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posted by takyon on Saturday December 30 2017, @04:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the yellow-stripe-down-the-back-of-the-uniform dept.

From the NY Daily News (and covered almost everywhere):

A Kansas man shot to death by police earlier this week was the victim of a misdirected online prank known as "swatting," according to social media chatter.

The victim, identified as Andrew Finch, was gunned down on Thursday night after cops responded to his Wichita home amid a false report that he had shot his father to death and was holding his mother, brother and sister hostage.

A responding officer fatally shot Finch, 28, when he came to the front door, Wichita deputy police chief Troy Livingston said during a press conference. Livingston declined to comment on what triggered the officer to open fire and would not say whether Finch was armed.

Police briefing (10m8s). Body camera footage (53s).

I'm speechless.

takyon: The swatting was quickly linked to a dispute between two Call of Duty players:

On Twitter, more than a dozen people who identified themselves as being in the gaming community told The Eagle that a feud between two Call of Duty players sparked one to initiate a "swatting" call. After news began to spread about what happened Thursday night, the people in the gaming community, through Twitter posts, pointed at two gamers.

"I DIDNT GET ANYONE KILLED BECAUSE I DIDNT DISCHARGE A WEAPON AND BEING A SWAT MEMBER ISNT MY PROFESSION," said one gamer, who others said made the swatting call. His account was suspended overnight.

According to posts on Twitter, two gamers were arguing when one threatened to target the other with a swatting call. The person who was the target of the swatting gave the other gamer a false address, which sent police to a nearby home instead of his own, according to Twitter posts. The person who was to be the target of the swatting sent a Tweet saying, "Someone tried to swat me and got an innocent man killed." [...] Dexerto, a online news service focused on gaming and the Call of Duty game, reported the argument began over a $1 or $2 wager over the game.

Update: 911 Call from suspect (4m58s).

Brian Krebs conversed with the apparent suspect over Twitter.


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by cubancigar11 on Saturday December 30 2017, @04:47AM (40 children)

    by cubancigar11 (330) on Saturday December 30 2017, @04:47AM (#615747) Homepage Journal

    Culture of mass hysteria against men and the idea that system is your slave.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @04:51AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @04:51AM (#615748)

    You've let out the him. It can appear in any hole and peek out of it new soon.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Saturday December 30 2017, @05:45AM (36 children)

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Saturday December 30 2017, @05:45AM (#615758) Journal

    If you don't respond to 911 calls, the system falls apart.

    The call went into a substation and was apparently credible sounding enough to be treated as real. A real tale was spun. I think there is also audio of the call, if I can find it I will add it to the summary.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday December 30 2017, @06:41AM (30 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday December 30 2017, @06:41AM (#615775) Journal

      If you don't respond to 911 calls, the system falls apart.

      Responding to 911 calls doesn't kill people. It's the aggressiveness of the response that killed someone in this case. False positives are always a problem. Police and SWAT in particular are supposed to be trained to deal with fake or erroneous 911 calls.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by cubancigar11 on Saturday December 30 2017, @08:52AM (15 children)

        by cubancigar11 (330) on Saturday December 30 2017, @08:52AM (#615798) Homepage Journal

        That's the mass hysteria against men that I was talking about, which apparently didn't enter the dense head of modders. There is implicit assumption that a story that a man is going to kill his family is very likely to be true. Wonder why?

        And the brazen attempt to be clear of the responsibility of that murder from the guy who orchestrated this thing. There was 0% probability of that guy going to get the bullet before call to swat team was made. That probability became non-0 the moment someone decided to call the swat team. They are trained to minimize that probability, but they are also trained to make sure it is non-0. Are we going to decide who is responsible for this tragedy but calculating whether swat team was within the margin of error or not? Margin of error shouldn't even be part of the question. The responsibility lies directly with the guy who called the swat team, and that "gamer" needs to be sent behind bars for conspiring to murder someone.

        • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Saturday December 30 2017, @03:02PM (14 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday December 30 2017, @03:02PM (#615855) Journal

          There is implicit assumption that a story that a man is going to kill his family is very likely to be true.

