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Airbnb bans 'party houses' after five die in Halloween shooting
Airbnb has said it will ban "party houses" after a mass shooting at a California home rented through the company left five people dead.
CEO Brian Chesky said in a tweet the company would take steps to "combat unauthorized parties and get rid of abusive host and guest conduct". "We must do better, and we will. This is unacceptable," Mr Chesky added.
Three people died at the house, in the city of Orinda, near San Francisco, and two more died later in hospital. The house was reportedly booked under a pretence for a small group, before being publicised on Instagram as the venue for a Halloween party which eventually drew a crowd of more than 100 people. The host did not authorise the party, Airbnb said.
[...] Mr Chesky said Airbnb would create a dedicated "party house" rapid response team and expand manual screening of high-risk reservations. The company, which is expected to float on the stock market in 2020, would also take action against users who violated its policies, he said.
See also: Here's Why Airbnb's Latest Losses Won't Necessarily Hurt Its 2020 IPO
Related: Airbnb is Suing NYC to Keep From Sharing Host Data
Family Finds Hidden Camera in Airbnb's Smoke Alarm
Airbnb Host? Don't Pay Business Taxes? City Digs Up Your Sewer and Water.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @06:14PM (16 children)
Citation needed. Also, how do you know they're not just more likely to be investigated / accused / arrested?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @06:37PM (9 children)
these are likely the oft-sited FBI crime statistics. i don't doubt that they are not 100% fair. at the same time, the differences in crime by race are real (though some are cultural reasons, as opposed to strictly race, and some of those cultural reasons likely have environmental rather than biological causes). i grew up in the big city as a racial minority. i know the basic differences to be true. i'm guessing it boils down to intelligence. every race has the primitive tools for survival it's just that some have developed more advanced tools and cultures and don't have to dig into the primitive bucket of tools as often.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @07:44PM (8 children)
There are certainly some genetic issues in play, but I think the main difference is probably cultural. I think this for two reasons. The first is that while most places in Africa are not exactly pleasant, there are plenty that don't have e.g. homicide rates that are even comparable to Europe. This is true even in some West African places like Burkina Faso or Benin. The other is that I would hypothesize that e.g. the black crime rate in the past was nowhere near what it is today in America. In something like 60 years we went from Louis Armstrong to hardcore gangsta rap and the normalization of ebonics - sorry, "African American Vernacular English."
I grew up in a very poor urban area and saw (without really understanding it at the time) so many lives probably destroyed by, "y u actin' all white n' shit nigga"? People were culturally pressured to be 'hard.' In practice that meant acting like an idiot and thug. Paying attention in class, doing your work, or just generally behaving? No, now you're acting white. Skipping class, speaking like an idiot, being belligerent, and picking fights? Oh yeah, now you're hard. Get setup in a gang and you're even harder. Acting like an idiot and thug becomes a self fulfilling prophecy of becoming an idiot and thug.
"Oh wow, there's this great house party I heard about. Let me go get my gun in case some foo tries to diss me..." I mean this is not a normal train of thought even for an idiot. There's some cultural training going on to get to this point. And there's some irony today. We created this problem through free speech, and I think the only way we could solve it is through free speech. But people are afraid to say these things because they don't want to get called racist. So we pretend nothing is happening. And then the children going through the next generation only* get to hear from their hard peers what's what, instead of them and this culture of stupidity being relentlessly mocked for the pathetic, self destroying, travesty that it is. It's like you have some festering wound and decide to pretend it doesn't exist. Not gonna end well.
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* - Not entirely true. We also had speakers. Generally black guys that did learn from their past and came in trying to act hard to get in touch with the kids. But all these speakers likely reached about exactly 0 people. We all just treated them as jokes and a nice way to get out of class for a while. You don't need one off 'wish I know what I know now, when I was younger' types but a ubiquitous mocking of a shit culture.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @09:18PM (1 child)
I doubt many "African Americans" have had any contact with African culture since their ancestors were sold across the ocean 250 years ago. I don't think the issue is genetic, because similar underclasses form in other societies.
I believe the problem has two mutually reinforcing angles: One is that majority culture in this country either despises them for being formerly enslaved or because of the daily stories out of the inner city. Majority culture would rather they just disappeared and are busy importing replacement citizens from south of the border who show more aptitude for overcoming adversity and working their way up in society.
