• capnminus@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    315
    ·
    13 天前

    you have to be one sick twisted individual to be swatting a person, let alone a freaking elderly woman

    • Soulifix@piefed.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      34
      ·
      12 天前

      We’re in Generation Duh where people think doing this kind of thing is funny. But it’s funny only to them, was thought up of in 2 minutes, then discarded once any attention has been brought to it before they think of the next stupid idea that they think is funny.

    • matchaotter@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      12 天前

      It’s only be more American if the cops entered her home and shot her while claiming a controller was a gun

  • daggermoon@piefed.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    125
    ·
    12 天前

    This happens frequently enough where you’d think there would be a system in place to prevent this type of abuse.

      • EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        edit-2
        12 天前

        they now are responsible for potentially more victims.

        No they are not. Multiple court cases have exonerated police for failing to respond or not responding quickly enough. See: Uvalde (among many others).

        They are trying to play it both ways: not responsible but also must respond in the most over-the-top aggressive manner possible.

    • iamthetot@piefed.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      12 天前

      It’s the ol’ “boy who cried wolf” situation. You probably don’t want public services like police and firefighters deciding which calls seem real or not.

      • Canaconda@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        12 天前

        K but there has to be some happy medium between 20 swat cars and showing up 2 hours after the pizza driver.

        • iamthetot@piefed.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          12 天前

          It’s really easy to say that when you’re not the one calling the police because there’s an actual madman with a gun holding your loved one hostage. I think it’s a tough situation that, really, has more to do with the overall culture in America than how emergency services respond to particular calls. If the overall level of potential danger was lower due to cultural reasons, I think then we could talk.

        • calcopiritus@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          12 天前

          Showing up with 20 swat cars doesn’t mean that there’s 20 swat cars blindly shooting at the house.

          There’s no harm on just showing up. As long as they verify the claims before acting on them, I don’t see the issue.

          The only issue is that it is expensive and may break a door or something. Which is why the caller should be tracked, and made to pay for all of it.

  • flop_leash_973@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    114
    ·
    edit-2
    12 天前

    Takes a special kind of asshole to swat a little old lady for trying to host a wholesome gaming stream for a good cause.

    • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      100
      ·
      12 天前

      The fact that swating still happens just proves how much of a joke policing is in general. The fact that you can get a bunch of gun-wielding adrenaline junkies to show up somewhere, frothing at the mouth for violence, in the most spurious of ways is a damning indictment for the whole institution.

        • merc@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          14
          ·
          12 天前

          If you don’t have someone authorized by the state to enforce laws, you’re still going to get people enforcing “laws”, it’s just going to be vigilantes, people with grudges, etc. Just look how frequently you see incidents of road rage. Cops basically exist to prevent people from taking revenge into their own hands.

          Take all those incidents of people calling the cops on black men having a picnic or taking their dogs for a walk. If there were no cops, do you think these white “Karens” would just leave the black men alone? Or do you think they’d get together and lynch them?

          I think the US needs to scale its policing way back. It needs mental health specialists to respond to certain kinds of calls. The person who responds to a report of a stolen bike probably shouldn’t have a gun. But, at some point you are going to need people who will use physical force to enforce the law. Those people should be heavily supervised by a truly independent body. But, they still need to exist in some form.

          • 7101334@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            24
            ·
            12 天前

            Cops basically exist to prevent people from taking revenge into their own hands.

            No, cops exist to protect capital.

            This is just one example too, they’ve issued multiple similar rulings. Also, uh, see: Uvalde.

            If there were no cops, do you think these white “Karens” would just leave the black men alone? Or do you think they’d get together and lynch them?

            …you think cops keep black people safe? Are you being remotely serious here?

          • binux@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            edit-2
            12 天前

            Yeah, this is what a lot of people fail to take into account when it comes to the purpose of policing in society. There’s obviously a lot of inherent problems with the way the police are structured in many countries as a whole, but to believe that we can just make do without something like them altogether is pretty shortsighted to say the least. I think that prevents a lot of otherwise sympathetic people from taking the backlash against police institutions seriously.

            • Danquebec@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              edit-2
              12 天前

              Yea it’s funny how they just angry downvote, and if they reply at all, they don’t really respond to the points. Who will do the fucking policing if there’s no police??? There will always be people who need to be forcefully stopped from what they’re doing.

              • binux@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                12 天前

                I think the idea generally is to replace the police with social welfare programs and unarmed crisis responders, but that’s jumping through so many hoops that it just sounds way too simplistic tbh. It sounds practical, but it treats the problem like it’s something that can be improved with just a few institutions reforming/being abolished.

