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242 points LinuxBender | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.399s | source
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ToucanLoucan ◴[] No.42168777[source]
Okay so like, genuinely not trying to do a "back in my day" fuckin thing here, but also: what the fuck is wrong with kids? Back when I was coming up, pranking at it's absolute worst was like, filling a dudes shoes with yogurt in the locker room, or like, putting plastic bugs in people's desks n shit. Why the fuck are teenagers trying to get each other murdered by cops!?
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mcherm ◴[] No.42168933[source]
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.

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luckylion ◴[] No.42169019[source]
What 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?

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1. bigiain ◴[] No.42169061[source]
I'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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2. ◴[] No.42169582[source]