The other is that, likely because of the exclusion from majority culture, the raising of black children has been neglected. People getting shot at a party or a zoo or wherever because someone got "dissed" is indicative that cause, effect and consequence just isn't being communicated. They are left to act on their urges, and majority culture couldn't care less, as long as whites don't get hurt.
The goal is to break out of the ghetto and make the big bucks, and many think the way to that is to become a drug gang member. But most of them will just be soldiers shooting others and getting shot at. Legal options to make it in society are limited, because of the (racist and idiotic) disdain for "white" traits of diligence and industry. So if not drugs, then you try other hustles at constant risk of hassle by the police, like on-street car repair or organizing a drinking party at somebody's house you rented from Airbnb. Definitely not something lazy people would do, it's quite entrepreneurial. But the lobsters trying to crawl out get pulled back by the others.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @05:35AM
To be clear in my above post (that you responded to), I made an unfortunate typo. I was stating that places such as Burkina Faso or Benin (both in West Africa) have homicide rates, at least, there are somewhat comparable to Europe. So this was some evidence against a genetic cause. And yes of course when I talk about culture, I am not talking about African culture but black American culture. African American is such a stupid phrase anyhow. Blacks in America today have about as much connection to Africa as whites do to Europe.
The problem is that in an increasingly global and connected world, this culture is no longer limited by borders. I do not think Africa will be adopting it any time soon because lack the development to create the requisite consumerism, but we do see the emergence of the 'urban culture' in places like England as well. And indeed as England becomes more diverse and gets to experience the effects of this culture first hand, it's now facing the exact same issues it once was able to smugly mock America over. Now we get to make fun of them first banning guns, then knives, and now even trying to ban any knives from having 'pointy ends' and including things like knife crime notices on fried chicken boxes. Who's laughing now, England? ;-)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @09:47PM (5 children)
There. FTFY.
You focused on the here and now without taking into account the centuries of exploitation and abuse suffered by Americans of African descent at the hands of their fellow citizens.
That legacy remains in many places, where you see police targeting these people, these folks can see very clearly how the deck has been stacked against them with poor/failing schools, lack of investment in communities, a general distaste by far too many for "Urban Culture," and a raft of other cultural and societal pressures and norms that tells these people that they are *not* afforded simple human respect.
When the world you doesn't respect you, why would you show the world any respect?
Generational poverty, over-criminalization, and the violence inherent in black market economies are legacies of the bigotry and disrespect for fellow humans required to stomach^W rationalize treating other humans like livestock.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @05:08AM (4 children)
Have you noticed as society has become more obsequious and apologetic towards broken black culture, that the culture has only gotten exponentially worse? This should generally clue in that your hypothesis is invalid.
Beyond that I think another great lesson, which also ties right back into America, is Liberia. Liberia is a beautiful and resource rich nation. It's coastal with with rich, lush, forests and a wide array of similarly rich mineral resources. It also mimics the US in a great number of ways. For instance both their flag, constitution, and political system all borrow heavily from the US. The reason is that Liberia was the result of activists alongside a motley crew of allies (including former slave owners) after the end of slavery in the US. They felt similarly to you - that blacks would likely suffer from discrimination and other issues in the US. And so they looked to give them the ultimate gift - literally, their own country free of discrimination, bias, or anything like that.
And Liberia was not a country ruled by proxy or by any sort of remote influence. The first president of Liberia was Joseph Jenkins Robert [wikipedia.org], a child of freed slaves from the US. And indeed from his presidency in 1847 until 1980 the country would be ruled entirely by blacks who descended from freed US slaves. Regardless, the thing you may know is that Liberia is a failed state. In spite of being a lush and bountiful nation, food security is extremely low. In spite of having vast mineral and material resources to build upon, the nation is remains mostly undeveloped and extremely poor. The GDP/capita is $704. It's only sustained itself by taking loans and aid, never to be repaid, from other nations. Many of whom have nothing like its resources.
Suffice to say your hypothesis is not really based upon anything other than hand waving. Beyond this I would also emphasize that respect is earned, not given. Do you respect white trailer trash? Obviously not, even though I'm sure there are some great people there. Yet similarly of course Neil deGrasse Tyson (who incidentally is only half black), Morgan Freeman, and others have gained wide adulation and respect. If somebody is going to talk like an idiot and act like an idiot, then they deserve to be treated exactly as they are - an idiot. Respecting stupidity doesn't fix stupidity, it normalizes it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @07:14AM (3 children)
No. In fact, we've *never* (and didn't start) been the former, and the latter is completely untrue.