          It does happen even if it isn't as common as the myth. Thus, you can't assume such a call is fake. That means it's up to the police officers responding to determine what actually happened. Here, I think they failed to do their job.

          • (Score: 4, Informative) by cubancigar11 on Saturday December 30 2017, @03:38PM (13 children)

            by cubancigar11 (330) on Saturday December 30 2017, @03:38PM (#615860) Homepage Journal

            True, but all crime can happen. Now unless we do an honest interrogation of the killer policeman, I won't be able to make a perfectly backed-up argument, but something tells if the story was that a woman killed her entire family there would be a psychologist in the place of crime instead of swat team.

            See, I am not making a sexist or anti-woman argument. I am saying there is implicit 'yeah I know assholes like him they don't deserve to live' thought instilled into the police and society in general, without any data to back it up, and that played a role in quickly using a deadly force instead of only when it was required.

            • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday December 30 2017, @05:19PM (12 children)

              by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Saturday December 30 2017, @05:19PM (#615890) Journal

              So why is that? Couldn't have anything to do with the relative proportion and severity of violence committed by men vis-a-vis that committed by women, hmmmm...?

              See, Kyuubey, this is why you Y-chromosome-havers need feminism: the "patriarchy" (and I really prefer "kyriarchy" here for the reason I'm about to explain) harms men. A lot. Who does the most violence against our boys and men? Other boys, and other men. I guarandamntee you no woman came up with the idea of circumcision, to use the example than so many meninists get their manties in a bunch over.

              Who tells boys not to ask for help, not to cry, not to show emotion? Mostly men, and women who've been brainwashed into that kind of thinking. Who tells men to gain power by subduing, dominating, and destroying other people and things? Again, mostly men. Who starts wars? Men. Who fights wars? Men. Who goes out to kill and die and suffer and bleed? Mostly men.

              No one hurts men like other men. And the kyriarchy is pitting men against women for the precise same reason as what motivated Johnson to say that well-known line about telling the worst white man he's better than the best black man to get him to open his wallet for you.

              Kyuubey, unless you are rich and powerful, *you have more in common with the most fringe woman than you with the elite men.* And I mean fringe, like "checks all the SJW boxes" fringe. Gay, black, Jewish, disabled, autistic, immigrant, whatever. Because from the PoV of the kyriarchy, if you ain't them, you're dirt. The sooner you understand this, the sooner you'll be able to get out of your own way.

              --
              I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
              • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Arik on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:43PM (5 children)

                by Arik (4543) on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:43PM (#615936) Journal
                "So why is that? Couldn't have anything to do with the relative proportion and severity of violence committed by men vis-a-vis that committed by women, hmmmm...?"

                I doubt that very much. One reason I doubt that is that such facts are clearly irrelevant when they go the other way - and they *do* go the other way, several studies have clearly documented that women are more often the aggressors than men, looking at domestic violence specifically. Yet men are still presumed to be the aggressors in such incidents, by police, by shelter workers, etc. When a female seeks shelter from abuse, she'll find lots of resources - shelter, counseling, legal assistance. Male victims of domestic violence? They're referred to therapy that presumes they were the abuser.

                I wasn't able to easily find a good number for today, but there were 1500 battered women shelters in the US all the way back in 1990, there are certainly many more today.

                How many shelters are there for men in this country? As best I can determine, the total is 2, and the first one only opened 2 years ago.

                So no, facts don't seem to drive these policies, only to be used to support them, when they happen to work for that.

                "See, Kyuubey, this is why you Y-chromosome-havers need feminism: the "patriarchy" (and I really prefer "kyriarchy" here for the reason I'm about to explain) harms men. A lot."