                There’s never been a society without some form of justice system since cruelty is a part of human nature, and at this point these systems are far too intertwined and embedded in our societies for them to change dramatically without some form of societal collapse or retraction.

                Idealism is well and good but the things many want in place of police institutions seem like they’re ignoring how complex and non-specific the issues are as a whole. It’s definitely not a one size fits all situation, especially with how many factors there are. People can disagree with me but I’d prefer to hear why at least, there are probably things I’m not considering here.

          • ∟⊔⊤∦∣≶@lemmy.nz
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            12 天前

            Yeah for people downvoting this, cops being a problem is largely an American thing. In many other places around the world they are actually beneficial.

            • 7101334@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              11 天前

              Weird how many videos I’ve seen of German police beating anti-genocide protestors and British police arresting seniors for expressing anti-genocide opinions. Maybe that was just an American psyop.

              White supremacy is the problem, and America may have the worst case of that, but certainly not the only case.

            • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              11 天前

              Yeah, Thunberg was definitely arrested in America. Just, uh, don’t google it.

              Cops can be amenable with enough controls, sure, but they ultimately serve capital, man.

  • Guy Ingonito@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    110
    ·
    12 天前

    Reminder that SWAT was created in response to the black panthers. It’s a Jim Crow tool for dealing with uppity blacks that know their rights.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    104
    ·
    12 天前

    Just here to point out that it’s not normal for a military response to some rando calling in a hit on someone’s house.

    A normal response is a check by a single police car with two officers. One to knock on the door and ask questions. The other to remain with the vehicle to call in any issues.

    This is a police state.

    • modus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      32
      ·
      12 天前

      They probably reported to the operator an excess of melanin at the residence.

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      edit-2
      12 天前

      It really depends on what the call in was.

      If someone says there’s an active threat and their life is in danger, sending 1 car would would be gross negligence and a danger to the officers.

      Now, this call, seems excessive. I dont know what would warrant that response even if it was an active threat.

      • Wolf314159@startrek.website
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        11 天前

        That’s an argument to be made, but I don’t believe that is true at all. Sending one car to check on the safety/welfare of one active threat seems an entirely reasonable balance of risk. An unverified active threat is not at all the same as a confirmed active threat. That should be obvious simply by the existence of “swatting” as a common term and act these days.

        It is not the duty of police to protect people from eminent harm, they have argued this themselves in court. Their job is strictly punitive, again an argument they have made in court many times. They only pretend to “protect and serve” when it suits their agenda of justification for their over inflated budgets. This isn’t a public safety issue. It’s a class warfare issue.

      • Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        11 天前

        Yeah, you send one car first and have the other ready. It’s insane to send 20 cars instantly for an unverified anonymous tip. Idc if the caller said there’s an army of cannibals killing dozens of people, it’s still an unverified anonymous tip. If it’s real you’ll get more phone calls or the first car will radio it in.

  • rustydrd@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    88
    ·
    edit-2
    12 天前

    Kudos to granny for being so positive about it and acknowledging that the cops have to follow up on the calls they receive, but if some anonymous tipster can bring down a SWAT team on some grandma’s house without any kind of check being triggered, that might indicate that there are some problems about how these issues are being handled. Other people may get out of this with much worse than a funny story to tell when two dozen cops decide to visit their house at night.

    • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      42
      ·
      12 天前

      People have already died from swatting. Faster and cheaper than hiring an assassin.

      • Skyrmir@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        12 天前

        From the point of contact, or including time to find a good one? A good assassin can be very quick.

        I’ll give ya cheaper though. Good work costs good money.

    • Spacehooks@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      31
      ·
      12 天前

      Its called swatting. You call police and say someone is dangerous and they come running with all the gear to justify the bloated budgets. Kids were doing this pretty often in the news a decade ago. Especially to streamers.

    • PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      12 天前

      It’s an American thing. The goal is to hopefully use the police to kill the streamer since police often are skittish and tend to shoot first before verifying what is going on.

        • Zink@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          12 天前

          Because the police are mercenaries, not wild animals. They generally don’t bite the hand that feeds. Besides, they still have 99% of the population to target.

        • merc@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          12 天前

          Why don’t the king’s guards attack the king?

          The police know their job is to enforce the law, but they also know who gets a free pass… or at least who gets a lot more leeway than other people. At a minimum it changes “shoot first and ask questions later” into “ask questions then maybe shoot”.

