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Girlfriend warned Nashville police Anthony Warner was building bomb a year ago
- vorticalbox 6y ago>They saw no evidence of a crime and had no authority to enter his home or fenced property Is making a bomb a crime in the US? It feels like it would be so any report stating someone is creating one should probably give powers to investigate?
- burnthrow 6y agoHave you really thought this through?
- vorticalbox 6y agoClearly not.
- cjohnson318 6y agoMaking a bomb inside a police station is illegal, if it's in your backyard and there's no evidence of a crime, then it's totes okay.
- j16sdiz 6y agoCould violate some zoning / land use law
- Rebelgecko 6y agoThe list of things that the ATF considers to be "explosives" excludes a lot of things that are capable of going boom. Playing with explosives that you can legally make at home isn't an unheard of past time (even chemistry kits for kids used to include some crazy shit 30+ years ago. They don't any more, but I think that's more due to lawsuit aversion than legality) If he was just mixing tannerite in a relatively safe context he wouldn't have been breaking any laws.
- avalys 6y agoUm, hello, 911? I believe my neighbor vorticalbox is making a bomb. Better go have a look inside his house. I also heard he is hoarding illegal weapons and ammunition, so you should be prepared for a fight.
- vorticalbox 6y agoI 'believe' is different from 'I have seen vorticalbox making a bomb in his car'
- kilmarnock_pd 6y agoHow would you feel, Aaron, if strangers on the internet had the power of getting the police to your house based on bogus claims?
- dang 6y agoYou can't do this here and we've banned the account. Doing it will get your main account banned as well, so please don't. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- sneak 6y agoSearch warrants have been issued, and indeed mass murder by the ATF, has been conducted on about that much before. Most people have no idea how appallingly low the barrier to obtaining a search warrant is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege Specifically: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#The_Aguilera_affidavit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#The_Aguilera_affida...
- dumpsterdiver 6y agoWhat are you talking about? Are you reporting a crime?
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoSo if I call up the cops and claim you are doing something illegal, without evidence, they should break into your place and look? There's a lot of risk for abuse there.
- lvturner 6y agoYes, there is. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting
- colejohnson66 6y agoThat’s an example of what reality is. Not evidence that it should be reality.
- jeffbee 6y agoThat’s how our system works today, how it has worked for a long time, and how it should continue to work. The Fourth Amendment calls for “probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation”. If someone says they personally witnessed another person building a bomb in their car, that is more than enough grounds for a search warrant.
- vorticalbox 6y agoThis isn't some random call to the police, this is from a person who was in the house, who witnessed the bomb being made and then reported this to the police.
- morpheuskafka 6y agoThis is really confusing... the ex-girlfriend and Warner had the same attorney? Who was both calling the police on behalf of the woman and telling them Warner was a threat, and then stating on his behalf that he didn't agree to any searches? I don't see how this would have not have been a serious conflict of interest that would have required the lawyer to stop representing either or both parties.
- Arnavion 6y agoHe says the second one isn't true. >Throckmorton told The Tennessean while he represented Warner in a civil matter several years ago, Warner was no longer a client of his in August 2019. He disputes that he told police they couldn't search the RV. >"I have no memory of that whatsoever," Throckmorton said of MNPD's claim that said they could not inspect the RV. "I didn’t represent him anymore. He wasn’t an active client. I'm not a criminal defense attorney." Worst case, the PD might be making an excuse (either now or at the time of the original report) for why they didn't follow up properly.
- DeafSquid 6y agoPolice were warned but didn't act. How many times have we heard that now?
- SN76477 6y agoThey are too busy chasing bad guys. /s The policing system needs an overhaul
- avalys 6y agoBetter cut their funding, that will help them spend more time following up on uncorroborated accusations from ex-girlfriends as in this case.
- dumpsterdiver 6y agoSarcasm? Do you not believe that our law enforcement officers are actually chasing real bad guys? Are "bad guys" just a made up strawman in your mind?
- bronco21016 6y agoI think the implication is that the ‘bad guys’ maybe shouldn’t actually be the ‘bad guys’. Our nation spends an obscene amount of money on the war on drugs. I’m not advocating for mass legalization of everything imaginable but maybe we should lay off a little bit? I mean do we need fully armored militias chasing down pot dealers? It seems like resources are tied up in drugs and stuff like this maybe doesn’t get as much attention because of that.
- ric2b 6y agoMost "bad guys" that are arrested are non-violent drug users. If those are "real bad guys" is up to your personal morals.
- colejohnson66 6y agoThey did act. > They saw no evidence of a crime and had no authority to enter his home or fenced property They did their due diligence and couldn’t do anything more. Are we supposed to live in such a police state where a single warning would be enough to ruin your life?
- tra3 6y ago> Officers saw his RV behind the house, but the vehicle was fenced off and police were unable to see inside of it, the report said. > "They saw no evidence of a crime and had no authority to enter his home or fenced property," Aaron said of officers' unsuccessful attempt to make contact with Warner or look inside the RV. > Later that day, Aaron said, "the FBI reported back that they checked their holdings and found no records on Warner at all." What was the reasonable course of action here? They didn’t see anything suspicious, no prior records. Anything more would be overstepping their authority, no?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- asimpletune 6y agoI mean, they could have at least asked him, “we heard you’re making a bomb, is that true?” Sure, he may have said “of course not”, but they didn’t even talk to him so we don’t know.
- trevyn 6y ago>What was the reasonable course of action here? Return the next day and knock again.