                Yes it does, and that should be your first clue there is no 'patriarchy.' 'Kyriarchy' is a cool word but it still doesn't really exist. Western civilization generally and anglophone ones specifically are gynocentric societies. We're so gynocentric, that we can assert with a straight face that we live in a misogynistic patriarchy that oppresses women as a class even though women as a class are not just equal, but formally superior, to men in our legal system. We are so deeply, reflexively gynocentric that we can almost instantly depose extremely powerful men accused of abusing women, by sheer force of universal disapproval and disdain - then resume the talk about 'rape culture' with no sense of irony, or awareness.

                "Who does the most violence against our boys and men? Other boys, and other men. "

                Well there's your male gaze at work, seeing the part you want to see.

                Yes, men do violence as each other, in the process of competing with each other.

                And what are they competing for? The approval of the female.

                Is it only the man who is being violent when the woman conceives the violence, plans the violence, manipulates him to perform the violence, but it's his hands that do the work? Perhaps it's technically true but don't let that blind you to the actual power dynamic at work.

                "I guarandamntee you no woman came up with the idea of circumcision, to use the example than so many meninists get their manties in a bunch over."

                An interesting point to choose. I suspect you're right that it wasn't invented by a woman, but female preference plays a significant role in preserving it. But this isn't a thread about circumcision.

                "Kyuubey, unless you are rich and powerful, *you have more in common with the most fringe woman than you with the elite men.* And I mean fringe, like "checks all the SJW boxes" fringe. "

                Now that was just rude.
                --
                If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
                • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:56PM (4 children)

                  by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:56PM (#615944) Journal

                  My God. What kind of solipsistic, delusional hellscape is the inside of your head if you can type that with a straight face?

                  Gynocentric? Western society is gynocentric? Seriously?! We haven't even had the right to fucking VOTE for 100 years! Marital rape was not outlawed until 1993! Gynocentric?!

                  You're only proving my point when you mention that men harm other men in competition and often in competition for women. Yes, and? Men harming other men. Why not cooperate a bit? Why not approach women as human beings, rather than some prize to be won or some resource to be fought over and hoarded and stolen and traded? Jesus Christ, I sincerely hope you're not dating or married.

                  Competing for womens' attention does not make our society gynocentric. It makes cross-gender relationships fucked up. And half of that is due to the above regarding how men view women. I swear to Cthulhu, not a day goes by but that I read something and thank my lucky stars I'm a lesbian...

                  --
                  I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
                  • (Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday December 30 2017, @09:15PM (3 children)

                    by Arik (4543) on Saturday December 30 2017, @09:15PM (#615973) Journal
                    "We haven't even had the right to fucking VOTE for 100 years!"

                    Interestingly enough, one of the reasons that female suffrage lagged a few years in the US was that polling showed women in this country were generally against it at first. There were many women who had little or no interest in voting, and *feared losing privileges.* This would be, logically, the consequence, right? Fully equality? So that means you're signing up for the draft... well no. Of course what wound up happening, on this issue and virtually always since, is that women's rights expand wherever the old ways limited them, but they rarely if ever contract in the areas of traditional privilege.

                    So women have had the vote for nearly 100 years, and yet in that time not one single female has been drafted, for instance.

                    "I swear to Cthulhu, not a day goes by but that I read something and thank my lucky stars I'm a lesbian.."

                    Another of those inconvenient statistics is that lesbians are no less likely to batter their partners than men are. So be careful, and don't break your arm while you're patting yourself on the back.
                    --
                    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
                    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday December 31 2017, @03:03AM (2 children)

                      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday December 31 2017, @03:03AM (#616051) Journal

                      Lesbians have the highest *reported* rate of domestic violence. Reported does not necessarily equal actual. And I've had an abusive lover, but guess what? She's bi, not gay, and has had more men than women. I'm with a perfect gold-star girl now and we get along wonderfully. Don't break your neck shoving your head up your arse. Or do.

                      --
                      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
                      • (Score: 1, Touché) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday December 31 2017, @06:44PM (1 child)

                        by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Sunday December 31 2017, @06:44PM (#616178) Journal

                        No, lesbians are demonstrably more violent. This is how collective and several works, Azuma. It doesn't matter one bit what you do. You are not an individual, and it doesn't matter if you're just as well behaved as a gay man. We can conclude based on the data available that, because you are a lesbian, you are therefore violent.

