Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

abclocal.go.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 309 posts

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#221

Post by entropy_ »

dhughes wrote: post #199
entropy_ wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've grown up in Lebanon -- a third world country still recovering from a 15 year civil war(1975-1990). Traffic lights and rules are merely suggestions to people around here. If something is physically possible, like a car being able to fit in an pedestrian-only paved road or two cars being able to fit in a one-way street you can be sure that people will do it. It becomes an innate habit to always check both ways and…

I live in Canada in a small town with a fairly large (per capita) Lebanese population (Tweel, Haddad, Rashed, Jabour). We have bad drivers here but I am willing to bet we exported the behaviour to Lebanon not the other way around.

I highly doubt it. The behaviour has nothing to do with bad drivers, it's mostly because of lack of enforcement. The only thing you can get a fine for is speeding, and even then most speed traps are easy to spot. Otherwise, just do whatever the fuck you want and you won't get a fine. I'm serious, anything goes.

I've seen people burn red lights right in front of police officers and get no reaction. Heck, I've seen police cars burn red lights(for no reason, sirens weren't on, they were driving pretty slow, they just felt like it). I have a friend who got rear-ended by a police car and then verbally abused for being an idiot by stopping at a red light at night.

We didn't use to have speeding tickets a couple of year back. Then they started enforcing speed limits. Lo-and-behold people started paying attention and generally trying not to speed. But going the wrong way(even on a highway, I was once almost killed by a guy doing that because there was a traffic jam at the only exit and he didn't feel like waiting so he just U-turned and went the other way, but that's another story) will not get you fined.

I'm pretty sure that if traffic rules were enforced properly then people wouldn't so easily ignore them. But we don't have the necessary amount of police to even do a significant fraction of what's needed.

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#222

Post by wtil »

ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #74

After watching police chases on TV my whole life, I really want to know: What's the logical strategy in a police chase? Just keep driving after each other? It risks the lives of hundreds living and walking in the path of the chase all for the sake of punishing 1 or 2 individuals. It just doesn't seem to add up to me. What a shame we lost someone so brilliant for nothing.

I too have wondered this after watching American police car chases. Here in the UK at any time a superior officer, often monitoring the scene, can call off the chase, and call in a helicopter (if one is available) to monitor the situation.

All officers must report how safe the chase is (cars on the road, weather conditions, pedestrians) and lying is a criminal offence. Also, officers who are part of a chase must be pursuit trained.

Here's the de facto manual all pursuit trained officers must be accustomed too:

http://www.acpo.police.uk/documents/uniformed/2011/20110418%...

Example of a pursuit in the UK and notice the shock tactics at the end (smashing the passenger side window, dragging him from the car, etc) this is the to confuse and disorientate the man and makes sure he doesn't have time to get a weapon or destroy evidence.

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#223

Post by andrewem »

__david__ wrote: post #139
andrewem wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article isn't available in full online (well, without paying), but it's all about why in the LA area there are so many police chases: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/01/23/060123fa_fact_fr... I haven't read it since it came out in 2006, but suffice it to say that the Los Angeles area has vastly more police chases per capita than the rest of the United States, and therefore if something like this was going…

For the record, this was in Orange County, not L.A. County.

Thanks for pointing that out; I should have made it clear. I'm curious about Orange County car chase stats.

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#225

Post by dllthomas »

reader5000 wrote: post #206
InclinedPlane wrote: post #140

This is a good reminder to always be a defensive and aware pedestrian. Just because you have the light or the right-of-way doesn't mean you are guaranteed a safe crossing of the street. Whenever I cross an intersection as a pedestrian I always look both ways (even on one way streets) and I always keep an eye on cars that are still in motion, especially those that don't appear to be slowing down. It's good to make the…

True but if your expectation is traffic travelling at 30, it's unclear if normal defensiveness will help you for a car going at 60+.

Wonder if he'd have heard the sirens...

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#226

Post by InclinedPlane »

reader5000 wrote: post #206
InclinedPlane wrote: post #140

This is a good reminder to always be a defensive and aware pedestrian. Just because you have the light or the right-of-way doesn't mean you are guaranteed a safe crossing of the street. Whenever I cross an intersection as a pedestrian I always look both ways (even on one way streets) and I always keep an eye on cars that are still in motion, especially those that don't appear to be slowing down. It's good to make the…

True but if your expectation is traffic travelling at 30, it's unclear if normal defensiveness will help you for a car going at 60+.

It's hard to say without knowing the exact circumstances. Personally I think it would help. If you see a car on the road headed your way as you're crossing the street it's pretty easy to tell how fast it's going, especially 5 mph vs 15 vs 30 vs 60. And if it's going fast your inclination should be to keep a sharp eye on it and maybe try to run out of the way if it appears as though it's not slowing down at a point when it should. But then again there are some intersections where you just can't see or keep track of all the traffic that could be dangerous to you, but on the whole I'd say it's smarter to do so than not, it takes little effort.

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#227

Post by neilk »

xanadohnt wrote: post #182
InclinedPlane wrote: post #140

This is a good reminder to always be a defensive and aware pedestrian. Just because you have the light or the right-of-way doesn't mean you are guaranteed a safe crossing of the street. Whenever I cross an intersection as a pedestrian I always look both ways (even on one way streets) and I always keep an eye on cars that are still in motion, especially those that don't appear to be slowing down. It's good to make the…

A highly engineered network of lights, signs, warnings, and all other sorts of traffic guidance actually makes pedestrian and vehicle travel less safe. It's a psychological phenomenon - discussed here: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/traffic.html - where the actors stop using situational awareness and total rely on external devices to do their decision making. Safety takes a back seat to obeying the law. Upo…

There's a difference between a situation where boundaries are not respected (driving on the sidewalk), and a situation where we choose not to orchestrate people's actions (lack of traffic lights).

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#228

Post by dllthomas »

hatcravat wrote: post #205
icebraining wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to spot the drone. If they start getting used regularly, the escapees will assume it's there and may try to evade it anyway.

Yes, but how are they going to do that if they can't see the drone? How will they know when they have succeeded? Are they just going to continue driving recklessly until they run out of gas? Driving evasively seems like a very good way to attract the attention of other officers who might not recognize the suspects' car. Once the cruiser is out of sight, the suspects' best bet would be to "act casual." If the drone ca…

Really, to "act casual" in areas with lots of tunnels and trees and other cars of similar make and model and color. Or to get off the road quickly somewhere underground (parking garage?) and leave the vehicle, though that has difficulties as well long term (CCTV being a major one).

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#229

Post by ptaipale »

tome wrote: post #208
dhughes wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Canada in a small town with a fairly large (per capita) Lebanese population (Tweel, Haddad, Rashed, Jabour). We have bad drivers here but I am willing to bet we exported the behaviour to Lebanon not the other way around.

What do you mean "you exported the behaviour to Lebanon"? How?

This might be something along the lines of "I inherited my bad behaviour from my father; my mother still has got hers."

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#230

Post by malandrew »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #140

This is a good reminder to always be a defensive and aware pedestrian. Just because you have the light or the right-of-way doesn't mean you are guaranteed a safe crossing of the street. Whenever I cross an intersection as a pedestrian I always look both ways (even on one way streets) and I always keep an eye on cars that are still in motion, especially those that don't appear to be slowing down. It's good to make the…

As someone who's been hit by a car twice (neither were my fault), it's also a good reminder that cars simply don't belong in urban areas with a sufficiently dense population. I still don't get why most American cities still don't reach a tipping point then go whole hog in making certain parts of cities pedestrian and bike only.
Post reply on HN