4 ms·

>When the police are trained to de-escalate first instead of shoot first, swatting will stop. Apparently he attempted to by asking Finch to raise his hands, an

>When the police are trained to de-escalate first instead of shoot first, swatting will stop. Apparently he attempted to by asking Finch to raise his hands, and instead the hands went to pull up his pants instead. If true, and police/swat are called to the scene of a murder with additional hostages, then a person leaving the residence reaches for their waist area instead of complying with a request to raise his hands...its simply tragic. But I assure you, if the officer didn't shoot Finch, swatting wouldn't stop. Its not like these guys would have said well we swatted the address and swat didn't kill the guy...so lets stop swatting. They would have sat in the safety of their own home laughing and virtual high-fiving each other for a job well done and planning the next. Its become a scapegoat for mass shootings, which is unfortunate, but people who do this are some combination of psychopath, mentally ill, and/or on drugs. Society simply has no interest in acknowledging or managing these people.

HarryHirsch 7y ago
Society simply has no interest in acknowledging or managing these people Are you talking about the police?
- throwaway_law 7y ago
  Society marginalizes these people, making them even more isolated and dangerous. Society doesn't allocate enough funds to identify and treat these individuals...so it only makes sense this filters down to government institutions and individual employees who are not equipped to handle them, this certainly includes schools/teachers; police; and courts. A lot of fingers are pointed at the officer, which may or may not be useful here. At the end of the day someone was shot and killed, and all we have is the officer testimony that he asked the person's hands be raised but the hands went to his waistband. Maybe it is bullshit (I hope there was video to at least confirm the testimony and it wasn't an outright lie), but the reality is the officer was responding to a hostage situation with 1 alleged death already. I get it we all want to see some officer magically save the day and stop these tragic events from unfolding. Maybe their training confirms this isn't a real hostage situation, its kids swatting someone over a stupid video game, but society doesn't train officers for that, they are trained to respond, and if you have responded to a hostage situation, demand to see hands, demand hands be raised, and instead the go to a waistband, what follows is what they trained to do. I see this stuff every day in mental health court, and mental health court (in my jurisdiction) is new and its voluntary...and I can confirm no one has been trained to deal with these people and you can't expect more from teachers/officers/judges/attorneys without that training...and that training only comes from society demanding funding, but they don't.
michaelmrose 7y ago
If swatting continued but it was merely an embarrassment and annoyance it wouldn't be such a problem. The police are 99.9% of the problem here and thus that is where the solution lies.

HarryHirsch 7y ago

Society simply has no interest in acknowledging or managing these people Are you talking about the police?

throwaway_law 7y ago
Society marginalizes these people, making them even more isolated and dangerous. Society doesn't allocate enough funds to identify and treat these individuals...so it only makes sense this filters down to government institutions and individual employees who are not equipped to handle them, this certainly includes schools/teachers; police; and courts. A lot of fingers are pointed at the officer, which may or may not be useful here. At the end of the day someone was shot and killed, and all we have is the officer testimony that he asked the person's hands be raised but the hands went to his waistband. Maybe it is bullshit (I hope there was video to at least confirm the testimony and it wasn't an outright lie), but the reality is the officer was responding to a hostage situation with 1 alleged death already. I get it we all want to see some officer magically save the day and stop these tragic events from unfolding. Maybe their training confirms this isn't a real hostage situation, its kids swatting someone over a stupid video game, but society doesn't train officers for that, they are trained to respond, and if you have responded to a hostage situation, demand to see hands, demand hands be raised, and instead the go to a waistband, what follows is what they trained to do. I see this stuff every day in mental health court, and mental health court (in my jurisdiction) is new and its voluntary...and I can confirm no one has been trained to deal with these people and you can't expect more from teachers/officers/judges/attorneys without that training...and that training only comes from society demanding funding, but they don't.

michaelmrose 7y ago

If swatting continued but it was merely an embarrassment and annoyance it wouldn't be such a problem. The police are 99.9% of the problem here and thus that is where the solution lies.