                        It would be unfair to other lesbians, after all, if we were to conclude differently.

                        • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday December 31 2017, @10:51PM

                          by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday December 31 2017, @10:51PM (#616249) Journal

                          Preeeeetty sure I'm an individual. That voice in my head is me, my own thoughts. If you are hearing voices that are not yours, you are either a telepath or a demoniac.

                          --
                          I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
              • (Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Saturday December 30 2017, @11:19PM (3 children)

                by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Saturday December 30 2017, @11:19PM (#616006) Journal

                to use the example than so many meninists get their manties in a bunch over.

                I believe the rhetoric is substantially different when speaking of clitoral slicing or pin-pricking, which does much less tissue damage and does not even amputate an entire organ. I also believe that using your phrasing to refer to clitoral pin-prick generally results in a nuke from orbit being called down.

                That aside, where do we go from here? You women have boots on the ground, and you're coordinated. You post things here that indicate that you're aware that men are powerless. Perhaps your implication is that legal males should let their guard down so you can continue your abusive actions wrt the misogynerd narrative. Your boots on the ground are going to be in action when 2018 rolls around. I have no idea what to expect, but it's going to be complete hysteria. You are bullies who single out and attack men who are utterly without power in retaliation for the things that men with power do.

                You pull every petty bully tactic in the book. You set men up to fail just to watch them flail. You engage in gaslighting and outright lying routinely. Good grief, the compulsive lying gets old. Some days if a woman tells me that the sky is blue, I need to head outside to double-check. You even see no problem with fabricating evidence.

                You know what that makes you women? It makes you sycophants. It makes you complicit in the actions of men with power. Men with power do their inhuman cocaine-fulled lizard crap, and you believe you are justified in taking revenge against the most powerless legal male you can find. You are predators hoping that men continue to be stupid enough to keep using the strategy of merely being quicker than the slowest member of the herd.

                You are pretty far from the pure and innocent Hunnies you pretend to be.

                Where is this going? Are you women ever going to fight the kyriarchy instead of being their lackeys?

                • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday December 31 2017, @03:07AM (2 children)

                  by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday December 31 2017, @03:07AM (#616053) Journal

                  Kurenai, for the last fucking time, I am one of the ones who's on your side. Your constant, borderline-schizophrenic ranting not only does you personally no favors, but pushes the stereotype of transwomen as unstable crazy drama queens into the spotlight. You are harming other transwomen, do you understand this?

                  You want to be physically female, but at the same time you seem to hate women. So...what gives? How does it make any sense to hate what you want to be? You are one sick little puppy, Kurenai, and I'm out of patience with you and your tantrums. Go fuck yourself.

                  --
                  I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
                  • (Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday December 31 2017, @04:17PM (1 child)

                    by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Sunday December 31 2017, @04:17PM (#616151) Journal

                    Good. Moving the misogynerd narrative to a blanket accusation of sex trafficking against everybody legally male in tech was too much.

                    I didn't choose to have a female mind. I don't want to be an overweight, diabetic baby mamma with 10 kids from 8 different fathers living off welfare. If that means I'm not a woman, then sure, of course not!

                    You assholes have gobs of privilege, and you abuse it horribly. How many women are involved in sex trafficking as pimps? Don't tell me the number is 0 because I fucking know better. This newest accusation of sex trafficking is nothing more than sick psychological projection.

                    I'm glad we're agreed that the other can get fucked at this point.

                    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday December 31 2017, @10:50PM

                      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday December 31 2017, @10:50PM (#616247) Journal

                      What the fuck are you ranting about? None of that addresses anything I said. Get off the internet, go have some tea or something, and calm down before you post again. You're going to collapse of apoplexy and die at your keyboard at this rate.

                      --
                      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 03 2018, @10:06PM (1 child)

                by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 03 2018, @10:06PM (#617380)

                So why is that? Couldn't have anything to do with the relative proportion and severity of violence committed by men vis-a-vis that committed by women, hmmmm...?

