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.
SorteKanin@feddit.dk 1 day ago
Confused european here - why?
Spacehooks@reddthat.com 1 day ago
whoisearth@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
America is a dystopian capitalist nightmare lol
Spacehooks@reddthat.com 2 hours ago
Just missing the cyber punk.
DillDough@lemmy.zip 23 hours ago
It never stopped btw. This has been a constant and consistent issue for well over a decade, it rarely ever makes “the news”.
Spacehooks@reddthat.com 2 hours ago
Cant believe it got so normalized. What a country.
PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
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.
Noja@sopuli.xyz 21 hours ago
This happens in europe too tomshardware.com/…/linux-dev-swatted-live-during-… this happened in Germany, but no SEK was involved (german equivalent of SWAT). His wife was so shocked, he mentioned they moved out of the country.
glitch1985@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Especially when they’re led to believe the person in the home is unstable and well armed.
pressanykeynow@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Why don’t people send police to the white house and houses of CEOs on a cooldown?
PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Because America worships pedophilia and psychopathy.
Zink@programming.dev 23 hours ago
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 18 hours ago
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 1 day ago
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.
Nickelalloy@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This has been my feeling latley as well with so many things going on in the US…
baltakatei@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
Publicity to increase donations.
Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works 23 hours ago
Becusse in america nothing is better than being sn edgelord prankster
rtxn@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Since guns are handed out in America like chocolate at a Willy Wonka publicity and outreach campaign, every law enforcement agency has to be kitted out to potentially combat a barricaded suspect who can rain a small militia’s worth of lead on them and their surroundings. That’s why the response team often includes armored vehicles, snipers, and crayon munchers armed to the tits. And because abusing emergency services doesn’t cut into the profit of any big corporation, there are no effective means to seek justice from the offenders.
SorteKanin@feddit.dk 1 day ago
I don’t understand - someone called the swat team on her? Why would they go to a private house with a giant swat force based solely on some anonymous tip? That makes no sense in my head.
madasi@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Because they have the equipment and are always looking for an excuse to use it to justify the cost and training. And because the more they use it, the sooner they can get more of it.
It makes zero sense to a normal person, nor does their justification for needing the equipment in the first place, but once they have it they’ll use it any chance they get.
rtxn@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That’s not what happened. Someone called 911 and described a situation that involved a shooter who has already shot someone. The 911 operator then had to relay that to the responders (in this case, LE). The responding officers might have only received an address, that there was a barricaded active shooter, and that there was at least one shooting victim.
It’s not up to the police to debate the veracity of a report. Imagine being in a hostage situation, you manage to call 911, and they respond with “sounds fake, not coming”.
SorteKanin@feddit.dk 1 day ago
Okay, but surely upon arriving to said address with a huge swat team and discovering nothing amiss, no panicked people, no gunfire, no anything, their first reaction is to raid the house? The US sure is a strange place.
merc@sh.itjust.works 18 hours ago
Why not?
Why wouldn’t they just respond with “we’ll have to verify this”.
Brewchin@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Ever seen Stripes, the '80s action comedy film with Bill Murray and other notables?
There’s a scene in it that I think of every time this kind of story crops up, where you have over-equipped and under-educated people who are trained to think that everyone’s the enemy, and so prioritise their blood thirst and fear over everything else:
“All I know is I finally get to kill somebody!”
Their actions aren’t about right/wrong or just/unjust, but that they were let off the leash to do what they have been conditioned to do.
So you get people calling in hoaxes to police forces who send militarised forces to raid grannies, young children, whomever. It’s about the drama and lulz. Objectively horrifying.
dustyData@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The US has lived in a state where any measure to squash terrorism would never be enough, for a long time. All you have to know is an address and say to the police that you heard a group of Arab looking middle aged men speaking of blowing up a place and a small army would be raised ready raze that domicile to the ground if necessary.
That’s what happens when a group of people is armed beyond reason and in constant paranoia.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
It’s America, just say a black man has a gun and they send a batallion.
Soulg@ani.social 1 day ago
Swatting also happens in Europe. I get that were the punching bag right now, but it’s not a problem that only happens here.
rtxn@lemmy.world 1 day ago
There is an enormous difference between the conduct of police officers between the US and Europe. Again, it mostly comes down to the public’s access to firearms, but the quality of training and institutionalized prejudices are also a factor.