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We have two big problems here, one that this person would make the phone calls, but you will never 100% fix human nature.
The biggest problem is that police will send a SWAT team after nothing but an anonymous phone call.
This is the part that gets me. It keeps happening and they think that it’s just fine.
They just love any excuse to pull out the toys.
When I was in high school I thought I was going to be a cop. Mostly because I was an unoriginal idiot and a friend wanted to be a cop. Went so far as to go through the explorers program where you hang out with cops and they show you stuff. You go on ride alongs. Spend a lot of time with cops.
As it happens about half the guys teaching this program were swat.
They were drooling for any excuse to suit up and kick down doors.
This was 20 years ago, at the time they'd tell you that 90% of officers never use their firearm on duty.
It colors their perception of any situation. Affects their decision making.
Could this be a prank? Maybe. But could I put on the armor and kick in a door? I mean they did call in a threat....
Yeah. I took a communications course from a former cop/hostage negotiator. It was actually pretty informative. There is a national program to teach police how to be effective and empathetic communicators trained to defuse high stakes situations.
They just don't teach it to most cops.
I overall agree with your points but I will say that the type of person who probably excels at a life-or-death job like swat is someone who lives for that adrenaline rush in the first place. The problem is in their over-activation, like an overly-active immune system.
I watched the Uvalde PBS Frontline documentary and what stood out to me is that all those cops were glorified ticket cops one-step removed from mall cops. The only two guys showcased to seem to know what they were doing and had a willingness to do so were the border patrol's equivalent to swat, BORTAC, who seemed professional and were the ones who entered the room first and ultimately eliminated the shooter.
One of the more unnerving "benign" interactions I've had with a cop was when the officer standing guard duty at the DMV subjected my wife and I to ten minutes of exposition about his various weapons and the effects they had on people while we waited for the line to move us out of conversation range. It's never been more clear to me that somebody desperately wants an excuse to do violence, to anybody he might be allowed to.
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I mean the main reason they do that is they have to take it seriously. If they decided to ignore anonymous tips, then how many actual situations would they fail to prevent and handle.
Swatting is just taking advantage of the fact that they have no choice but to take it seriously.
That being said, if it's a place that gets swatted regularly or a place that's likely to be swatted due to various reasons they should have precautions in place with people they can trust in order to double check before acting, or at least be prepared to go in with their guns still holstered.
The problem isn't that the police respond, it's how they respond. The fact that the police themselves are so dangerous to the presumptive victim on whose behalf they're responding -- as tacitly acknowledged by "swatting" being treated as a serious crime going beyond mere misuse of police resources -- is the much bigger problem here. Frankly, going after swatters is at least 50% a misdirection tactic: an attempt to shift the blame away from the reckless police.
Patrick Tomlinson was swatted over 40 times in 2023 alone. It took WAY too many times before the police would simply knock on his door and ask him if everything was okay. You'd think after the 4th or 5th time they might figure it out.
https://www.wisn.com/article/milwaukee-science-fiction-writer-victim-of-swatting/40912738
You'd think Patrick would have set up a big sign like "Hello, if you're swat, chill! It's just a prank bro! Just come in and have a beer." But no, so the guy basically resisted /s
The frustrating thing was that the police had him on a list. They KNEW the history. But half the time they still rolled up ready for war. It was a banner day when he was woken up at 3 in the morning only by two normal officers knocking on the door to let him know it happened again.
Until they figure out what is happening, if anything at all, the SWAT teams certainly stand the chance to do more harm than good. How about some recon first? Deaths are happening, and if nothing else innocent and completely bewildered people wind up with police guns pointed at their heads. Most of the time it's cleared up but the victims are left with "Oh sorry folks, someone called and said there was a hostage here."
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I think the third big problem is that the police will send a swat team after just an anonymous phone call.
I'd also like to add that putting this kids face in the news is going to inspire copycats
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Can he please be charged with attempted murder for each person who was swatted?
But wouldnt that mean that the police would have to consider themselves to be murderers..
Yes but unironically. They will pull the trigger and murder an innocent person then blame the person who called 911.
911 is a formality for insurance claims, fires, and medical emergencies.
And possible self-harm moments. It's all about making sure that nobody is liable for letting things fall through the cracks and not about helping people to have better lives.
they'd probably be proud of it
I guess when they're in a country where mass shootings happen frequently, they respond as if they're going to get shot at. Not that it justifies their actions all the time. Not even close. But the guy was sending reports knowing that the chances of someone getting harmed were high, that's pretty much pushes him into terrorism territory tbh.
Filion also targeted high schools, historically Black colleges, mosques, FBI offices and FBI agents, and made threats to bomb military bases and the Pentagon, the state attorney’s office said in a court filing.
Gee, I wonder where that list of targets came from.
Have him fuck off to prison for the rest of his life because this sack of shit was trying to kill multiple people.
Throw the whole library at this fuck.
I mean yeah but is no one gonna mention that you have to live in a weird shithole where the special forces run your door in to shoot whoever because some weirdo can dial a phone number?
We, Americans, don't mention it because we know. Also, that is addressed in another part of the comments, I know the structure of the comments makes that hard to know.
What are we going to do about the police? Not a thing.
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Punishment should fit the crime, it needs to be proportional for a lot of different reasons.
Hope this little shit gets a good chunk of prison time. Fuck racist assholes like him just trying to get innocent people killed for no reason.
It seems like this swatting thing could be used on anyone including CEO’s and politicians 🤔
Wouldn't work. They get a different justice system.
It has been happening to politicians already. Niki Haley had it happen to her family this past week. Now it's in the news and is a big deal.
My question is why do the police just randomly trust every call they get? I feel like there could be more safeguards in place on that side.
Because it's better to respond to a false positive than to ignore a false negative
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Interesting use of non breaking spaces, I wonder why...
17-year-old alleged ‘serial swatter’
charged
after police
say...
An will be visible in your comment if you define it as code.
As for the post, it should be edited to remove any visible ones.
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Guess the CNN really likes their broken non-breaking spaces...
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this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2024
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