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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

#831
post #639

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically not murder, as that requires premeditation. However it is apparent that this is a no-win situation for the victim, the officer is clearly intent on creating a situation for a "justifiable" homicide. What's just as horrifying is that the jury acquitted.

I have seen use-of-force training exercises that look very similar except there is actually a weapon being drawn. I don't think it makes the officer who pulled the trigger innocent, but I believe he behaved exactly the way he was trained, and holding him personally responsible would not prevent this kind of thing from happening again. Note in particular it is a different officer who is talking in the video and create…

Fair enough. The horrifying part to me was not the moment the shots were fired, but the escalation and screaming of inconsistent instructions by an unmistakably bloodthirsty officer to a man who was clearly scared out of his mind and literally begging for his life.

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

#832

What bothers me about these situations is just the entire idea of "SWAT" as practiced. You are a cop with 5+ other cops. You all pull your guns. Someone comes to the door, groggy in the middle of the night. They may or may not understand you are police. They may or may not believe you are the police. They are definitely confused/frightened/angry by your presence. We now begin the dice rolling process. Since every pol…

The PD will just pass the buck to the caller and nothing will change. It's what they always do.

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

#833

What bothers me about these situations is just the entire idea of "SWAT" as practiced. You are a cop with 5+ other cops. You all pull your guns. Someone comes to the door, groggy in the middle of the night. They may or may not understand you are police. They may or may not believe you are the police. They are definitely confused/frightened/angry by your presence. We now begin the dice rolling process. Since every pol…

The person making the prank is in the wrong, but so are the officers. How I see it is that the officers of their own freewill took on the role of law enforcement and public service. Fully aware that they would be put in life threatening situations. Their first instinct shouldn't be to fire first to save their own skin, but be trained to take time to assess the situation and risk erring on restraint of force. Most of…

Cops are laughably trained. A fresh boot from any service has more resolve than beat cops. I used to think SWAT was different but the last few years proves otherwise.

As a son of a cop and former service member myself, the whole thing makes me sick. And the COMPLETE lack of repercussions makes me furious. God forbid some idiot doesn't get his "gold watch." The thin blue line will rally around that idiot to protect him.

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

#834
post #635

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The person making the prank is in the wrong, but so are the officers. How I see it is that the officers of their own freewill took on the role of law enforcement and public service. Fully aware that they would be put in life threatening situations. Their first instinct shouldn't be to fire first to save their own skin, but be trained to take time to assess the situation and risk erring on restraint of force. Most of…

There is actually a slightly more damning view of the situation here than the moral issues around police safety. The police had complete control over how they approached this. Why then are they even in a position where they feel threatened? When we look at the outcome here, they just killed some dude for no reason. If this is acceptable to the police force; why not have them call out to the room with a megaphone? Wha…

Real answer? They are scared cowards. The 18 year old marine in parts unknown, LEGIT scared for his life has better judgement.

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

#835

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, this happens often in my neighborhood where people wear pants too big for their waists with no belts.

Are you suggesting my fashion should be influenced by the chance that the police my murder me over it?

Not at all. I live in the same neighborhood and often where pants with no belt.

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

#836

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, this happens often in my neighborhood where people wear pants too big for their waists with no belts.

Oh, yeah, thats definitely not racism right there, blaming hip hop fashion for a shooting percentage. Carry on.

I was merely pointing out that people in my neighborhood like myself often have to reach down to pull up our pants. What race do you think I am?

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

#837

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 ov…

I lived next door to Sandy Hook when it happened. A relative of mine was a student in their school system and for a while I didn’t know if she was alive or dead. My town and towns around it have events every year honoring each person that died in the shooting. Yeah it’s a little close to home both figuratively and literally. And I never said anything about not caring about other gun deaths. I don’t have a magical sca…

> Yet there is no damn evidence for this.

This is blatantly incorrect. From the Violence Policy Center:

"Using the NCVS numbers, for the three-year period 2012 through 2014, the total number of self-protective behaviors involving a firearm by victims of attempted or completed violent crimes or property crimes totaled only 263,500."[0]

In other words, about 87,000 defensive uses of a firearm per year. This is up from the VPC's previous numbers, which totaled ~67,000[1].

> Also yes sure you can say schools are “safe” because it might not happen at yours.

They're "safe" because 4 deaths out of 50 million is safe. Similarly so with the other venues.

I will say, though, I respect your position on gun control much more than the folks who think we'll solve our gun death issue by banning characteristics of firearms (i.e., "assault weapon" bans).

[0]: http://www.vpc.org/studies/justifiable16.pdf

[1]: http://www.vpc.org/studies/justifiable15.pdf

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

#838

What bothers me about these situations is just the entire idea of "SWAT" as practiced. You are a cop with 5+ other cops. You all pull your guns. Someone comes to the door, groggy in the middle of the night. They may or may not understand you are police. They may or may not believe you are the police. They are definitely confused/frightened/angry by your presence. We now begin the dice rolling process. Since every pol…

The person making the prank is in the wrong, but so are the officers. How I see it is that the officers of their own freewill took on the role of law enforcement and public service. Fully aware that they would be put in life threatening situations. Their first instinct shouldn't be to fire first to save their own skin, but be trained to take time to assess the situation and risk erring on restraint of force. Most of…

It's not a prank, it's a deliberate attempt on someone's life.

And it takes advantage of US police officers' lack of training in de-escalation. Compared to other western countries, American police officers receive less training, and their training is more focused on shooting, less on de-escalation. Better training would go a long way towards preventing them from being abused like this.

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

#839

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be too blunt, but that's why they call it law enforcement. What's causing all the cognitive dissonance is the fact that law enforcement was summoned inappropriately -- i.e. on a an innocent person in a situation where no laws were broken and no enforcement was needed. If the drug-lord whose assassins raped and killed your sister is confused and groggy in the middle of the night and gets shot accidentally or ev…

You can keep it, I don't want any part of what you're into. And that's not for lack of life experience with dangerous situations.

Wait what am I into?

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

#840

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Police violence is a universal problem. A Harvard study has shown that white people in the US are statistically more likely encounter lethal force from police than people of color [1]. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/07/13/why-a...

In Houston. In a small study.

That is true. I didn't mean to imply that white people somehow have it worse than minorities. That is not evidently the case with general police harassment and mistreatment.

However, all races should be equally concerned with police executions. This isn't the land of Judge Dredd. We still have the 5th and 14th amendments.

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