4 ms·

The news has a running meme along the lines of "absurd white person calls police on black person". Many of these phone calls allege the victim is acting violen

The news has a running meme along the lines of "absurd white person calls police on black person". Many of these phone calls allege the victim is acting violent, has a gun, etc. Is it possible to bring "swatting" charges against these people? It seems the only reason they don't end badly is because the caller is so obviously defective that the police show up irritated and bored instead of ready to do some hero stuff. I get that the usual response is "We don't want to discourage people from calling the police" but when you're trying to elicit a violent police response against your victim, it seems it's in society's best interest to bring charges.

whatshisface 8y ago
It's the police's job to not shoot innocent people. The presence of a police officer should never be a bad thing.
Nasrudith 8y ago
I think it has to do with laws being based off of belief and intent. Doing it based on false intentions or recognized frivolity is required and eyewitnesses are unreliable enough to have vast degrees of plausible deniability. See someone in black trying the door heavily when they try to housesit the wrong house and you could reasonably believe them a possibility armed burglar. Similarly calling 911 on a "cougar" which is simply a big stray cat isn't a crime even if it turns out to be a total waste of time. I think they would basically have to get caught conspiring to make false calls for it to remotely stick - just being a racist asshole isn't enough. There was one case I heard about a senile old woman who was just functional enough to retain independence legally. She called the police many times over every little thing but couldn't be charged with abuse of 911 because she was sincere and thought there really was a threat from say the landscapper showing up at a neighbor's house. One case was someone trying to get her out of her house and institutionalized - the police showed up and asked the guy to leave and let him know the situation - yes she isn't the best but there is nothing we can do about it legally.
tzs 8y ago
They don't end violently probably because they are inherently much less dangerous than swatting situations. In a swatting situation, the person calling it in: (1) often claims to be the criminal and includes threats, (2) reports that the crime is in progress, often with people already harmed, (3) places the crime somewhere that will make it hard for arriving officers to access the situation safely if it turns out the report is real, (4) if it is real there is a good chance lethal force will need to be used to save multiple innocent lives and there is a good chance that decision will have to be made quickly. In a "stranger with a gun is in the neighborhood situation", even one reported as acting aggressive, (1) the caller is not claiming to be the person, (2) they are not claiming anything criminal has happened yet, (3) they are usually reporting the person outside where arriving police will be able to get a good look at the situation quickly, (4) even if it is real and the person is there to commit some crime, it's probably just an economic crime (break into a car, at worst a mugging) and the person is not going to turn violent on the police--the person almost certainly knows that the police won't have enough to arrest him and so he will just have to answer a few questions and leave.

whatshisface 8y ago

It's the police's job to not shoot innocent people. The presence of a police officer should never be a bad thing.

Nasrudith 8y ago

I think it has to do with laws being based off of belief and intent. Doing it based on false intentions or recognized frivolity is required and eyewitnesses are unreliable enough to have vast degrees of plausible deniability. See someone in black trying the door heavily when they try to housesit the wrong house and you could reasonably believe them a possibility armed burglar. Similarly calling 911 on a "cougar" which is simply a big stray cat isn't a crime even if it turns out to be a total waste of time. I think they would basically have to get caught conspiring to make false calls for it to remotely stick - just being a racist asshole isn't enough. There was one case I heard about a senile old woman who was just functional enough to retain independence legally. She called the police many times over every little thing but couldn't be charged with abuse of 911 because she was sincere and thought there really was a threat from say the landscapper showing up at a neighbor's house. One case was someone trying to get her out of her house and institutionalized - the police showed up and asked the guy to leave and let him know the situation - yes she isn't the best but there is nothing we can do about it legally.

tzs 8y ago

They don't end violently probably because they are inherently much less dangerous than swatting situations. In a swatting situation, the person calling it in: (1) often claims to be the criminal and includes threats, (2) reports that the crime is in progress, often with people already harmed, (3) places the crime somewhere that will make it hard for arriving officers to access the situation safely if it turns out the report is real, (4) if it is real there is a good chance lethal force will need to be used to save multiple innocent lives and there is a good chance that decision will have to be made quickly. In a "stranger with a gun is in the neighborhood situation", even one reported as acting aggressive, (1) the caller is not claiming to be the person, (2) they are not claiming anything criminal has happened yet, (3) they are usually reporting the person outside where arriving police will be able to get a good look at the situation quickly, (4) even if it is real and the person is there to commit some crime, it's probably just an economic crime (break into a car, at worst a mugging) and the person is not going to turn violent on the police--the person almost certainly knows that the police won't have enough to arrest him and so he will just have to answer a few questions and leave.