- postingpals 6y ago>They saw no evidence of a crime and had no authority to enter his home or fenced property Weird, this hasn't stopped the police before.
- avalys 6y agoHe had no criminal record and it appears the only complaint against him was an uncorroborated and non-specific accusation from the girlfriend that he talked about bombs a lot, and a similarly vague concern from her attorney. The police seem to have done what they could. We don’t want to live in a country where that would be enough evidence to invade and search his property without consent. (incidentally, I believe this is the first time I have encountered the name “Throckmorton” in real life)
- madaxe_again 6y agoPull the other one - if his name sounded foreign, or if he had been black, they would have been there with a swat team, and he would have been shot on sight. As to invade and search without consent... you just get a midnight court to rubberstamp your no-knock raid. There’s your consent. Maybe you didn’t notice the extensive protests about bias in policing in the US this year. The police do a hell of a lot more over a hell of a lot less - it just depends on your socioeconomic background and skin colour.
- tsimionescu 6y agoSure, but that's not normality, no one wants that to be standard police response. The whole point of the recent protests is to get real protections for all people, regardless of race or nationaloty, not to strip white Americans of theirs.
- madaxe_again 6y agoI don’t know, I think if white Americans were subjected to the same experiences as non-white Americans, then perhaps police reform would become an important topic for white Americans.
- tsimionescu 6y agoMaking a crisis bigger so more people will react to it doesn't sound like a good strategy for fixing the crisis.
- spicyramen 6y agoWe need Palantir predicting crimes /s
- notthemessiah 6y agoReminds me of another bombing incident, where the FBI was warned by the Russian FSB that the Boston Bombers, the Tsarnaevs, had associated with Islamist militant extremists: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-explosions-boston-congress/russia-warned-u-s-about-boston-marathon-bomb-suspect-tsarnaev-report-idUSBREA2P02Q20140326 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-explosions-boston-con... Yet, millions of dollars were being poured into "Fusion Centers", efforts to coordinate activities between intelligence agencies and local law enforcement: what were they doing? Turns out they were busy monitoring Occupy Boston, same as Fusion Centers across the country: http://www.justiceonline.org/unaware_of_tsarnaev_warnings http://www.justiceonline.org/unaware_of_tsarnaev_warnings They always ask for more surveillance funding/powers, yet they never have a good answer when it comes to what they do when they're granted such powers.
- lovecg 6y agoA familiar situation to anyone who worked in a large organization of any kind. What’s really needed on the ground and what gets funded by the top are often only tangentially related.
- sneak 6y agoThe military and security services have deployed vast, illegal domestic spying networks, on the basis that if USians give up their privacy, they will be able to exchange it for safety. Here we see that not only is that untrue, but also that even with tips they can't seem to get basic, non-surveillance policework right. Remind me again why we tolerate these abuses in the name of safety? We and they now know they aren't being used for safety, if indeed that was even possible. What else could and will these massive surveillance powers be used for?
- dvdbloc 6y agoProviding “jobs” and enriching executives basically.
- darawk 6y agoIt is important to keep in mind that when security is working, you don't see any evidence of it. We don't actually know how many terrorist attacks have been stopped by this surveillance. It may well be a lot. It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that many have been. Which is why it's so important that we do not ground criticisms of surveillance in arguments about efficacy. Surveillance is effective, or at least, it can be. Surveillance is wrong because it concentrates too much power in the hands of the government.
- sillysaurusx 6y agoThere's nothing to indicate he was anything but a lonely old guy: https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2020/12/27/anthony-quinn-warner-confirmed-person-interest-nashville-explosion/4052711001/ https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2020/12/27/antho... He was a shut-in. He was nearing the end of his life. He transferred his house to a woman for $0. He had no obvious political ideology. He loved his pets dearly – all of whom had died. And at the end of it, no one was hurt but himself and some infrastructure. The idea that this could have been prevented by police is simply mistaken. There was nothing to be done. Fertilizer and whatever else goes into a bomb is readily acquirable, and he did lots of yard work so it probably didn't even seem suspicious for him to purchase the ingredients (possibly over a period of years).
- aaronbrethorst 6y agono one was hurt but himself Actually: The blast injured at least eight people https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/28/us/nashville-bomb-christmas-monday/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/28/us/nashville-bomb-christmas-m...
- sillysaurusx 6y agoThank you for the correction!
- aaronbrethorst 6y agoOn a less 'well, actually' note, I want to take up one other thing you wrote: that nothing could've been done to prevent this. And I agree: within the context of the status quo, it appears that nothing could have been done to stop this man from loading up his RV with homemade explosives and blowing up a chunk of Nashville. But, I think we (collectively, as a society) owe it to each other to think about what we can do to reduce social isolation. This is attenuated by the pandemic where we are caring for each other by isolating ourselves from each other. However, we're at least halfway through this thing. What can we do on the other side to ameliorate chronic isolation of other people, especially elderly folks? I'm not asking you for answers. Just asking folks who read this to think about it.
- someperson 6y agoThe NYT article has a lot of other details: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/29/us/nashville-bomber-anthony-warner.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/29/us/nashville-bomber-antho... Fortunately the guy didn't hurt anything other than himself and some property damage.
- grzm 6y agoFrom the article you posted: > “The R.V., which has been identified by state and federal officials as the one that exploded in downtown Nashville, injuring three and disrupting telecommunications in the region”
- cosmiccatnap 6y agoI suppose they were probably to preoccupied with killing and imprisoning people of color