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LAPD arrests man on suspicion of making deadly swatting call to Wichita police

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Re: LAPD arrests man on suspicion of making deadly swatting call to Wichita police

#21
post #18

Coming from a country where the police spends more time developing people skills than doing gun practice, it never ceases to puzzle me how the solution to any situation appears to be to shoot anything that moves on the flimsiest of assumptions, then figure out what happened afterwards. Now, I appreciate that the police in the US does face a population with more guns on hand than the Norwegian police does; this surely…

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Re: LAPD arrests man on suspicion of making deadly swatting call to Wichita police

#22
post #9
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doctrine of WTF is wrong with the Police should apply here.

Those two are not mutually exclusive.

You can not change the world to get rid of idiots you sure as hell can screen police officers for psychological fitness and train them to apply force in much more reserved fashion.

Re: LAPD arrests man on suspicion of making deadly swatting call to Wichita police

#23
What if person who made a call is outside of US? Or we are unable to track it? Who are we going to blame then? The "911" seems like an open line for terrorists or some other nation to kill anybody they want... Or terrorize anybody they want...

Re: LAPD arrests man on suspicion of making deadly swatting call to Wichita police

#24
post #18

Coming from a country where the police spends more time developing people skills than doing gun practice, it never ceases to puzzle me how the solution to any situation appears to be to shoot anything that moves on the flimsiest of assumptions, then figure out what happened afterwards. Now, I appreciate that the police in the US does face a population with more guns on hand than the Norwegian police does; this surely…

All good points except for the last one even if you could even theoretically develop practical armor that could stop cal. 50 round it would still be able to kill a person through the impact force damaging internal organs.

Re: LAPD arrests man on suspicion of making deadly swatting call to Wichita police

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was my immediate reaction. My guess is that the blame and punishment will all be laser focused on the caller, in an attempt to avoid a public outcry for the actual shooter’s head. That cop shouldn’t be on administrative leave, he should be in jail for murder.

I’m as upset about police shootings as anyone, but there’s no way you can make this claim with the information available.

An unarmed man was shot and killed in his own doorway. The officer that shot him could not have seen a weapon, because there was no weapon.

That is all the information that is necessary to make a determination not only that he should be charged with murder, but convicted of it.

Re: LAPD arrests man on suspicion of making deadly swatting call to Wichita police

#27
post #4

Like Brian Krebs said yesterday on his blog -- it seems like the doctrine of felony murder should apply here.

Doctrine of WTF is wrong with the Police should apply here.

> ...WTF is wrong with the Police...

WTF is wrong with a full-grown 25-year-old man, who thinks it's funny to waste scarce taxpayer funded resources for his own amusement, because he had a petty argument with a virtual stranger when playing an online game?

Of course I'm not defending excessive use of police force, and the officer who fired the shot should be investigated too, but we need harsher penalties for swatting. The fact we have 400 cases per year [1] is unacceptable, and I hope these criminals go to jail for a long time.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2013/4/23/4253014/swatting-911-pran...

Re: LAPD arrests man on suspicion of making deadly swatting call to Wichita police

#28
post #24
post #18

Coming from a country where the police spends more time developing people skills than doing gun practice, it never ceases to puzzle me how the solution to any situation appears to be to shoot anything that moves on the flimsiest of assumptions, then figure out what happened afterwards. Now, I appreciate that the police in the US does face a population with more guns on hand than the Norwegian police does; this surely…

All good points except for the last one even if you could even theoretically develop practical armor that could stop cal. 50 round it would still be able to kill a person through the impact force damaging internal organs.

Not true at all. If the person firing the round can survive the momentum imparted into their shoulder from the rifle, then the person on the receiving end can survive it if they're wearing armor that spreads out the imparted momentum similarly. Basic Newton's Third Law.

Also, there are .50 BMG handguns (and no, I'm not mistakenly referring to .50 AE, I mean .50 BMG). They are stupidly impractical, but they exist. You're making this out to be some mythical projectile when it's really just a bigger bullet. It's not like getting hit by a tank shell.

The real flaw with this scenario is that full body armor required to stop .50 BMG would be so bulky and heavy that you wouldn't be able to move. The imparted momentum isn't the problem, it's stopping the penetration of the round.

It's also worth pointing out that this conversation is pointlessly academic, as .50 BMG has not been used in a murder once. Ever. In the entire history of the United States. Out of over one million gun murders total. It's ridiculously impractical for that purpose.

Re: LAPD arrests man on suspicion of making deadly swatting call to Wichita police

#29
post #18

Coming from a country where the police spends more time developing people skills than doing gun practice, it never ceases to puzzle me how the solution to any situation appears to be to shoot anything that moves on the flimsiest of assumptions, then figure out what happened afterwards. Now, I appreciate that the police in the US does face a population with more guns on hand than the Norwegian police does; this surely…

Non US'ers should understand that Europe, and Scandinavian countries in particular, is a different world than the US. No social safety net, lack of public transportation, exorbitant health care costs, tragically ineffective 'war on drugs', guns, violent crime, poverty. Honestly, the US really kinda sucks now, for most people living here.

Re: LAPD arrests man on suspicion of making deadly swatting call to Wichita police

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was my immediate reaction. My guess is that the blame and punishment will all be laser focused on the caller, in an attempt to avoid a public outcry for the actual shooter’s head. That cop shouldn’t be on administrative leave, he should be in jail for murder.

I’m as upset about police shootings as anyone, but there’s no way you can make this claim with the information available.

The information available is that the victim was unarmed and not moving towards any of the officers. He raised and lowered his hands a few times. Not one account, even the officer who shot the person, indicates the man was behaving violently towards anyone. If it weren't a police officer that did it odds are the shooter would be in jail pending some charge related to homicide but not whatever that district's version of pre-meditated murder is. The only difference in this case is it is an officer, and they get special treatment in the US because our justice system is garbage.
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