Wednesday, July 17, 2013

#4

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/18/nyregion/early-morning-alert-issued-after-7-month-old-boy-is-abducted.html?src=mv&ref=general
                Police were able to rescue 7 month old Mario Danner Jr. after he was abducted by his mother through the use of an Amber Alert. The Amber Alert was sent out to all cell phone owners in New York. For many people, it was the first time in their life that they had received one, and it was also issued at 4 AM, which caused some irritation. However, it shouldn’t honestly be that big of an issue. Most people probably fell back asleep, and it could be silenced in the future. Of course, it was still a disturbance for many individuals, but the government only does it to ensure the safety of everyone and also speed up the process of finding abductees or spreading vital information that everyone would want to hear about. People who went so far as to criticize the text message should be more considerate of the intentions of the alerts. Meant to inform citizens about anything from weather-related news or other safety precautions, these widespread alerts are the quickest way since most people always have their phone nearby.
                At the same time, Amber Alerts should be used sparingly. Authorities should have a certain degree of discernment and only send them when absolutely necessary. Such emergency notification systems should be careful to not send texts excessively, which would eventually begin to actually annoy people.

                Overall, I think the Amber Alert is an excellent example of how we can use technology to our advantage. 20 years ago, police searches and investigations would not have had the benefits of alerting the public in such an instantaneous way. It’s great to see how cell phone technology has allowed for such favorable results. 

2 comments:

  1. I agree that it is important to send a crucial alert messages to people in town because it can be beneficial to yourself as well as the police department. Despite the fact that the amber alerts are unpredictable, I don’t think it should lead to irritation. I also agree with your statement that the authorities should only send these messages when it is absolutely necessary.

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  2. Hearing little fragments about this case your article was a good clarification. Your explanation of Amber Alert was quite vague, so you could probably elaborate that little more. You had very good analyses and commentary. To add to that, you could include more point of view. You also had a good connection of how Amber Alert affects our society today.

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