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Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

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Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They evolved out of warehouse guards and slave patrols. This is not accurate. The timeframe is not wrong; it is true that the concept of the modern police, at least in the US, was largely based on the Peelian model created in London in the 1820s. But saying it evolved from "warehouse guards and slave patrols" is ahistorical. Most modern police forces modeled after London's Metropolitan Police replaced night watch s…

While some night watches were public safety distributed among community members, they were often there to protect the goods of merchants rather than protect the ordinary citizens of an area from petty crime. As merchants grew, and their goods became more valuable targets, the merchants would hire on guards, but saw the opportunity to turn the existing night watch systems in place to their favor, essentially insisting…

Given the origin of modern police forces in the Met, the principles set down by Peel would indicate that the aim was to have a force that was backed by the public - "policing by consent".

One of their predecessor organisations was the Bow Street Runners which was set up by magistrates with the aim of providing a less corrupt system than that of "thief takers" and a more professional one than parish constables.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of those 1000 people, the vast majority are armed and actively threatening either the public, the police officers themselves or both.

According to the cops. The same cops who shoot people for having wallets and sticks. Same cops who beat Deaf people for not following verbal instructions. Same cops who shoot autistic folks. Yeah, I don't think "armed" means "was an imminent threat to life" in the slightest. It's much more likely it's a cover your ass designation.

No, according to third party police use of force tracking projects: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/polic...

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#253

I'm unwisely and unadvisedly wading into this half-cocked. Swatting wouldn't even be a thing if - Anonymous calls should be treated with high levels of suspicion as to their legitimacy - First response training that's even moderately appropriate - Situational awareness beyond what one's been informed by third parties - Empathy for all humans - Any kind of notion of that a scenario may not actually be as described by…

No, because if every call isn’t treated like a real emergency, in the off chance that one of them actually is an emergency then everyone would be crucified by the media and lawyers. Look at all the school shootings as an example, or even the Trump assassination attempt.

That is the same bullshit logic used for zero tolerance policy for "preventing lawsuits" but somehow even worse.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#254

Okay so like, genuinely not trying to do a "back in my day" fuckin thing here, but also: what the fuck is wrong with kids? Back when I was coming up, pranking at it's absolute worst was like, filling a dudes shoes with yogurt in the locker room, or like, putting plastic bugs in people's desks n shit. Why the fuck are teenagers trying to get each other murdered by cops!?

I don't think they're trying to get anyone murdered by cops.

I think they're really fucking stupid. I think they think that since they are making up claims that everything will be alright. Like the cops are going to bust in, see that there's no drugs/hostages/satanic rituals/whatever, say "My bad", and fuck off.

But there's always the chance that things go horribly wrong. And that chance is actually pretty high.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We don’t need any Oct 7th type attacks happening on home soil. USA has 1-2 mass shootings everyday on average. This is far worse than a singular big attack. And how long would the reaction of police to any big attack even take? Is it actually realistic that they will have a useful impact with big guns?

>USA has 1-2 mass shootings everyday on average. 2+ victims is a mass shooting per the FBI definition so while what you say is technically true it's also a particularly evil way to mislead the reader as the typical mass shooting of the FBI definition consists of 2-4 people shot over the course of an otherwise normal crime wheres the colloquial definition of "mass shooting" is more along the lines of a crazy suicidal…

The USA is the only first-world country I'm aware of where many people are happy to argue that a 2+ victim shooting (in any context) is NOT a mass shooting.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The militarization of law enforcement and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. Do you mean for the US, rather than the human race? Some of us live in countries where the only weapons most cops carry are truncheons and tasers.

The weapons are orthogonal to the culture; most of the police abuse volume is in beating, arrest and confinement, property destruction and confiscation, etc. The shootings make news, but lots of people don't get shot and still suffer lasting material consequences

I agree those are problems in many places (and to some extent will be with anywhere), but would not describe them as militarisation.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They evolved out of warehouse guards and slave patrols. Are we still spouting this nonsense? They do come from the mid 1800s. Modeled after the London Metro Police, where there were so many slaves to catch. American cities soon imitated, based on how many slaves were recovered.

> Are we still spouting this nonsense? They do come from the mid 1800s. Modeled after the London Metro Police All of the above is true. In the US, slavery enforcement evolved into police forces and police forces were modeled after UK police. Many police forces, many origin stores. https://www.nas.org/academic-questions/36/3/did-american-pol...

[deleted]

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#258
post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah wtf is wrong with cops being on edge when they think they're responding to a mass shooting. How dare they! Future headline: Police ignore mass shooting because they thought it was a prank

'there's no way to stop this' says the government of the only country where this happens regularly. source: the onion [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27No_Way_to_Prevent_This,%27_...

You only linked the image.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27No_Way_to_Prevent_This,%27_...

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#259
post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a vague claim made by the anti policing activists Probably a conclusion people come to when they compare US police looking more like the US military every day, while their local police doesn't go in that direction at all. At least that's true for me as a person living in Spain but sometimes seeing the really crazy equipment US police seems to have.

Having semiautomatic rifles or armored vehicles isn’t militarization. Private citizens can get those too. Police forces don’t have M1 Abrams tanks or F35s or nuclear carriers. This claim that the police are problematic is an entirely emotional activist response to a few incidents. That sentiment then led to hyperbolic claims like militarization.

They have Bazookas, Grenade Launchers, Predator drones, and mine resistant vehicles up to and including Armored Personnel Carriers. None of these are available to private citizens.

Obama went so far as to say the following when trying to reign in the 1033 program in 2015

"We've seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a feeling like it's an occupying force as opposed to a force that's part of the community that's protecting them and serving them ... So we're going to prohibit equipment made for the battlefield that is not appropriate for local police departments."

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The military model is that they are organized into units with training, and obey a central authority. On the whole, it's been an improvement over forming ad hoc posses of farmers and shopkeepers and arming them, or the medieval hue and cry model where someone screams and then everybody in town comes over and beats a stranger to death for having a different accent after dark. I'd love to see some statistics about how…

The "military model" goes so much further than that. They are "officers" and have military ranks as their position/title. They wear military-styled uniforms and headwear. They engage in military-style ceremonies. > I'd love to see some statistics about how much worse it is now that we have professional police, How fortunate that they're willing to collect statistics on their own performance for you.

> The "military model" goes so much further than that.

Claiming that police are being militarized is a very broad statement. Depending on your perspective it can be positive or negative.

You could argue that consistency and having a common operating model with accountability is a good thing. Unfortunately many would argue the adopted model is very flawed and that the level accountability is tied to public outrage or scrutiny.

I think everyone would agree that adequate training is essential but we would disagree on what type of training is appropriate. Some argue that sensitivity and deescalation training are where the focus should be, while others are arguing for the warrior training.

The true conservative would say that we can't do it right so we shouldn't attempt because doing it badly will be more harmful than not having done it at all.

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