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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

#531

Post by anigbrowl »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #201
downandout wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I know, why even bother with a trial? We've all read the news accounts, let's string him up! They have the weapon he fired, police body cam footage, the bullet, and the fact that there was no weapon on the victim, which means the cop did not see a weapon. So he just fired because the guy put his hands down and then obeyed commands to put them back up, which last I heard was not on the list of causes for justifiable…

Yeah, that’s not how due process works. You don’t know what happened or what the evidence is. And from your responses, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you have no law enforcement experience or training. Sorry, but the outrage you feel upon reading a few news stories online is vastly insufficient to imprison another human. You’re talking about simple mob justice, that’s all.

It's too bad you can't work up this level of sanctimony on behalf of the innocent dead guy.

We have quite a lot of information and evidence already, and while our conclusions must necessarily be tentative we are absolutely entitled to form a preliminary impression.

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

#534

Post by barsonme »

IgorPartola wrote: post #357
throwaway30yo wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with all the technology police + military has. I don't think it would be an easy win if the gun owning population decided to revolt. There would be millions of deaths. The government may end up on top, but the consequences would be dire. Not an American. Canadian here. I actually wish we had American gun laws, even with their consequences.

See, I want to send my kids to school and be reasonably sure that some idiot can’t go down the street, buy a couple of rifles, and murder them and their classmates. Being able to go to the gun range once in a while and post on /r/guns is sorta secondary to that. Different priorities I guess. Edit: and funnily enough the above scenario doesn’t happen in the developed world, except in the US, where it happens multiple…

> See, I want to send my kids to school and be reasonably sure that some idiot can’t go down the street, buy a couple of rifles, and murder them and their classmates.

Everybody does. Let's not be disingenuous, though: the chances one of our children dies from a gunshot wound at school is incredibly small.

By my counts, 4 students have been killed at school shootings this year. 4 students out of ~50 million kids at over 130,00 schools. Consider also there are over 350 million firearms in the US.

People only care about it because of _guns_.

Nobody seems to care much about the ~30,000 firearm deaths in the US each year.

They don't care that 2/3 of them are suicides, usually of middle-aged men.

They don't care that most of the remainder are usually in poor areas (often because of the US' long history of racism) and often gang-related.

They only care about the sensational (and very tragic) 0.0001% of deaths.

It annoys me to no end because it's proof they don't care about gun deaths. No, they just care about tear-jerking cable news stories. It's gross and disingenuous.

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

#535

Post by solotronics »

danpalmer wrote: post #99

Having unfortunately seen a police body cam video of an obviously unarmed man being shot, and having read about this one, it seems to be a case of men hitching their trousers up because they aren’t wearing a belt, being mistaken for reaching for a gun. This is a normal thing, it’s an unconscious thing, we do it without thinking so can’t stop when told not to do it. People should not die because they’re wearing loose…

what are we supposed to do exactly?

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

#536

Post by doktrin »

burntwater wrote: post #152
masklinn wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm honestly not sure what I can do to prevent that. Nothing, it seems. If you find yourself in that situation, it's a roll of the dice whether you're getting a jumpy or stressed-out cop who'll end up shooting you no matter what, and having no hearing issues probably won't help as stumbling, twitching or otherwise being confused by contradictory orders will get you shot anyway. In the long term, probably fighting f…

> wearing a bulletproof vest You joke, but I've considered it. Of course, the vest is probably visible and would be perceived as a threat.

There is a market for less conspicuous bulletproof "clothing" (chest area only), and prices have fallen in recent years. Just saying.

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

#537

Post by rahimnathwani »

Bud wrote: post #347
trophycase wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And pension.

Whatever. Also don't forget, then, the cost of living in the Bay Area (astronomical) and the difficulties of policing in Oakland (formidable). Pension is something we should all expect. Not resent.

Many people have difficult jobs in Oakland. Not all of them have lobbying power or unions to extract higher than market pay.

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

#538

Post by joeax »

srj wrote: post #450
joeax wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Normally I'd agree but the US already has the largest prison population in the world. By far. We are obsessed with long and lengthy prison sentences even for the most minuscule non-victim offenses i.e. 20 years for pot possession (meanwhile armed robbers get 3-5 years). Terms like "mandatory minimum" and "zero tolerance" get thrown around by politicians like it's candy to get themselves elected, with little to no reg…

What restitution can there be in this case? Nothing can compensate this person for the loss of their life, or the two children who will grow up without a father. The guy who made the false report had done so previously with a bomb threat, and showed no remorse. How can this person ever be trusted to rejoin society? How can the victims be restored by the justice system? Neither is realistic. Short of a death penalty,…

The point is that "jail" shouldn't be the default punishment for every criminal act. There are lots of ways you can punish people. Take away his ability to game for 20 years and make him pay one million to the family, worked off over a number of years. America is locking up people at an alarming rate, when alternative more cost-effective punishments are available.

I invite you to read about the problem of mass incarceration: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2017.html

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

#540

Post by username223 »

CalChris wrote: post #174
username223 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This process is designed to have a weapon be discharged. Unfortunately, as a US civilian you need to be smart about de-escalating encounters with underpaid rage-monster cops with something close to legal immunity. Your goal should be to avoid injury or death until you can get to a lawyer.

I agree with the rest but underpaid, no. For the Oakland Police Department, where I live, the starting salary is $69,912 to $98,088. Retirement starts at 50. This job requires a GED.

Compared to newly-minted coders getting low 6 figures? Well... The world would be a better place if cops and teachers were trained, paid, and respected like doctors. Police officers' jobs are mostly boredom (e.g. manning a radar gun) mixed with occasional stress and quite a bit of dealing with people in their worst moments (e.g. desperate, angry, drunk, or high). If they were paid more, the job might attract enough candidates to hire more people with the intelligence to de-escalate situations, and fewer who get off on the power.
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