6 ms·

I think there's enough blame to go around: 1) police send an entire SWAT team because of ONE anonymous phone call, even though they should know by now that peop

by dude01 9y ago

I think there's enough blame to go around: 1) police send an entire SWAT team because of ONE anonymous phone call, even though they should know by now that people abuse that ability 2) the gamer guy who made the phone call. Kind of reminds me of bomb threats -- how many people who actually place bombs make a phone call first? It's almost like if a bomb threat is called in, you can be sure there's no bomb. I remember my high school years ago kept getting bomb call threats, and eventually started ignoring them, figuring it was a student making the calls.

Carioca 9y ago
I think the IRA usually warned of a bomb a few minutes before it going off, so that it would cause a lot of inconvenience, a lot of material damage and relatively little human casualties.
- dude01 9y ago
  Oh yeah, good point, I was just thinking about the USA.
- icebraining 9y ago
  ETA did the same sometimes.
- anon1385 9y ago
  In some incidents the phone warnings gave the wrong location which resulted in the police moving people towards the bomb: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omagh_bombing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omagh_bombing
- praptak 9y ago
  Not anonymously though. They had a system to authenticate their threats to the police.
  - amorphid 9y ago
    I hadn't heard that. I googled 'ira ireland authenticating bomb threat' and found this short read... http://articles.latimes.com/1997-04-19/news/mn-50393_1_code-words http://articles.latimes.com/1997-04-19/news/mn-50393_1_code-... I thought it was interesting to find the information via a 20 year old online newspaper article, instead of a link to Wikipedia or some more recent rehash of the information presented in the article.
rayiner 9y ago
> I think there's enough blame to go around: 1) police send an entire SWAT team because of ONE anonymous phone call, even though they should know by now that people abuse that ability 2) the gamer guy who made the phone call. The police react to the incentives we create for them. How many articles did you read in the 1990s flipping out because police didn't react to some tip. How much "the police should've known about the 9/11 bombers all along!" In contrast, nobody will remember this accidental shooting.
- talmand 9y ago
  I expect the police to react to a tip. On the other hand, I don't expect them to respond with SWAT and gunfire before confirming the tip.
tehwebguy 9y ago
How many calls should it take? The point is that they create an urgent situation where life is threatened: "My dad just shot my mom, I think he's going to shoot me next. I have to go--" and it's done. It's dissimilar to a bomb threat in that an alleged victim is calling.
caresource_ta 9y ago
That line of thinking in regards to bomb threats is dangerously wrong. Politically motivated bombers often make warning calls to spare innocent people. Today it may seem legitimate bomb threats are rare but this was certainly not the case in the late 60's and early 70's in the US. From the memoirs of Richard Nixon. "From January 1969 through April 1970 there were, by conservative count over 40,000 bombings, attempted bombings and bombs threats-an average of over eighty a day. Over $21 million in property was destroyed. Forty-three people were killed. Of those 40,000 incident, 64 percent were by bombers whose identity and motive were unknown."

by dude01 9y ago

Carioca 9y ago

I think the IRA usually warned of a bomb a few minutes before it going off, so that it would cause a lot of inconvenience, a lot of material damage and relatively little human casualties.

dude01 9y ago
Oh yeah, good point, I was just thinking about the USA.
icebraining 9y ago
ETA did the same sometimes.
anon1385 9y ago
In some incidents the phone warnings gave the wrong location which resulted in the police moving people towards the bomb: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omagh_bombing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omagh_bombing
praptak 9y ago
Not anonymously though. They had a system to authenticate their threats to the police.
- amorphid 9y ago
  I hadn't heard that. I googled 'ira ireland authenticating bomb threat' and found this short read... http://articles.latimes.com/1997-04-19/news/mn-50393_1_code-words http://articles.latimes.com/1997-04-19/news/mn-50393_1_code-... I thought it was interesting to find the information via a 20 year old online newspaper article, instead of a link to Wikipedia or some more recent rehash of the information presented in the article.

rayiner 9y ago

> I think there's enough blame to go around: 1) police send an entire SWAT team because of ONE anonymous phone call, even though they should know by now that people abuse that ability 2) the gamer guy who made the phone call. The police react to the incentives we create for them. How many articles did you read in the 1990s flipping out because police didn't react to some tip. How much "the police should've known about the 9/11 bombers all along!" In contrast, nobody will remember this accidental shooting.

talmand 9y ago
I expect the police to react to a tip. On the other hand, I don't expect them to respond with SWAT and gunfire before confirming the tip.

tehwebguy 9y ago

How many calls should it take? The point is that they create an urgent situation where life is threatened: "My dad just shot my mom, I think he's going to shoot me next. I have to go--" and it's done. It's dissimilar to a bomb threat in that an alleged victim is calling.

caresource_ta 9y ago

That line of thinking in regards to bomb threats is dangerously wrong. Politically motivated bombers often make warning calls to spare innocent people. Today it may seem legitimate bomb threats are rare but this was certainly not the case in the late 60's and early 70's in the US. From the memoirs of Richard Nixon. "From January 1969 through April 1970 there were, by conservative count over 40,000 bombings, attempted bombings and bombs threats-an average of over eighty a day. Over $21 million in property was destroyed. Forty-three people were killed. Of those 40,000 incident, 64 percent were by bombers whose identity and motive were unknown."