      • Bazoogle@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        12 天前

        I don’t think the goal is to get them killed most of the time. It’s mostly kids thinking they’re “pranking” them, and just want to scare them.

  • 87Six@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    73
    ·
    12 天前

    How the fuck is swatting even a thing?

    Can just anyone call the police, yell “BOMB AT X ADDRESS!” and they just show up, tear down doors and throw you to the ground???

    All, without repercussions???

  • biggerbogboy@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    53
    ·
    12 天前

    And these police organisations keep spouting “but we need more funds, to protect the community”

    No, you fucking dont, you’re wasting your resources by attempting to uphold your strict quotas rather than actually serve and protect the community.

  • lechekaflan@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    49
    ·
    12 天前

    Why I quit MMOs and never looked back, because even more than 20 years ago toxic behavior was being normalized, and that included offline PK.

    Fucking little assholes nearly killed a grandmother.

  • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    38
    ·
    edit-2
    12 天前

    Whoever did this needs to be charged with attempted murder. You can’t expect that police get a report of a threat at a residence (like a bomb threat or a murder threat) and they show up without weapons. Shame police time and resources had to be wasted ruining this poor old woman’s Minecraft night.

    I guess on the up side, not many 82 year olds can tell their friends that they are important enough to have so many people show up to their house so late at night.

    EDIT: Early news reports say that police received a call that said her grandson shot her (the 82 year old grandmother) and was threatening to kill himself. Completely reasonable response to that kind of a threat, if that is what the call was.

    EDIT2: Apparently the police may have been able to catch it as SWATting early by confirming with the grandson himself? The way he seemed to talk, the police were cordial and weren’t aggressive, as if their guard was down maybe? They cleared the home to make sure the threat was fake, but I guess they were apologetic to grammcrackers, and she seemed in good spirits about it at least.

    • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      32
      ·
      12 天前

      Completely reasonable response to that kind of a threat, if that is what the call was.

      I think twenty cars is still too many

      • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        12 天前

        If someone was shooting people, I would definitely want every officer in the local area to show up. The police can’t possibly know if its real or not until they show up, and even if they talked with the home owner before they arrive they still have to check to make sure.

        While I sure wish they could just believe you if you said you weren’t a criminal or something, that’s exactly what a criminal would say. So they gotta treat it as real even if its fake. Truly a shame so many awful people have led to this, but it will only get worse as time goes on.

        • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          22
          ·
          12 天前

          Yeah I don’t disagree that they should go check it out with enough people but that’s, what, 40+ officers? To an incident supposedly involving two people? What are they all supposed to do? It’s just chaos and I don’t think they are helping the situation.

          • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            edit-2
            12 天前

            Police get a call about a person who has a gun, who already shot someone, and is threatening to kill himself. Logically speaking, a person that is erratic enough to report themselves like that isn’t likely far from the idea of deciding to shoot their neighbors or others in view too.

            A person with a gun shooting even in the general direction of people, even if they don’t hit anything, is enough for me to say every officer in the area should be responding. If the first officers get there and become targets that are killed, more are showing up or are on the way. In a shooting situation it should be the goal of police to become the target being shot at instead of innocent civilians.

            They can’t know if this kind of call is real or not, so they have to treat it like it is real. I would rather there be a few hours of chaos on a residential street for a false alarm by treating every report this seriously compared to something like the Ulvade school shooting happening again because police didn’t want to show up or were too scared to do their job.

            • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              6
              ·
              12 天前

              My point is not about it maybe being false, I just don’t think that many people are helpful even if it is real, I think they will make the situation worse, they will not be able to make sensible decisions. I’m not talking about chaos in the street, but in coordination of law enforcement. At Uvalde, many police officers did show up, and they simply didn’t do their jobs. Among many issues with the response, they couldn’t make up their minds about who was in charge, that’s a problem with many people from many departments all showing up to an incident at once.

        • bufalo1973@piefed.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          12 天前

          So they send every operative to one call and let the rest of the area without support if something happens. Haven’t they seen Die Hard 3?

    • amorpheus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      12 天前

      Whoever did this needs to be charged with attempted murder.

      Doing that would raise certain implications, and validate a lot of concerns people have with police in the USA. I don’t think that’s likely to happen.

      They should be charged with something, but I’m sure that won’t become a legal case which confirms that the police is basically a blunt weapon that can be swung with a phone call.

    • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      12 天前

      Completely reasonable response to that kind of a threat, if that is what the call was.

      This sounds like complete absurdity, even as a Canadian.

      “There’s nothing we can do about it!” -says only country in the world where it regularly happens