                Maybe we should treat people as individuals rather than statistics.

                • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday January 04 2018, @04:37AM

                  by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday January 04 2018, @04:37AM (#617514) Journal

                  The data say what the data say. Nothing less (or more). Groups are made of individuals.

                  --
                  I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
      • (Score: 3, Troll) by looorg on Saturday December 30 2017, @11:51AM (10 children)

        by looorg (578) on Saturday December 30 2017, @11:51AM (#615818)

        The problem here is that you have to respond to all calls as if they where true. Otherwise you come to that day when you have the next police conference and they ask why they didnt respond and the police answers that they thought that it was a joke. They sent a squad car around and all looked fine, or they sent a squad car around and some heavily armed psycho with a machine gun killed two police officers because they just didn't take the threat seriously.

        The blame here is almost entirely with the idiot that called in the fake threat. Yes one can put some place on the LEO for escalating the situation, but he was still just acting to a perceived and reported threat.

        • (Score: 4, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday December 30 2017, @12:29PM (8 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday December 30 2017, @12:29PM (#615827) Journal

          The problem here is that you have to respond to all calls as if they where true.

          Guilty until proven innocent? There are two things to note here. First, SWAT-style activities are way too common in the US with them being routinely used in situations where they aren't warranted, and not only endangered lives, but also destroyed considerable property in the process. This may well have been one of those situations where they weren't warranted despite the alleged dire nature of the 911 call. Second, the person who placed the fake 911 call has bragged about placing a number of such calls (more swatting, bomb threats, etc). One person shouldn't have that kind of power over another. The aggressive police response is what makes it so dangerous.

          Normal people aren't trained to act properly when raided by heavily armed police with very liberal instructions on what behavior allows them to shoot you. It sounds like the victim probably had loose boxers or a similar wardrobe malfunction.

          The blame here is almost entirely with the idiot that called in the fake threat.

          No, it's not. The idiot didn't pull the trigger on an innocent, unarmed man. The police did that.

          • (Score: 2, Disagree) by looorg on Saturday December 30 2017, @01:06PM (7 children)

            by looorg (578) on Saturday December 30 2017, @01:06PM (#615837)

            Guilty until proven innocent? There are two things to note here. First, SWAT-style activities are way too common in the US with them being routinely used in situations where they aren't warranted, and not only endangered lives, but also destroyed considerable property in the process. This may well have been one of those situations where they weren't warranted despite the alleged dire nature of the 911 call. Second, the person who placed the fake 911 call has bragged about placing a number of such calls (more swatting, bomb threats, etc). One person shouldn't have that kind of power over another. The aggressive police response is what makes it so dangerous.
            Normal people aren't trained to act properly when raided by heavily armed police with very liberal instructions on what behavior allows them to shoot you. It sounds like the victim probably had loose boxers or a similar wardrobe malfunction.

            No, it's not. The idiot didn't pull the trigger on an innocent, unarmed man. The police did that.

            Nobody said that. You completely miss the point as to why SWAT responses have increased and the tactics they use. You seem to believe that they just do this cause they are jackboots that like to wank off to their big guns and they get some kick out of driving around their vans and shooting people. I'm fairly sure they didn't know it was a fake call when it came in, if they had know that they wouldn't have responded in the way that they did. So you are after-the-fact constructing a scenario that just wasnt true for when it happened.

            The aggressive police response fills a niche, the jackass that called in the fake threat is the one that is to blame for calling in a fake threat that he knew would result in an overwhelming show of force response. He wanted that. Suicide by cop is a well known phenomenon, SWATting is pretty much, potential-, murder-by-cop and he is the guilty party here. I'm not claiming that the officer is completely innocent but they are responding to an emergency call with non-perfect information but have to assume that the given information is correct and act according to that information.

            • (Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday December 30 2017, @02:40PM (6 children)

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday December 30 2017, @02:40PM (#615851) Journal

              You seem to believe that they just do this cause they are jackboots that like to wank off to their big guns and they get some kick out of driving around their vans and shooting people.

