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Police using decoy buses to catch attackers targeting Apple and Google shuttles
- nappy 9y ago>The hope, Sanchez says, is that if the decoy buses are also attacked the agency can “[look] at damage on the bus and [look] at what angle the projectile is coming from.” They're not saying it... but there must be cameras all over this bus to catch the shooter, right? Trying to figure out "the angle of the projectile" is almost nonsensical if they have a decoy bus set up.
- IntronExon 9y agoIt would probably make more sense to fly a drone with FLIR over the area.
- newman8r 9y agoWhy is the CHP publicizing this? I'd assume they'd want to keep it a secret. Unless it's just security theater.
- xvf22 9y agoI may be just a scare tactic to get the person to stop doing it. If the person keeps things random then it's unlikely they'll be able to catch then without a heap of luck. Pellet guns can go quite far and be made pretty silent.
- IntronExon 9y agoI imagine they’re also worried about escalation. The person who takes potshots with a pellet gun today, might do it with a long rifle tomorrow. They’ve already crossed a lot of moral and legal lines already.
- candiodari 9y agoI think you'll find quite a sizeable population in the Bay Area thinks the tech industry, and especially it's workers, are the ones crossing moral lines. You know, displacing everyone and forcing people to move apart just so everything can be in one office. The issue is, in theory we live in a democracy ... and if there was a popular vote about letting the tech industry do to SanFran what it's been doing in the past, the techies would lose 90% to 10%, without a doubt.
- jimrandomh 9y agoThe displacement happened because zoning boards allowed the construction of lots of office space, and disallowed construction of most new housing. The zoning boards were controlled by wealthy retirees who wanted the price of their houses to go up, not by techies; the techies got screwed too.
- DanBC 9y agoPretty sure there's nothing that tech companies have done that justifies shooting at them.
- candiodari 9y agoSo what could they do that would actually have an effect ?
- closeparen 9y agoWe generally speak favorably of occupied communities violently expelling their colonizers, and express regret that populations which were forcibly relocated in history did not have the means to resist. Of course, an economic and population boom only reads this way due to the catastrophic failure of urban planning.
- xvf22 9y agoYup, it's just damn difficult to guard all busses all the time from a determined adversary. Hopefully the person backs down instead of escalating.
- JBlue42 9y agoWould have to assume this. As someone else said, stuff like this has been going on for a while, it's just a different. I doubt it will get up to guns -- this is the US, they would've just started there if their intent was to actually hurt someone. It's probably another person feeling disgruntled, disenfranchised, dispossessed with no real way to retaliate against the faceless corporations and other behemoths so they're acting out against a soft target. Another poster also pointed out going after Google workers vs the extremely wealthy. I would say that once you start seeing multiple assassinations of CEOs of major companies then it might be time to buy a plane ticket somewhere else.
- lovich 9y agoI had wondered when people would feel upset enough against the megacorps to attack them, but I didn't think it would happen in the near future
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- ocdtrekkie 9y agoBear in mind, this is merely an escalation (mind you, a violent one), of something that's already been going on since 2013. People have been staging protests in front of these buses for a while now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bus_protests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bus_protests
- ImSkeptical 9y agoI think people have a closing window in time where such things will be an option. There's a line from the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that goes something like "There is neither art nor skill at arms which will protect one man from one hundred of his fellows." In context, the author was trying to explain why emperors kept getting murdered. That basic idea has held for centuries, but as soon as security robots get good enough... AI, robotics, and guns might be the art that protects the rich elite of the near future from the displeasure of the near future's impoverished and exploited mob.
- jacknews 9y agoPresumably this very specific protection is paid for indirectly by the taxes Apple and Google pay.
- IntronExon 9y agoI’m bitter about FAANG’s tax avoidance as much as the next guy, but these people are also under the protection of our laws. No one deserves to be shot at for working with Google; shouted at maybe, but never shot at. As a country we can’t accept that, and in any case, everyone on those busses does pay taxes.
- jacknews 9y agoI agree, a crime is crime regardless, but it raises a question nonetheless. Additionally, if I as an individual were to go to the police claiming something similar I suspect they would tell me to claim on insurance, and to try to make myself less of a target by not advertising my identity. I doubt they'd be running fake cars on my commute to try and catch the perp. Maybe I'm wrong, but the police seem to be going the extra mile (quite literally) in this case.
- ameliaquining 9y agoI think that's because it's been affecting a fairly large number of people (compared to the number of perpetrators) over a fairly long period of time. I think it's also because it's public enough that the police are worried about the message that would be sent if they didn't seriously try to stop it.
- ImSkeptical 9y agoSuppose the shooter was shooting at public buses though. Would you still expect nothing to happen? The key difference between your car and a bus is that with the bus the safety of thirty people is involved, plus the willingness of many more people to use buses which the city has an interest in. Your car is you and your family's safety which is a fraction of the importance.
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- redleggedfrog 9y agoIf America doesn't get a handle on wealth disparity we're going to see a lot more of this, and certainly worse. You can say that attacking the buses the wrong thing to do, but the moral high ground isn't going to stop it from happening.
- Meekro 9y agoHow did Google employees making $250k/yr become the symbol of unfair distribution of wealth? Why not shoot at some CEO who makes $100m/yr? The Google employees on those buses are much closer in income to the typical protester than they are to the CEO. For that reason, I say this is just senseless violence that has nothing to do with wealth inequality.
- deelowe 9y agoBecause there's a concerted effort happening to point the blame at those who aren't the source of the problem.
- cinquemb 9y agoPMC's sometimes get killed when they are protecting someone/something they are paid to protect/enable… Employees of organizations like these could be considered PMC's in the eyes for someone who has out out for their employer…
- chrisbennet 9y ago“PMC” is what? Google didn’t help. Thx.
- cinquemb 9y agoPrivate Military Contractors
- ajmurmann 9y agoBecause there are lots more of those making $200k+ and they are competing for housing in more similar areas than poor people. The 100M CEO likely lives in a area that has been gentrified a very long time ago. Not saying it's justified or good. In fact I'm a pro gentrification [edit: typo was @verification"] market urbanist. Just trying to make sense of it as well.
- kevmo 9y agoI predict that there will be a rising tide of this sort of civil unrest until income inequality reverses direction.
- glenra 9y agoGiven that the US Gini index hasn't changed appreciably since the 1990s...why now?
- kevmo 9y agoBecause the rich can only hide behind statistical averages for so long.
- seattle_spring 9y agoBecause now it's those darn nerds making all of the money, and people just can't have that.
- closeparen 9y agoNo one lives in the national average. Things have gotten meaningfully worse here in the last few years.
- dahdum 9y agoIf they attack the bus filled with officers, does this also stack on additional charges for assault on the police?