TWE: Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in deadly Wichita police shooting

[No Excuses]

Be prepared to read an absolutely enraging story.

 

http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article192111974.html

 

Quote

Online gamers have said in multiple Twitter posts that the shooting of a man Thursday night by Wichita police was the result of a “swatting” prank involving two gamers.

 

Swatting is an internet prank where someone makes a call to a police department with a false story of an ongoing crime – often with killing or hostages involved – in an attempt to draw a large number of police officers to a particular address.

 

The prank has gained traction across the country with online gamers. Those who try to cause the swatting incident will use caller ID spoofing or other techniques to disguise their number as being local. Or they call local non-emergency numbers instead of 911, according to 911.gov.

 

I am sure the cop involved will get away with some baloney excuse as to why he shot an innocent man for simply opening his door.

[nonniey]

OK yes that is maddening. You what else is maddening? Your only condemnation was toward the cop in your comment below the story. What about the primary culprit that set this event in motion? That guy needs to be charged with manslaughter (and certainly with reckless endangerment - heck all Swatters should be charged with that when caught).

[No Excuses]

Just now, nonniey said:

OK yes that is maddening. You what else is maddening? Your only condemnation was toward the cop in your comment below the story.

 

The person who made the prank call is a dangerous moron. 

 

We should expect better from cops. It is ultimately their responsibility to deal with situations in a calm, collected manner. 

 

This incident is part of a broader issue related to trigger happy fingers.

[Springfield]

If we are talking cops.  It’s my opinion that somewhere along the lines, within the last 10 years, they started training cops to shoot first.

 

Its like they are military now.  Every suspect is a potential enemy combatant.

 

I get it.  The world is a dangerous place.  The police didn’t used to be like this, though.

[Cooked Crack]

3 minutes ago, nonniey said:

OK yes that is maddening. You what else is maddening? Your only condemnation was toward the cop in your comment below the story. What about the primary culprit that set this event in motion? That guy needs to be charged with manslaughter (and certainly with reckless endangerment - heck all Swatters should be charged with that when caught).

It's maddening to expect cops not to have their first instinct to be kill?

[Spaceman Spiff]

Yeah, I gotta side with @nonnieyon this one.  Making this into a "cop with an itchy trigger finger" story ignores a large, large part of it.  

[Springfield]

6 minutes ago, Spaceman Spiff said:

Yeah, I gotta side with @nonnieyon this one.  Making this into a "cop with an itchy trigger finger" story ignores a large, large part of it.  

 

So here is what I understand.  Two guys playing video games, basically adults in their parent’s basement or wherever got into a dick measuring contest.  One guy throws out an address, not his own but one close by, and the other jagoff calls the swat to that address.

 

Cops show up and kill someone who had nothing to do with it in the first place.

 

The two should be punished somehow, both the swatter and his intended target.  The officer who shot this innocent man, shouldn’t have been able to carry a gun in the first place.  We can’t give every two bit flunky cop with a penchant for being afraid a gun.  We need better training in the force.

[Spaceman Spiff]

1 minute ago, Springfield said:

 

So here is what I understand.  Two guys playing video games, basically adults in their parent’s basement or wherever got into a dick measuring contest.  One guy throws out an address, not his own but one close by, and the other jagoff calls the swat to that address.

 

Cops show up and kill someone who had nothing to do with it in the first place.

 

The two should be punished somehow, both the swatter and his intended target.  The officer who shot this innocent man, shouldn’t have been able to carry a gun in the first place.  We can’t give every two bit flunky cop with a penchant for being afraid a gun.  We need better training in the force.

 

Yup, I agree on all counts. 

[DogofWar1]

A large part of the Swatting problem is that it works, that is, the target is met with a highly militarized force at their door (and sometimes past their door).

 

If Police responded in more measured manners I suspect swatting would become less common.

 

The initiating factor of this specific instance was the two dumbass kids.