              That would be fairly accurate. The militarization of US police forces (and various government bureaucracies at multiple levels) has gotten out of hand.

              I'm fairly sure they didn't know it was a fake call when it came in, if they had know that they wouldn't have responded in the way that they did.

              And they didn't know that it was a real call. There are procedures and training precisely because things can't always be treated as worst case scenarios. A number of people have died [reason.com] because of aggressive police tactics and excessive levels of force.

              The aggressive police response fills a niche, the jackass that called in the fake threat is the one that is to blame for calling in a fake threat that he knew would result in an overwhelming show of force response.

              Exactly. And it'll happen again.

              I'm not claiming that the officer is completely innocent but they are responding to an emergency call with non-perfect information but have to assume that the given information is correct and act according to that information.

              Then they need to replaced with someone who doesn't assume such. People die when assumptions are made.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @04:57PM (4 children)

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @04:57PM (#615884)

                Quit being a whiny little bitch or we'll take away your "evil" police and see how long you survive in a world filled with real criminals. The police are out there every day putting their lives on the line. That's way more than some amateur armchair windbag has ever done. Put down the bag of Cheetos and step outside - you will see it is true

                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @05:40PM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @05:40PM (#615893)

                  What part of "innocent person who is not a threat murdered" is hard for you yo understand? It is VERY disturbing that innocent people can be gunned down. Wake up fool.

                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:07PM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:07PM (#615925)

                  putting their lives on the line to commit armed robbery maybe. fuck you and your precious pigs. i can protect my own family from all the dangerous savages the system has built out of petty criminals.

                • (Score: 4, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:53PM (1 child)

                  by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:53PM (#615942) Journal

                  Quit being a whiny little bitch or we'll take away your "evil" police and see how long you survive in a world filled with real criminals.

                  You do realize this is a typical excluded middle fallacy. We don't have to choose between these kinds of excesses from the police or no police at all. We can, like say most of the developed world, have a police force that does its job without killing a lot of innocent people. Remember that you're only a phone call away from getting a visit from the men in black tactical gear. Wouldn't you rather that they obey the laws they're sworn to uphold?

                  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:58PM

                    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:58PM (#615946) Journal

                    Have a +1 Insightful on me. Dear Cthulhu, when we've gotten to the point that *you* are the voice of reason in any given dialogue...yeeeeee gods...

                    --
                    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
              • (Score: 2) by Demena on Sunday December 31 2017, @07:41AM

                by Demena (5637) on Sunday December 31 2017, @07:41AM (#616097)

                Actually, your point is not relevant. Even if the call had been genuine they should not have shot. It is not usually the hostage taker who answers the door. They had no knowledge of the role of the person who answered the door.

        • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:55PM

          by urza9814 (3954) on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:55PM (#616736) Journal

          Interestingly, they legally don't have to do anything at all.

          When cops show up with guns drawn and start shooting innocent people, we're told it's justified because the cops were told there were hostages or people in danger who they had to protect.

          Yet when cops stand idly by and watch someone get stabbed to death, we're told that's perfectly alright because they have no legal duty to protect.

          So which is it? If they have no duty to protect -- which multiple courts have held is true -- then their safest course of action would be to surround the house and wait it out. But of course that's less fun, so they'd rather go in with guns drawn and shoot anything that moves like THEY'RE playing fucking Call of Duty. Because they know there's no goddamn rules for them; they know that whatever they do the legal system will say they were correct.

      • (Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday December 30 2017, @10:10PM

        by edIII (791) on Saturday December 30 2017, @10:10PM (#615983)

        In other words, they're trained to not shoot some guy like they did. Better training, because this officer essentially failed a field test of whether or not he could *not* shoot the victims while getting the bad guys.

        Considering the vitriol that caused it though, that is concerning that the police would respond like that. It makes me want to apologize to a few people quite frankly, you included. Nobody should die over a game, some talk, or a $1.25.