The issues we have are a result of (purposely) disadvantaging those with more melanin content.
When you can show me real equality of *opportunity* (not outcome, opportunity) over a reasonable period of time, you might get some traction with that spew.
Until then, you're talking out of your ass and it smells that way too.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @08:58AM (2 children)
So what do you want to see? How about we remove the people from any sort of potential discrimination or bias, give them their own extremely rich country, set them up as the sovereign and exclusive leaders, ply them with billions of dollars in aid, and let it run for a couple of centuries? This is not equality of opportunity - it's something far greater. And this is, again, literally what Liberia is. Had it been a success people would be using it, far and wide, as an example of how crushing the alleged social factors you'd like to allude to have been, and I'd have been one of them! But it hasn't been a success - it's been a complete disaster.
What more could you possibly want than giving people tens of thousands of acres of lush land, complete and absolute self governance and sovereignty, billions of dollars, and then letting it run for a couple of centuries?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @09:46PM (1 child)
Liberia was just one of many failed attempts to get rid of the darkies [wikipedia.org].
That's not equality of opportunity. That's just another way to discriminate against other humans for no good reason.
There's plenty of institutional and individual (like yours) bigotry still in this country. And you're part of the problem.
Stop demonizing my fellow Americans just for the melanin content in their skin. It just shows you to be bigoted, ignorant and closed minded.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @03:44AM
So let me get this straight. Giving people tens of thousands of acres of lush land, complete and absolute self governance and sovereignty, billions of dollars, and then persisting this for centuries... is discrimination?
Oh boy. I've always been extremely liberal. I voted for Obama in 2008. But man, I have no idea what happened to liberalism in the US. Stuff like this is pushing me closer to being another orange man vote. Probably why he's up in the polls following the decision to go for impeachment.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @06:58PM (5 children)
Here [bjs.gov] are the Bureau of Justice Statistic's report on homicide trends. The report for 1980-2008 includes the statistic directly. It needs to be indirectly derived from other statistics in the more recent (2011) report. For the 1980-2008 series, see page 3. Blacks were responsible for 52.5% of all murders in spite of only being 12.7% of the population. Data show the exact same thing for robbery.
The sheer magnitude of over-representation here dwarfs any sort of potential bias. It's not like we're talking about e.g. a few percent delta, but a magnitudes greater crime rates and over-representation. The police would have to be conspiring nationally to ignore what would be thousands of murders because of a racial preference. Suffice to say there would be hoards of victims families/friends/etc who would be actively screaming about this. In reality it's likely that the black murder rate is substantially under-reported there since that is only cases that were solved. In many high crime areas, such as Baltimore, you do have friends and family screaming about a lack of effective law enforcement, but those areas tend to also be primarily black which means you're also likely looking at more black offenders who are not being counted because the cases are not being solved.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 03 2019, @08:35PM (4 children)
You're reaching for an explanation, and looking across the nation for that explanation.
What if I told you that roughly half of all counties in the US have zero murders per year? And, that roughly half of all murders in this country take place in just 2% of the counties in the US?
https://crimeresearch.org/2017/04/number-murders-county-54-us-counties-2014-zero-murders-69-1-murder/ [crimeresearch.org]
The culture you are describing is very much localized, in the most highly populated counties, and counties controlled by liberals. I won't tell you that R's are your friends, but I can most definitely tell you that the D's are most definitely NOT the black man's friends!!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @09:51PM (3 children)
Fuck off you racist twit.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @10:12PM
Race off, you fucking twitting Runawaying racist!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 03 2019, @10:48PM (1 child)
Explain how those facts are "racist". I dare say that both black and white people live in more than 90% of all the counties in the US. Probabaly really close to 100%, but I'll stick with a conservative 90%. (see what I did there?) So, in more than 40% of all counties in the US, black and white people live side by side, without killing each other. That is MORE THAN 40% of the US. It is only in the most violent of counties - counties that host large, liberal cities - that people are murdered regularly. Killings are a daily thing in those worst 2% of counties.
That doesn't look racist to me. Call me partisan, and you'll be much closer to the truth. I am anti-progressive, because every fucking thing the progressives do is WRONG! There's nothing wrong with black folk. There's everything wrong with progressives.
Let me show you again how racist progressives are - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrBxZGWCdgs [youtube.com]
To paraphrase liberals, "Dem niggas is too damned STUPID to do the stuff we do!"
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @07:26AM
You racist fucking cracker! Lynching is too good for you! White folks are too stupid to know they are racist!