Serial Swatter Bragged He Hit 100 Schools, 10 Homes

Re:Serial Swatter Bragged He Hit 100 Schools, 10 Homes by mikeash on Tuesday January 02, 2018 @02:38PM (#16054779)

You say that we have created a system where police officers can kill with impunity and law-abiding citizens have real fear of being killed by police. I agree with you. I'd say that this is pretty much common knowledge at this point. Which means that everyone should know that if you get the police to respond to what they think is a life-or-death situation, a killing by the police is a likely outcome. I.e. given what you describe, the caller should reasonably expect that the police would kill an innocent person based on their false report.

The correct response here is to prosecute the SWATter for murder, and carry out the police reforms you mention. I don't object to the second in any way, I merely object to the diminishment of responsibility for the guy who made the call.

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Re:Serial Swatter Bragged He Hit 100 Schools, 10 Homes by jdietrich on Tuesday January 02, 2018 @02:59PM (#16055009)

The swatter is a malicious or crazy individual. The police failures are systematic. We can (and should) punish or treat the former, but it's overwhelmingly more important to fix the latter. Castigating the swatter carries the risk of overlooking the systemic failure; I have no doubt that there are PR people across the country who are working to shape the public discourse in that direction.

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