        --
        Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 31 2017, @12:26AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 31 2017, @12:26AM (#616022)

        The problem is that the police are not willing to risk their lives to reduce the possibility of a false positive. In addition, an obvious course of action in this particular case would have been to call the home at the given address to verify that it was the location of the caller.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday December 31 2017, @04:36AM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday December 31 2017, @04:36AM (#616067) Journal

          The problem is that the police are not willing to risk their lives to reduce the possibility of a false positive.

          This has already been discussed. For example [soylentnews.org],

          In the video the cops were just looking for an excuse to kill the guy. You do NOT ask a potentially armed suspect to move and definitely not to move towards you. The only reason you would order them to move is if there was some other danger. You tell them to lie down, put their hands on their head and NOT to move. Then you approach from the side while your partner covers you. In that situation if the suspect moves his hands from his head suddenly then I'd say it's a justified shoot.

          It was a different scenario, but the same problem, treating a person in a way that made it more likely that they couldn't comply with police instructions. That played a role [soylentnews.org] in the shooting of the story:

          Shot for failing to follow directions. Wtf.

          The police were at least 50 feet away and were shining lights in the guy's eyes to confuse him. Standard police tactics / procedure. Even if he had a pistol in his waistband -- and he didn't -- at 50 feet away, he wasn't all that threatening. Maybe if it was a 50 cal rifle... but they don't fit in the waistband.

          This is part of the militarization of the police. Too often they are more inclined to place a potential suspect in a tactically compromised position than doing their job. I have experienced the same about 16-17 years ago. I once had a police car tailgate my vehicle (which was in regulatory noncompliance due to an expired license plate tag) on a crowded highway and light up every flashing thing they had. Fortunately, the driver (who wasn't me at the time) was able to safely find their way across two other lanes to pull off the road, but neither of us could see what was behind us due to the ridiculous light show. Tactically, it was good for the police officer in question though since we would have been unable to shoot at him accurately with that sort of light show, and it was demoralizing.

          But the problem with a military approach is collateral damage. What is good tactically for the police officer is often not good for the subject of the tactics and bystanders. If police officers aren't willing to take on reasonable risks to protect those who they are supposed to protect, then they shouldn't be police officers.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by forkazoo on Saturday December 30 2017, @05:26PM (4 children)

      by forkazoo (2561) on Saturday December 30 2017, @05:26PM (#615891)

      Shooting the first person that opens a door isn't the only way to respond to a 911 call.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by SpockLogic on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:34PM (3 children)

        by SpockLogic (2762) on Saturday December 30 2017, @07:34PM (#615932)

        GUNS, GUNS, GUNS.

        The reaction of the police is a direct result of the moronic gun culture in this country. There are so many guns out there the police have to assume they are facing an armed adversary and they shoot first in self preservation. It's still murder.

        1. More guns = more gun violence.

        2. More guns = more dead Americans.

        3. More guns = more profits for gun manufacturers.

        Only #3 counts.

        The problem is GUNS.

        --
        Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 31 2017, @12:34AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 31 2017, @12:34AM (#616025)

          >"The reaction of the police is a direct result of the moronic gun culture in this country."

          No, the reaction of the police was the direct result of being told that an armed man had shot someone and was holding two others hostage.

          • (Score: 2) by Demena on Sunday December 31 2017, @07:51AM

            by Demena (5637) on Sunday December 31 2017, @07:51AM (#616099)

            It was still an unacceptable reaction. Had the call been genuine then the person answering the door would be more likely to be a hostage than perpetrator.

        • (Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Wednesday January 03 2018, @10:13PM

          by Anal Pumpernickel (776) on Wednesday January 03 2018, @10:13PM (#617385)

          There are so many guns out there the police have to assume they are facing an armed adversary and they shoot first in self preservation.

          They don't have to assume any such thing. Cops should take risks to avoid killing innocent people. Yes, that means they will actually have to put their lives on the line, but that's their job. If they don't like that, they shouldn't be cops.

          Also, either guns are legal or they are not. You can't shoot people merely for owning guns. Stop blaming guns for this and start blaming hyper-aggressive cops.