 

But the wider problem of swatting does have a lot of blame to lay at the feet of trigger happy cops.

[ExoDus84]

I hope the dumbass kid who made the call sees some serious jail time. 

 

As far as the dumbass Barney Fife ****head cop that started blasting first with utter disregard for protocol, well I'm sure it's too much to ask to have him be held responsible for murdering someone. He'll walk. 

[hail2skins]

46 minutes ago, Springfield said:

 

So here is what I understand.  Two guys playing video games, basically adults in their parent’s basement or wherever got into a dick measuring contest.  One guy throws out an address, not his own but one close by, and the other jagoff calls the swat to that address.

 

 

Why did the intended target even give an address out?  The video accompanying the article does mention that people can find out other folks addresses via social media and other third party means, but still.  SMH............

[Springfield]

1 minute ago, hail2skins said:

Why did the intended target even give an address out?  The video accompanying the article does mention that people can find out other folks addresses via social media and other third party means, but still.  SMH............

 

Move been in games where dudes will give out their (or an) address and tell they dude they are talking **** to to come find them and fight.  It’s machismo.

[grego]

1 hour ago, Springfield said:

 

I get it.  The world is a dangerous place.  The police didn’t used to be like this, though.

 

Is that true, or are we more aware of deadly police encounters because of cell phone cameras and social media? 

[Springfield]

3 minutes ago, grego said:

 

Is that true, or are we more aware of deadly police encounters because of cell phone cameras and social media? 

 

10 years ago we got taser videos, not shooting videos.  It’s possible that it’s just a result of cameras on everyone’s hip these days, but I feel like it’s more of an increased militarization of the force.  I fully admit that feelings are not a valid argument.  Feelings do shape perception though.

[No Excuses]

6 minutes ago, grego said:

 

Is that true, or are we more aware of deadly police encounters because of cell phone cameras and social media? 

 

I don't know. As far as I know, militarization of the police force was really kicked into a whole another gear with Clinton's '94 crime bill.

[Destino]

Gamer set the stage and should be punished harshly for his illegal prank getting someone killed, but theres no getting around the fact that the police officer shot an innocent man just for coming to the door.  This isn't about who to blame imo, both of the gamer idiot and the trigger happy officer are to blame.  I agree with the victims family, both need to be held accountable.

[Renegade7]

49 minutes ago, grego said:

 

Is that true, or are we more aware of deadly police encounters because of cell phone cameras and social media? 

Hard to say because no one keeps accurate data on it.  This is closest I could find, showing based on what's being reported we are at a 20 year high in police killings:

 

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/dec/03/marc-morial/are-deaths-police-shootings-highest-20-years/

 

I think there's more empathy towards the issue now because more of them are being recorded and seen on video the country and the tolerance of the country towards this issue has changed.  Police have been killing people in this country, justified or not, armed or not, for also red long time now, but I do believe the cracks epidemic changed how police deal with perceived threats because for a time there was huge uptick in them.  They never came back down as things started to even out, I think police doubled down going into the 21st century.

[DCSaints_fan]

I'm really surprised that police departments haven't caught on to this.  They should be able sniff out bogus calls.  Or maybe they have but just don't care. 

[Zguy28]

Ah, what happened to the good ol' days of Dodge City when all you would get is a pistol whipping?

 

In all seriousness, the militarization of the American Police force is an issue worthy of careful consideration and control. This article gives a good high-level view of the issue and possible causes.

 

https://cops.usdoj.gov/html/dispatch/12-2013/will_the_growing_militarization_of_our_police_doom_community_policing.asp

[twa]

16 hours ago, DCSaints_fan said:

I'm really surprised that police departments haven't caught on to this.  They should be able sniff out bogus calls.  Or maybe they have but just don't care. 

 

Yeah, they really need to slow down the response to calls of crimes in process and investigate first.

 

 

[balki1867]

20 hours ago, Spaceman Spiff said:

Yeah, I gotta side with @nonnieyon this one.  Making this into a "cop with an itchy trigger finger" story ignores a large, large part of it.  

