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submitted 10 months ago by Rapidcreek@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world
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[-] knobbysideup@sh.itjust.works 166 points 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 59 points 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.

[-] Badeendje@lemmy.world 45 points 10 months ago* (last edited 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 36 points 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 16 points 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 4 points 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

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 10 months ago

Didn’t Biden make no-knock raids illegal?

[-] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 26 points 10 months ago

If anyone dies it should be a 1st degree murder charge.

[-] rifugee@lemmy.world 22 points 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."

[-] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 1 points 10 months ago

I mean, it should be true for any country. SWATting isn't a US only phenomenon.

[-] rifugee@lemmy.world 12 points 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 1 points 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 5 points 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

[-] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 0 points 10 months ago
[-] rifugee@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

I guess I don't understand what we are talking about, sorry. This thread is in reply to:

I mean, it should be true for any country. SWATting isn't a US only phenomenon.

Which I know wasn't your comment, but I took that to mean that because it happens in other countries then the US isn't that fucked. My original comment didn't specify the US and was a benchmark that could be applied to all countries, so the reply sounded argumentative to me.

Maybe I was reading something into it that wasn't there? Sorry for being a dumbass!

[-] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online -4 points 10 months ago

I'm not confident you actually know what swatting is.

[-] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

If no one dies, it should be attempted murder.

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_murder_rule

In a lot of places if someone dies as a result of you committing a felony you catch a murder charge.

[-] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 25 points 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.

[-] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago

Wait... what was Hans Gruber's plan if McClane didn't throw a chair out the window and shoot a bunch of rounds? He needed the FBI to shut off the power. If Carl just left then the FBI wouldn't show up and the power wouldn't have been cut and he wouldn't be able to open the vault.

I guess he could've called the cops himself later, but they made serious effort to make sure everything looked normal when Carl came in the building.

[-] Possible_EmuWrangler@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Don't know how long it would take to break into the safes and don't want the cops to arrive early.

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 23 points 10 months ago

I feel that police departments that treat these calls as legit without their own due diligence is a much bigger problem.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/police-confirm-christmas-swatting-incident-marjorie-taylor-greenes-hou-rcna131131

MTG is swatted so often that local cops check up w her security team before responding to calls.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 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.

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 0 points 10 months ago

there's a slur I haven't heard in a while

[-] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I wanna know how she imports them from the mushroom kingdom, and how much does koopa rent them out for? It'd be neat to have little mushroom guys patrolling my property.

[-] frazw@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 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 9 points 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 3 points 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 15 points 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 49 points 10 months ago

But surely there's a practical middle between "shoot first, ask later" and "sit and wait an hour"

[-] Deceptichum@kbin.social 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 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 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 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 2 points 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.

[-] Fal@yiffit.net -1 points 10 months ago

Wtf is a registered number at an address?

[-] Kbin_space_program@kbin.social -2 points 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 2 points 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.

[-] Remmock@kbin.social 6 points 10 months ago

So, no sweat on the part of the police force then.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 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 1 points 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 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 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.

this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
293 points (96.2% liked)

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