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There seems to be some room for innovation here. The police are throwing these things blind. Evidence? Well, I refuse to believe anyone, no matter how debase
by beloch 12y ago
There seems to be some room for innovation here. The police are throwing these things blind. Evidence? Well, I refuse to believe anyone, no matter how debased, would intentionally throw a flashbang into a baby's crib. What's needed is a flashbang that either won't go off if in close proximity to a living being (e.g. perhaps add an IR sensor) or a flashbang that is triggered remotely, so it can be thrown, spotted, and triggered only if in a desirable location.
Personally, I think building a flashbang that's harder to injure people with will simply result in increasingly idiotic behavior on the part of the police. The real solution is to use flashbangs less and with better training. That means regulations and oversight because the police apparently suck at policing themselves. However, the U.S. loves to solve problems with tech even when it's not the best solution, so there's money to be made here.
- Zigurd 12y agoIt shouldn't be necessary to do paramilitary raids of homes unless there is some desperate situation like hostages being killed.
- rdtsc 12y ago> Well, I refuse to believe anyone, no matter how debased, would intentionally throw a flashbang into a baby's crib I can. In the extended circle of acquintances, two of the cops are the worst abusers of their families, children & wives, the are the most racists and full of hatred. One would enjoy showing others how he would spin his son by his hand while simultaneously kicking him in the back with his foot (granted this is not a US policeman, not that a US policemen are somehow qualitatively more noble). I think there is link between saddism (enjoyment of inflicticting pain) and choosing to be that kind of a profession (just like there might be a link between wanting to help people and choosing to do it).
- anigbrowl 12y agoSadly, statistics back you up in this case. US police appear to have a much higher propensity to engage in domestic violence than the general population: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/09/police-officers-who-hit-their-wives-or-girlfriends/380329/ http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/09/police-o...
- click170 12y agoIsn't that just a band-air for the real problem, which is the general culture of infalibility at many police departments and the shocking lack of training in light of the fact that they've been given military grade toys?
- kassemi 12y agoYes, but we can always try to solve the inconviences of our world in multiple venues. Let's try politics and simultaneously use the ingenuity we have to solve the problem while politics resolves. I'd bet by stopping the water supply (out), disabling wifi and power, we can solve the destruction of evidence issue which could warrant the police actions. Additionally, we could send a robot in place to search for unsafe conditions prior to the entry by armed police. What other issues do we need to solve make this not happen while we wait for politics to catch up?
- zanny 12y agoBiggest issue is that the military suppliers that end up giving local PDs all this war tech are being paid federally on an untouchable military budget. They produce the flashbangs outside market conditions at all and under guaranteed federal contracts, and when the US military doesn't actually need more tanks, APVs, and flashbangs they get raffled off to police departments. So build your personnel sensing flashbang, these PD's won't get them, they rarely pay for this stuff. Its mostly free, or at least its on a fixed grant they need to spend or lose. There is no real market for a police department to deploy tanks and SWAT in a town of a thousand people.
- philwelch 12y ago> Well, I refuse to believe anyone, no matter how debased, would intentionally throw a flashbang into a baby's crib. Read some stories of the Holocaust, then. They didn't have flashbangs, but there were cases of babies being killed by being repeatedly swung into brick walls.
- caf 12y agoI've read the same about the Rwandan Genocide.
- brazzy 12y agoThe Cambodian killing fields as well. However, you have to remember that in none of these cases did the perpetrators act spontaneously on random victims. They were all primed to see the victims as part of a group both inferior (i.e. not deserving of empathy) and threatening (i.e. to be feared, hated and eliminated).
- ars 12y ago> Well, I refuse to believe anyone, no matter how debased, would intentionally throw a flashbang into a baby's crib. I partly agree. I don't think even the very worst cop would do it (so I agree it was unintentional in this case). But I do think there are people who are debased enough to do so on purpose.