  • (Score: 1, Redundant) by cubancigar11 on Saturday December 30 2017, @08:45AM (1 child)

    by cubancigar11 (330) on Saturday December 30 2017, @08:45AM (#615795) Homepage Journal

    Off topic? Brain damage must be common among modders.

    • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by kurenai.tsubasa on Saturday December 30 2017, @03:40PM

      by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Saturday December 30 2017, @03:40PM (#615861) Journal

      I think you're on the right track. (I admit to trouble parsing it.) We can see where the misogynerd narrative is going. All assigned males in tech are collectively and severally responsible for sex slavery. All assigned males in tech are Cock of Duty players and murderers too. And let us not forget that we have to protect the Hunnies from all this!

      Yes, we have to protect the Hunnies. I'm going to start using the word again, because that's exactly what will be going on in 2018. Womyn-born-womyn are the coddled victims. They are superior, complete beings who, despite this supposed ascendancy and superiority, cannot take responsibility for themselves. They can't be arsed to take advantage of the absolutely wealth of information online to learn programming because of all the supposedly evil people assigned to a certain caste, a legal construct in our gender caste system. Even worse, all assigned males, even ones who voted for Hillary, are responsible for Trump.

      The Hunnies that voted for Trump and brought this shit on themselves are off the hook! Instead of holding Trump accountable along with his female voters, instead of holding the DNC accountable, watch as the Hunnies, cowards that they are, begin holding all assigned males responsible for the fucking joke in Washington.

      Net neutrality is gone, and watch as men's rights websites are slowly null routed by every major ISP. Somehow, feminists even managed to manipulate things such that many men were ready to put in place a way to silence the MHRM. Men need to be smarter than this. All assigned males are now officially under attack. Sex trafficking and murder are serious accusations.

      Womyn-born-womyn are lazy cowards and will find every excuse under the sun to keep themselves ignorant of tech. First it was sexual harassment and generalized misogyny. Remember how compiler error messages were oppressing the Hunnies? Now the media is going to seriously begin painting all assigned males as murderers and sex traffickers. The stuff with journalists and Hollywood being held accountable for their sexual predators? Just a cynical attempt to move the Overton window, and I'm ashamed I fell for it.

      For what end? Are we going to get a universal basic income for womyn-born-womyn only (as if we do not effectively have such a thing already)? How can rejecting career and education in favor of having 10 kids and leeching off welfare possibly be a feminist value? Because feminism doesn't stand for the things it claims to stand for. Feminists are liars and bigots, and they will lie to you with a straight face. Actions speak louder than words.

      If somebody here doesn't like my usage of Hunnies—and I now hope to use the word to exclusively to attack womyn-born-womyn—perhaps womyn-born-womyn might consider not acting like children. Let's not kid ourselves. Feminism is sucking the cock of the patriarchy big time. What is the patriarchy? Men with power and privilege, which the vast majority of assigned males do not have, and therefore cannot be complicit. How does that go? Sexism is only notable when there's a power dynamic? Well, here's a power dynamic, and if you were assigned the male gender at birth, regardless of your body parts, you are on the losing end of that power dynamic unless you drew a one in a million winning golden ticket.

      Personally, I'm fucking sorry that I keep giving feminism the benefit of the doubt from time to time. It won't happen again. Feminism is clearly a hate group. They will keep blowing up these stories no differently from how white supremacists love to blow up stories about some kind of failure on the part of a minority group. The white supremacist uses others' misfortunes and lack of privilege as a reason to say, “Look here! See how inferior blacks and Mexicans are! See how violent and dangerous they are!” The feminist, otherwise known as a womyn-born-womyn supremacist, uses the exact same tactics. “Look here! See how inferior assigned males are! See how violent and dangerous they are!”

      Everybody assigned the male gender at birth will need to stick together. We don't have time for white supremacy. We are a demographic minority if only slightly, but a minority nonetheless. Feminism wants to turn the USA and every other country into a direct democracy, because womyn-born-womyn can simply steamroller over human rights for half the planet's population in direct democracy.