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

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

#71

Post by seanmcdirmid »

ck2 wrote: post #67

Was it responsible for the police to chase them at this time? two vehicles full of people involved in some type of criminal activity Was this yet another incident where the police self-escalated the situation? I sure hope there was a precise reason this happened and not that "they smelled pot".

How can we even judge? The police back off often when they sense that a chase is too dangerous, they make a judgement call. Sometimes they don't have perfect information however, and shit just happens. It is not like the movies.

I'm sure the officers involved are second guessing their behavior now, its not like people die every day like this. But really, its a tough job, we aren't really in a position to judge.

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

#73

Post by wtracy »

cnlwsu wrote: post #30
nilved wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most cops are really dumb.

Really? I suppose you have some research to back that up or are you just being dumb?

Sadly enough, he actually has a point: http://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/sto...

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

#74

Post by ChrisNorstrom »

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.

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

#75

Post by sejje »

soheil wrote: post #66
haydenevans wrote: post #19

Just terrible :( Why does it always seem like the worst and most insignificant wastes of human beings always take away great ones?

Just because he wrote some code that was used so widely doesn't make him more significant than a janitor who cleans after you, or the "gang" member who was evading the brutal cops for a chance for his freedom. The sooner we realize people are equal because they're human fucking beings the greater hope for humanity to avoid its imminent demise.

What makes someone more significant, then? What's your measure?

People aren't equal, you can't make it so by saying it.

The man who died was more significant than the man who killed him.

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

#76

Post by csense »

Buttons840 wrote: post #48
tyoma wrote: post #24

This is extremely sad, but it made me think of an important topic: contingency planning. Pretty much every organization I've worked for was missing a "key developer got hit by bus" plan for at least one major project.

If that key developer did get hit by a bus then: 1) A new key developer would be hired to maintain the project, and things would be a little rough for a couple months but the company would survive. 2) Every decent person would care more about the key developers life than the "major project". This so called "bus factor" has always bugged me. Documentation is good, but talk of untimely death by bus is silly.

> things would be a little rough

Can someone else get access to all the company-owned code the developer was working on? Is someone insisting that the developer doesn't keep three months of work on a laptop? Who else can get access to the passwords and keys for company-owned servers and services maintained by the developer?

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

#77

Post by ck2 »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #71
ck2 wrote: post #67

Was it responsible for the police to chase them at this time? two vehicles full of people involved in some type of criminal activity Was this yet another incident where the police self-escalated the situation? I sure hope there was a precise reason this happened and not that "they smelled pot".

How can we even judge? The police back off often when they sense that a chase is too dangerous, they make a judgement call. Sometimes they don't have perfect information however, and shit just happens. It is not like the movies. I'm sure the officers involved are second guessing their behavior now, its not like people die every day like this. But really, its a tough job, we aren't really in a position to judge.

Police in the US are notorious for causing chases in dangerously crowded areas and endangering innocents.

So much so they had to pass laws to make it illegal for police to do chases in many cities/situations to stop them.

http://www.pursuitsafety.org/

http://kristieslaw.org/

http://abcnews.go.com/US/police-chases-california-injured-10...

More bystanders are injured or killed during high-speed police chases than by stray bullets. In California, more than 10,000 people have been injured and over 300 people killed because of police chases in the last decade, according to newly released statistics from the California Highway Patrol.

Nationally, it's estimated nearly 300 people die each year as a result of high speed police chases.

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

#78

Post by iamtherockstar »

Sukotto wrote: post #56

I feel badly for his family and coworkers. :( Make sure you let your family know how much you care about them. Also make sure they will be taken care of in case you're suddenly gone. Firstly by picking up enough term life insurance to cover your dependents' needs until adulthood. Secondly by writing up a will and giving it to someone you trust. [1][2] We joke about "getting hit by a bus" and a project's "bus factor"[…

> I feel badly for his family and coworkers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2_d6Hwvh5I&t=36s

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

#79

Post by csense »

The HN headline's grammar is ambiguous and could be improved. It could be read to mean "The co-founder was killed by a gang while he (the cofounder) was trying to escape police," or it could mean "The co-founder was killed by a gang while they (the gang) were trying to escape police." (According to the article, the latter meaning is intended.)

The HN headline is still many times more informative than the linked article's headline, "Santa Ana police chase: Pedestrian identified." Even considering the newspaper's audience (who, unlike HN, might not know or care enough about Oculus Rift to merit its mention by name in the headline), the fact that the pedestrian was killed by a gang while the gang was trying to escape police would presumably still be of interest.

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

#80

Post by jthol »

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 believe a lot of departments have moved to giving up those chases for just that reason. I'm sure there are situations where they will/will not pursue though I'm not sure what the criteria are.
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