4 ms·
Fair question, but I would also like to ask "What the f** is wrong with cops?". Receiving an anonymous call claiming some not-particularly-plausible threat at
by mcherm 2y ago
Fair question, but I would also like to ask "What the f** is wrong with cops?".
Receiving an anonymous call claiming some not-particularly-plausible threat at a particular location probably DOES deserve a police investigation. I see no reason why it impels police to drag people from their house in chains, threaten to shoot them, or actually shoot them.
If police responses were reasonable and proportionate to the plausibility of the threat then swatters would not be able to use them as a weapon.
- ToucanLoucan 2y agoExtremely valid points there.
- hinkley 2y agoShould be using plainclothes officers to scout out situations prior to sending in swat.
- luckylion 2y agoWhat is the reasonable and proportionate response? "Swatting" isn't really a thing in Germany, but we've always had other disproportionate responses to single phone calls. One call (or even an email) that threatens to blow up the air port, or some particular air plane, and it's shut down for hours until they've looked in all the places you could hide a serious bomb (presumably, I have no idea what their "okay, I guess it was a hoax" signal is). But what's the alternative when somebody plausibly describes a situation that indicates someone is in extreme danger? Send out a single cruiser the next day to check out what was up?
- bigiain 2y agoI'm pretty sure that the US is unique in it's propensity for SWAT teams to shoot first ask questions later. Same way as the US is the only nation in the world where it's impossible to prevent weekly school mass shootings.
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- stavros 2y agoWhat happens in Germany when someone plausibly describes a situation that indicates someone is in extreme danger? Over here (in Greece), police officers will knock on your door, say they had a report and need to check, and then walk in and look around. I've heard of reports of domestic violence, child molestation, things like that, and it's always the same. They rush to the place, knock on the door, look around, and arrest the people they need to arrest. What they don't do is start shooting.
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- Ajedi32 2y agoWhat if in the call they claim the suspect is armed and threatening to start shooting hostages if the police show up? Do they still just knock on the door?
- stavros 2y agoWhat if in the call they claim the suspect has a nuclear bomb and is threatening to blow up the city? It's kind of a similar scenario, given that I can't remember either of these ever happening. People here don't tend to have guns.
- Ajedi32 2y agoPeople in the US "don't tend to" take hostages and threaten to shoot them either. "Don't tend to" isn't the same as "it never happens".
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- stavros 2y agoYeah, this never happens here. Even if it did happen once a decade, it wouldn't be a valid reason to worry about once a week, and it wouldn't be a single anonymous person calling in a tip that someone is threatening to shoot hostages.
- saghm 2y agoYeah, as much as swatting is shitty behavior, I think kids behaving egregiously is a lot more understandable than adults whose job is ostensibly the protection of everyone.
- Ajedi32 2y agoYeah, it seems like they take the seriousness of the threat into account when determining the response, but not the plausibility of the threat. If there's a 1% chance that the house contains a deranged gunman threatening to shoot his family and then himself, that probably shouldn't be met with the same response as a 30% chance of the same... There are probably a lot of situations where it's a tough call though.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y agoYeah wtf is wrong with cops being on edge when they think they're responding to a mass shooting. How dare they! Future headline: Police ignore mass shooting because they thought it was a prank
- baq 2y ago'there's no way to stop this' says the government of the only country where this happens regularly. source: the onion [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27No_Way_to_Prevent_This,%27_Says_Only_Nation_Where_This_Regularly_Happens#/media/File:The_Onion_Homepage_05252022.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27No_Way_to_Prevent_This,%27_...
- bena 2y agoYou only linked the image. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27No_Way_to_Prevent_This,%27_Says_Only_Nation_Where_This_Regularly_Happens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27No_Way_to_Prevent_This,%27_...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y agoWhat do you propose? Have you wondered why police here act as they do? Could it be all of the guns, gangs, mass shootings, and crime? We ain't like Europe in this regard.
- datavirtue 2y agoThe cops are reflective of the system that they operate in. Same as everyone else. Change the system, change behavior.