS takes them to crime hotspot
www.the-express.com
A Los Angeles couple filed a lawsuit against Google Maps for allegedly navigating them to a notorious South African crime neighborhood where tourists are left "injured, maimed or dead."

Couple suing Google Maps after it sent them to a notorious crime hotspot where they were brutally attacked and robbed at gunpoint::A Los Angeles couple filed a lawsuit against Google Maps for allegedly navigating them to a notorious South African crime neighborhood where tourists are left ‘injured, maimed or dead.’

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2015·
    11 months ago

    The New Eisleben Road was known as a “prime site” for the assaults because its highly congested roads would make it difficult for victims to escape, and “the gangs knew that Google Maps sent unsuspecting tourists driving rental cars” along it, the lawsuit alleged, according to Mercury News.

    It’s high crime because google sends tourists there…

    If it sent them somewhere else, that would be the high crime area.

    • bhmnscmm@lemmy.worldEnglish
      291·
      11 months ago

      It’s a high crime neighborhood because criminals live there. Or more precisely, because it’s a poor, gang infested neighborhood.

      What you’ve said makes no sense. There are high crime neighborhoods like this all over the country independently of what Google maps does. There are also neighborhoods full of tourists that aren’t high crime areas.

      Particular conditions, in this particular neighborhood, lead to these particular crimes occurring.

      • agent_flounder@lemmy.worldEnglish
        71·
        11 months ago

        I wonder if we will hear the outcome of the lawsuit or if it will just get settled out of court.

        “the gangs knew that Google Maps sent unsuspecting tourists driving rental cars” along it, the lawsuit alleged, according to Mercury News.

        …

        The company finally agreed to stop Google Maps from directing people through the area albeit three weeks after the attack, which prompted the couple to seek unspecificed damages.

        On the one hand yes there are high crime areas and this is one.

        On the other hand, it is possible that Google routed them stupidly.

        On the other hand people shouldn’t be traveling without learning a bit about the local threats and how to stay safe.

        But crime is ultimately the responsibility of governments and they also have some responsibility to tourists.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        216·
        11 months ago

        It’s a high crime neighborhood because criminals live there

        Poor people rarely steal from their poor neighbors…

        I’ve lived in lots of “bad neighborhoods” and never had my stuff messed with, I’ve lived in “good places” a few blocks away from the bad ones, and shit was always being stolen.

        Its not complicated bud.

        • agent_flounder@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          11 months ago

          Except if you read this article it is clear that this is a high crime area where any tourists going thru it are targeted.

        • KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          31·
          11 months ago

          Yeeeeah, I know people who stayed in surrounding townships and often times they’d tell me they’d be scared to go home.

          I have a friend who lives in Manenberg (also gang infested area in Cape Town), he’s lived there all his life. Last year he had all his teeth broken by a gang.

          I don’t think you understand what dangerous is. You think you do, but you don’t. These are places that ambulances, police and fire trucks don’t dare go into for fear of having their vehicles set alight and being killed.

          Life has no value in these places.