But I wonder about the cop as well:
http://amp.kansas.com/news/local/cri...192111974.html
400 of these calls a year. I suspect many or most are US citizens. Wonder how many are white.
But I wonder about the cop as well:
http://amp.kansas.com/news/local/cri...192111974.html
400 of these calls a year. I suspect many or most are US citizens. Wonder how many are white.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
The fact that swatting is getting so popular and the police still show up in full tactical gear, trigger happy, and ready to bust down random doors is disgraceful. The fact that you have to contact police before hand to warn them that you're a swatting target is disgraceful.
The officer fucked up. Hopefully that doesn't get swept under the rug as they go after the swatter (if they can at all).
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Why do you assume swat tactical gear is the only appropriate first contact response for a threat to be considered serious?
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Absolutely! How else should hostage situations where there's already been a fatality be dealt with?
Anyone involved iniating false claims should be given a lengthy jail sentence. Making false Police reports is already a crime. To deliberately set an innocent person up to be surrounded by armed Police who have been lied to into thinking you've already killed someone is heinous.
An ANONYMOUS report where you have been told this. It's not as if the practice of "swatting" is a completely new development. Anonymous reports should always be a sign for: "Be careful, report may be bogus!"
Also, since when is the first reaction in a potential HOSTAGE situation the order: "Send in the clowns!"?
Seriously, what happened to: "Assess the situation, try to defuse and deescalate first"?
Also, isn't it at least equally likely that in a HOSTAGE situation that an actual hostage may be the first to the door? Because when you don't assess the situation you end up with shit like this:
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...r10-story.html
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
What do you mean by anonymous? This wasn't an email or letter that got sent to the station with no return address; this was a phone call to dispatch, by the person who said they had killed their father. In fact, from the sound of it, it was multiple phone calls, including a call after the police had shown up.
Note, none of this should be read as a defense of the officer who may have acted improperly. I haven't seen the footage of the incident.
“This call was little peculiar for us,” Livingston said. “(The call) went to a substation first, then it was relayed to dispatch, then dispatch gave it to us. We have a lot of information to go through.”
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
As near as I can tell that has nothing to do with the call being anonymous, and everything to do with how the call was routed. I am by no means an expert, but it sounds like the call went to a substation, (which sounds like a mini police station with more limited functionality from what I could find) and then got routed to dispatch for handling. That tells me that they didn't dial 911 directly, but I would guess everything was handled according to established procedures. I would also doubt specifics as to how the call was routed was passed along to the officers, but I could be wrong about that.
This was the error I was pointing out.
In my city we have 2 main numbers. 911 for emergencies and a separate non-emergency number. Calling a substation directly sounds like a lazy google search for an address + find nearby. The police themselves said the call was particular, which is a glaring hindsight is 20/20 admission.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Right, my mistake - the call did not originate to dispatch, it was routed there; either way I doubt that level of granular detail is passed onto the police officers from dispatch. I would also guess calls to nonemergency numbers do regularly get passed to dispatch after the fact. I could call the non emergency number to ask them to perform a welfare check, but I would hazard that then gets forwarded to police officers via dispatch with a lower priority.
Emphasis mine. The person was not identified so it has to be treated as anonymous. Seriously, if all you have to go on is the name a person gives you over an easily spoofed line then you better treat all such calls as suspect.
And, again, this is a known issue. It's not as if swatting is a completely new problem which has hit the US totally out of the blue.
Additionally, the reports give the typical excuse by your moron cops again: "The shot person moved his hands to his waist line!"
Yeah, fuckhead. When I open a door, where will at least one of my hands be in 90% of the time?
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
Amazing how the same people who talk about the need for guns to fight government oppression are quite happy to excuse cops who shoot anyone posing even the slightest threat to government officials (i.e., police officers).
Hope is the denial of reality
Turns out it may have been commissioned:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...n-los-angeles/
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
I'm sorry, what kind of calls do you think the police get everyday, and what kind of verification are you supposing routine calls go through? Of the two or three times I have had call to phone the police I think I only gave my name once. You are describing what I can only imagine are the vast majority of 911 calls.
A third of all 911 calls are hoaxes. Cops and dispatchers have to be cognizant of this sad fact, and adapt their reasoning and behavior accordingly.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
That's a ridiculous statistic and there should be zero tolerance on that.
In Australia there was an odd problem in the 90s with a very sudden spike in incorrect (not hoax) calls. There the emergency phone number is 000 which wasn't a problem before but then suddenly the line was getting lots of calls by faulty electronic machinery. Eg vending machines which would call when stock was running low might after a power cut get their phone number reset to a string of zero's which then led to the emergency services getting called.
Actually it's a misremembered statistic. The number varies greatly from city to city. On the whole, a third are non-emergencies. Some places report a large number of butt-dials. Some places experience a large number of prank calls.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Yeah butt dials, like the vending machine issue I mentioned, are a problem of technology. But its not remotely in the same category as spending 20 minutes on the phone reporting a murder and hostage situation.
Neither are most prank calls which are more Bart Simpson than this.
Still no excuse to shoot someone seconds into an encounter, especially when you're fully protected by a SWAT uniform.
Hope is the denial of reality
Aye, I think it's good to respond with SWAT expecting the worst, but not to shoot on sight when you have no idea what's going on.
Keep on keepin' the beat alive!
And? That's what "assessing the actual situation" is for.
Of course you can always try to ram your way into a home and set fire to a toddler, but I think that's rather poor behaviour for an agency that's a) NOT the military and b) supposed to "protect and serve".
And from what I understand, even the military has stricter rules on when to fire their weapons.
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
Honestly would hope he dies in a tragic accident while in prison. That would make him see how funny it was and more importantly it would send a message to would be assholes. The bottom line is for someone who is utterly morally bankrupt, the only way to prevent shitty actions is fear of consequences.