• Ulrich@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    69
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 hours ago

    The most famous case came in 2018, when 25-year-old Tyler Barriss tried to swat a streamer, but instead sent the police to the wrong address. It ended with a father-of-two being shot dead by officers. Barriss was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

    And the police who murdered the innocent father? How many years did they get?

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      53
      ·
      4 hours ago

      This is fundamentally the real problem. Submitting false reports to police will always be possible. Anyone can do it. But a false police report should never endanger someone’s life. That’s only possible because of bad policing.

      I’ve actually personally made a police report that resulted in our version of a SWAT team being sent. They’re called ETF here in Canada. I saw what looked like a domestic violence incident, with a knife involved. Because there was a weapon, policy said to send ETF.

      When they arrived they locked down the entire area, and then they talked to the people inside the apartment. They gave clear and simple instructions, they made them both walk out one at a time, they got everyone’s stories, and they resolved the entire incident without violence.

      ETF are trained by JTF-2, one of the best special forces units in the world. These are absolutely terrifying people. If violence had been needed they would have dispensed it with ruthless efficiency. But that training also gives them the confidence to not use violence as a first resort. They’re taught to de-escalate, to resolve situations safely and calmly wherever possible.

      This is how policing works all over the developed world. Only in America is “murder by cop” a realistic option, and that’s 100% a problem with American policing.

      And, I want to be absolutely clear about this; Canadian policing sucks. We’re not even a good example. So many countries do it better than us. America has set the bar so low that even our middling efforts look amazing in comparison.

      • can@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        2 hours ago

        So many countries do it better than us. America has set the bar so low that even our middling efforts look amazing in comparison.

        This is true for so many things

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    149
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 hours ago

    Great comment attached to the story in the comments section …

    “America - the country where they can afford to send 25 police cars to your house for no good reason, but have no money to pay for cancer treatment. Amazing.”

    • Ulrich@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      39
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 hours ago

      No money to fund the “fraud, waste, and abuse” at USAID but easy $1.4B to tear down a government building and build a monument to the most arrogant man on Earth.

    • DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      3 hours ago

      Its all about money. Its all the people in charge here care about. I’m serious.

      The cops have a chance to “civil asset forfeiture” your stuff. So they come in and kill you or whatever but oh, looks like you were commiting a crime citizen (whether you were or not dead men tell no tales) so now all of the stuff you own is proceeds from that crime and they keep it all and auction it off on websites or sometimes you will dee the local police department driving around a nice vehicle they stole from someone like that.

      That cancer treatment shit costs money, they will think to themselves, and it keeps alive people who are in bad health and that will cost us even more money.

      So they don’t care that they die. I bet if you took away polices ability to civil asset forfeiture then the murder squads would ease up a little too. No incentive.

      Its all about the money, at its core.

  • Dr. Wesker@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    27
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    4 hours ago

    Best case scenario the publicity ends up with grandson’s cancer treatment fully paid for by anon donors.

    EDIT:

    best-case scenario, the best possible outcome of an event.

    The phrase is typically used to denote something that could happen given a situation. It’s 2026 in America, universal healthcare isn’t on the menu.

  • WesternInfidels@feddit.online
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    4 hours ago

    It would be interesting to learn what fraction of SWAT (and SWAT-like) responses are to legitimate emergencies where their presence is both warranted and helpful.

    • [deleted]@piefed.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 hours ago

      It has to extrmely low due to their use in the war on drugs raiding homes where there is zero credible threats of violence.

  • Pxtl@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    4 hours ago

    It’s 2026, there’s no longer an excuse for phone companies being unable to figure out who’s paying for the phone line. Make them liable if they can’t figure out where the call came from.

    • TheFogan@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      3 hours ago

      I mean it’s also 2026… you can drive 3 cities away, buy a burner phone with cash. Make a call, smash the phone with a rock and throw it in a dumpster. Then it’s down to scary facial recognition tech assuming the store you bought it from has security cameras.