chuckd21

I know we're in a new era of F*ck The Police, but none of this situation is their fault. It is the fault of the person phoning in the false report. 100%.

chess

It's not a "line", and I don't appreciate the dismissive tone. It's a valid concern that the police are being overly militarized and can't wait to do shit like this. Hell, I'm not even sure probable cause is a thing any more, much less a right.

As to training, in virtually every case, they'd be better served and safer carrying the weapons they use every day. They ones they train with.

fujishig

This is what amazes me as well. What stops some criminal from calling in a bunch of bogus stuff, then robbing a bank on the other side of town, if it's that easy to divert police/SWAT resources?

maxfisher

This discussion probably belongs more in the politics section, but whether you want to call it 'F*ck the Police' or calling out the system as a whole, it's lunacy to maintain a system where a kid can call the police and with no other corroboration or reason, they go kick in a door and charge in screaming 'get the fuck down.' That level of response is idiotic based on a single phone call. In this instance, I'd say both the person calling it in and the police were 100% in the wrong. If fault had to be divvied up, I'd hold the police to a higher standard than some random jackass kid. An anonymous claim should be enough to merit investigation and attention, not an all out assault.

redbill

would you rather have a system where you need to provide 3 forms of ID to get help in an emergency?

maxfisher

Is that really how things used to be done? I thought police would show up, knock on a door, question who answered and take action based on the observed circumstances. I didn't realize they had to check multiple ids of the caller before doing anything. But yes, I'd still rather have that system.

dugan

The standard operating procedure that SWAT teams here (I'm on Canada's west coast) used back in the 90s was much more aggressive than what I saw in the video. Very often, they would throw a stun grenade into the room before even going in or saying anything.

I remember one newspaper story where a SWAT team raided the wrong house. When the residents were interviewed, they said they thought it was a home invasion.

flashburn

Awww, did I hurt your feelings? So you don't think they have probable cause in these cases?

Also, once again, these are SWAT officers. They are carrying the weapons they use and train every day with.

fujishig

That seems super dangerous, what happens if the residents are innocent and armed and believe it's a home invasion?

chess

Speaking of internet anonymity and acting like jerk...

Of course not. Watch the video. Listen to the cops. They had nothing.

A citizen (could have been you) sat there in cuffs at gunpoint for at least the 5 minutes on video, probably much longer afterwards, and all it took was an anonymous call and his address. And even after it was patently obvious nothing was going on, they were still grilling him and acting like douchebags.

Hell, I'm not even a hardcore libertarian, and this stuff pisses me right off.

flashburn

You sound like a hardcore libertarian!

They had what sounded like a legitimate threat that was called in that needed to be acted on immediately. It sucks, but if this was a real threat where someone was in immediate danger (bomb, armed gunman, etc), I think the alternative of "okay, lets now start doing some research and figure out whether or not this is legitimate while in the mean time people are now dead" is a better good alternative.

I'd be okay with a better solution, if I heard one.

Also, he wasn't being held in cuffs "at gunpoint". Yes, their guns were drawn and pointed at a potential threat, until he was handcuffed. I don't see a problem with this.

As for the douchebaggery... Put yourselves in their shoes for a second. They think they are about to get into a possible shootout and their adrenaline is pumping. Naturally seconds later when they realize this shit is just a joke, they are going to be pissed off and vent a little. It may be "unprofessional" but they didn't do anything terribly wrong.

Dan

Supermallet

I think the lesson here is one should always be livestreaming Mario games, because there's no way the police could mistake that for real life violence.

flashburn

The content of the livestream is irrelevant. It doesn't have any influence in the "swatting".

Supermallet

Sorry, I should have added a winking emoji. I didn't think anyone would take that comment seriously.

dugan

I don't know, the game was saying TERRORISTS WIN. HE HAS THE BOMB.

mhg83

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kxuFMCJTu4o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

flashburn

"The caller just stated that he had shot multiple people."

fumanstan

I read a few articles on this as well as the YouTube video description, and basically the live streaming group that this guy is part of has an actual office building so I imagine it wasn't hard to track down the business address. Plus, the call to police mentioned a hostage situation with active shooters, so i'm not surprised that the SWAT guys came in the way they did and don't really blame them in this particular case. Apparently some nearby schools were put on lockdown based on the report as well.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/27/607...yer-slammed-to

Hopefully the caller gets tracked down and gets punished severely for this.

slop101

Yeah, so are there stories of how the assholes who call in these bogus threats are caught, if at all? I would think that's a felony, calling in a SWAT team on a knowingly bogus charge - but I guess it's hard to prove? I would love to see a SWAT team break into these asshole's homes and throw them onto the ground.

chuckd21

Not many stories, no. That's why people do it. There are no repercussions.

slop101

Well, shit.

flashburn

That one guy got 11 years, but it sounded like there was more than just "swatting" going on with him.

slop101

Looking around, I found this, and this quote really pissed me off:

Deftones

Way overreaction. Regular officers should just show up and handle the situation. No reason for SWAT to be there.