• BoofStroke
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    10 months ago

    While swatting is a shit thing to do, I feel that police departments that treat these calls as legit without their own due diligence is a much bigger problem.

    • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de
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      10 months ago

      There needs to be a much more severe punishment for the person who makes the fake call, especially if anyone is hurt as a result of it.

      • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        There needs to be a decent charge/punishment absolutely, but harsher punishment will not stop this.
        The monopoly of violence lies with the government and they need to treat that with much more tact and finesse than they currently do in the US. No knock raids, SWAT teams filled with former veterans trained to kill by the military are employed without hesitation, this is wrong. The responsibility lies with the government and law enforcement to be more careful and know what they are getting into before even considering employing deadly force.

        • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          I know a bunch of vets that swear that police rules of engagement are insane and they would have gotten in deep shit for acting in a fucking war zone the way cops do here.

          • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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            10 months ago

            This, if swat teams and police raids weren’t as violent and deadly as they are, swatting would cease to be a thing in the first place.

            Shithead trolls would lose a tool to harass.

          • skulblaka@startrek.website
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            10 months ago

            For one thing, opening fire on a civilian or other non-combatant that hasn’t already fired live rounds at you will get your ass court-martialed, dishonorably discharged, and imprisoned faster than you can say “Miranda rights”

            And somehow that happens dozens of times per day in American police departments

            • Kairos@lemmy.today
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              10 months ago

              The fed can regulate any armed forces as per the second amendment. And “no duty to protect” means they’re not constitutionally obliged to stop crimes.

        • rifugee@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          You know your country is fucked when your first thought is, “if someone dies when the cops show up at the home of someone completely innocent, then whomever called them should be charged with murder.”

            • rifugee@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              I expect any country’s SWAT team to be able to show up at an innocent person’s house and NOT kill anyone. I guess I have high standards.

              • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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                10 months ago

                Yeah they should. But if while committing a crime you cause the death of someone, then that’s murder.

                Like if I’m robbing you and you get so scared you have a heart attack and die, I can say, “well I expect people to exercise more and keep in better shape so they don’t have heart attacks. I guess I have high standards.” I can say that, but I’m still getting charged with murder in most places, because if I didn’t commit that crime you’d still be alive.

                • rifugee@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  No, I understand the legal concept. My point is that police, and especially SWAT, should be trained well enough that the idea that anyone would be in danger if they were to show up at an innocent person’s house would be so ridiculous that we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. In the US, it takes about 650 hours of training to become a police officer on average, and 3000 to become a cosmetologist. That’s fucked up.

                  https://www.trainingreform.org/not-enough-training

      • mindbleach
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        10 months ago

        Reliable punishment is much more effective than harsh punishment.

        People try shit when they expect to get away with it.

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      In Die Hard they got a call of terrorists and sent out one car to take a look. That sounds like a pretty good procedure.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Imagine having her as a neighbor. Cops AND gumba security bros all over the place every time she comes back to town. Miserable.

    • frazw@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Isn’t a big part of the problem how the police respond rather whether they decide to or not?

      • remotelove@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        I am sure there are measures taken to ensure clebs and other prominent people don’t have their doors broken down anymore.

        Fuck the peasants though. The commoner is probably going to have their house seriously damaged and will still be arrested anyway. If they were doing anything illegal, like smoking weed, charges will be filed but eventually dropped but not after significant expense to the victim. Shit like that can happen, ya know?

        For schools that get swatted, I could see this contributing to PTSD in kids in a big way as the MO for cops is to assume that the threat is actually mixed in with the rest of the kids. (That is assuming that an evacuation plan is even implemented.)

      • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Obviously American cops are really bad about this, but how would European cops respond to a bomb threat?

        I’m not whatabouting, I acknowledge US cops are the worst. I’m curious if this is a unique issue

    • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      The problem is that they don’t have time in the situations that get called in to. The nature of the reported crimes demands immediate action.

      If they hesitate in those situations it could end like Uvalde.

      • Kache@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        But surely there’s a practical middle between “shoot first, ask later” and “sit and wait an hour”

        • Deceptichum@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          “Okay everyone gather up, the plan is we wait around for 30 minutes and start shooting our guns into the air.”

          • eltrain123@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Or how about make a call to the registered number at the address the threat was called in at… then send a car over to verify.

            You can literally de- escalate in 60 seconds and verify in as much time as it takes to send swat in to fuck shit up.

            • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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              10 months ago

              But… they have all that swat gear and they want to use it! And fucking shit up is about 90% of policing nowadays.

            • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
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              10 months ago

              They call, gunman sees caller ID, freaks out, shoots everyone.

              If they don’t, gunman lies. They send a cop over. Cop get shot, gunman freaks shoots everyone.

              I think the more pressing issues are:

              1. Demilitarize the police. Sure they can have body armor. They don’t need fucking assault weapons and armored personnel carriers though.
              2. Criminalize swatting. We already know that since the Dubya era that federal US has had their hands on all communication in the US. Find out who the swatter is and prosecute the twatwaffle
              • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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                10 months ago

                I think if you got a jumpy gunman scenario they’re going to start shooting when the police come roaring into the neighbourhood. A call might lead to a hostage negotiation scenario which will more likely to have people surviving than a gunfight between a jumpy gunman and even more jumpy cops with some hostages in the room.

                Sure there are scenarios where a call back probably wouldn’t be a good idea, but the 9/11 operator has a description of the scenario, and I’d think for most of them a call back would be fine.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        The problem is that they don’t have time in the situations that get called in to

        Police can dick around for hours between receiving a call and taking any kind of action. Just ask the kids at Uvalde Elementary School.

        The issue isn’t about time, its about police training that dictates anything that makes them nervous is a target for gunfire. There is no sense of public preservation, its all just Cops-Against-The-World mentality. That’s one big reason why cops will always, always, always shoot the family dog. There’s simply no incentive to treat any animal as something other than a deadly weapon coming for their throats.

        The same officers that spend thirty minutes dicking around outside playing one more round of Candy Crush on their phones will dome you through a window because you spooked them.

        • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          Oh yeah, there is a huge issue with that. But I maintain the issue is that the swatters are not being treated nearly as harshly as they should.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            In a lot of ways, SWATing isn’t a bug in the system but a feature. The ability to basically call in an airstrike on your neighbor creates a sense of terror that keeps people alienated of one another and absolutely horrified of what the local police might do to them.