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There are estimated to be thousands of swatting incidents in a given year, so the "super boring" result evidently happens the vast majority of the time in the U

by vba616 4y ago

There are estimated to be thousands of swatting incidents in a given year, so the "super boring" result evidently happens the vast majority of the time in the US too. It's also not always that boring in other countries. Here is an example that involved more than some questions and leaving: https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/18-year-old-arrested-in-canada-for-swatting-volunteer-high-school-in-august/ https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/18-year-old-arrested-in-cana...

midoridensha 4y ago
Canada isn't that different from the US. Outside of North America, you don't have to worry about police violence too much in developed nations.
29083011397778 4y ago
From your linked article: > An 18-year-old has been arrested in Canada after investigators traced “swatting” calls at Volunteer High School in Hawkins County and Watauga High School in Boone, N.C. to him. Note that the caller was in Canada, but the swatting and presumably violent police response was in North Carolina. Swatting is as American as apple pie and baseball, IMO.
- vba616 4y ago
  "presumably violent police response" The article appears to describe a non-violent response, so you may be wrong in this case as well as about the normal outcome.
jackmott42 4y ago
Good to know I got only a 1 in 1000 chance of dying because Americans are so hyped up on fake maga tough guy takes that we can't agree to hold police accountable for their behavior.
- vba616 4y ago
  That's not what I was trying to communicate. I know I can't win the argument you'd like to start about the absolute risk and whether it's tolerable. I don't want to! My point was about the variance, and false confidence that two small rates are truly different. Even when one is zero, so the other is infinity percent larger. It's not that 1/1000 is "low" or "high" in terms of human cost - that is in the eye of the beholder. The point is that the frequency of rare events is highly sensitive to random chance, and so even with hypothetical perfect records you can't pretend different numbers are necessarily different rates. Much less if you guess at numbers based on prejudices. "How to Lie With Statistics" desperately needs a sequel.

by vba616 4y ago

midoridensha 4y ago

Canada isn't that different from the US. Outside of North America, you don't have to worry about police violence too much in developed nations.

29083011397778 4y ago

From your linked article: > An 18-year-old has been arrested in Canada after investigators traced “swatting” calls at Volunteer High School in Hawkins County and Watauga High School in Boone, N.C. to him. Note that the caller was in Canada, but the swatting and presumably violent police response was in North Carolina. Swatting is as American as apple pie and baseball, IMO.

vba616 4y ago
"presumably violent police response" The article appears to describe a non-violent response, so you may be wrong in this case as well as about the normal outcome.

jackmott42 4y ago

Good to know I got only a 1 in 1000 chance of dying because Americans are so hyped up on fake maga tough guy takes that we can't agree to hold police accountable for their behavior.

vba616 4y ago
That's not what I was trying to communicate. I know I can't win the argument you'd like to start about the absolute risk and whether it's tolerable. I don't want to! My point was about the variance, and false confidence that two small rates are truly different. Even when one is zero, so the other is infinity percent larger. It's not that 1/1000 is "low" or "high" in terms of human cost - that is in the eye of the beholder. The point is that the frequency of rare events is highly sensitive to random chance, and so even with hypothetical perfect records you can't pretend different numbers are necessarily different rates. Much less if you guess at numbers based on prejudices. "How to Lie With Statistics" desperately needs a sequel.