 

I disagree. The guy who initiated the is human garbage- no argument there, but SWATing has been around for years now and is a well-known phenomenon (to the tune of ~400 incidents annually). Literally any of us could be on the receiving end of one of these incidents and I would expect a professional to understand the full scope of what they're doing when they engage one of these situations.

 

There is definitely an issue with trigger happy police in our country.  Somehow law enforcement in every other developed country manages to not shoot so many people, yet those countries are (mostly) much safer than ours.

 

Here's a perfect example of Swedish police de-escalating a situation on the NYC subway.  How do you believe the NYPD would've handled it?

 

 

18 hours ago, DCSaints_fan said:

I'm really surprised that police departments haven't caught on to this.  They should be able sniff out bogus calls.  Or maybe they have but just don't care. 

 

They don't care. When you and I experience a negative result at work, there is a post-mortem review of everything that happened - precisely what failed? Who signed off on it? How do we change procedures from keeping it from happening again? When law enforcement experiences a negative result at work, they get put on paid administrative leave until the mean media stops demanding the same level of accountability.

[Popeman38]

21 hours ago, Springfield said:

If we are talking cops.  It’s my opinion that somewhere along the lines, within the last 10 years, they started training cops to shoot first.

 

Its like they are military now.  Every suspect is a potential enemy combatant.

 

I get it.  The world is a dangerous place.  The police didn’t used to be like this, though.

Seriously? This is bull****. The military ROE do not allow soldiers to shoot first. There has to be a defined threat in order to throw rounds down range. You have seen WAY more soldiers convicted of killing innocent civilians than cops. The military trains you to find solutions without killing, unless you are fired on. Then those firing should be eliminated. Don’t bring this bull**** to the military. You phrase this like the military is lower than the police. Like the cops have sunk to the level of the military, and it’s bull****. 

[tshile]

20 hours ago, DogofWar1 said:

A large part of the Swatting problem is that it works, that is, the target is met with a highly militarized force at their door (and sometimes past their door).

 

If Police responded in more measured manners I suspect swatting would become less common.

 

The initiating factor of this specific instance was the two dumbass kids.

 

But the wider problem of swatting does have a lot of blame to lay at the feet of trigger happy cops.

Um... I don't know if I want my cops responding to a call about a murder and ongoing hostage situation in a "measured" way.

 

I'd just prefer they not shoot someone as soon as they open the door.

[The Sisko]

1 hour ago, twa said:

 

Yeah, they really need to slow down the response to calls of crimes in process and investigate first.

?? Nice invalid point but the stab at humor was substandard. Not your best work. Vladimir is probably disappointed. 

 

17 minutes ago, Popeman38 said:

Seriously? This is bull****. The military ROE do not allow soldiers to shoot first. There has to be a defined threat in order to throw rounds down range. You have seen WAY more soldiers convicted of killing innocent civilians than cops. The military trains you to find solutions without killing, unless you are fired on. Then those firing should be eliminated. Don’t bring this bull**** to the military. You phrase this like the military is lower than the police. Like the cops have sunk to the level of the military, and it’s bull****. 

Valid point. I think many of us aren’t as aware of the rules of engagement for the military as we could be. However the militarization issue is real. I think what most of us mean is that they too often respond like undisciplined Al Shabab militia, not a professionally trained force of any kind.

 

This problem wouldn’t be an issue if people would just refer to them as thugs or brown shirts like I do. ?

[DogofWar1]

19 minutes ago, tshile said:

Um... I don't know if I want my cops responding to a call about a murder and ongoing hostage situation in a "measured" way.

 

I'd just prefer they not shoot someone as soon as they open the door.

 

The distinction I would make would be the response to the "call" versus the response to the "situation."

 

Verify the call in a "measured" way, then respond much more forcefully to the situation if it reveals itself to be that.