At some point, the responding local police should be held criminally liable. A tiny brass badge should not shield you from having to comply with society's laws.

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autoexec an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Having that badge should cause you to be held to a higher level of accountability. Abusing the power given to you by being an officer should mean receiving much more severe consequences.

	▲	readthenotes1 14 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The trouble with that logic, as the US courts figured out, was that if the police could be held accountable for misdeeds done while allegedly doing their job then so could other public officials, like judges. For instance, the judge who refused involuntary commitment for the schizophrenic who killed the woman in Charlotte could be held accountable for their bad judgment. Judges face almost no consequences for their decisions, and so they think it is right and proper that police should have qualified immunity from similar consequences.

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blooalien 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> At some point, the responding local police should be held criminally liable.

At some point, the people doing the "swatting" (false police call) should be held criminally liable, maybe even for attempted murder by cop. There's definitely a crime being committed there. I'm 100% sure that calling the cops on someone and making a false report is against at least one or two (or maybe even several) laws.

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pdonis 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I'm guessing the calls were anonymous, and the police didn't bother tracing the numbers.

Which does raise the question: why is it SOP for the police to send a SWAT team to a random house based on nothing but an anonymous phone call? At the very least it should take some kind of statement from an actual identified human who can be held accountable if it turns out to be a hoax.

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vachina 2 hours ago | parent [-]

High trust society and high HDI.

Act now (to reduce potential loss of life) and verify later

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pdonis an hour ago | parent | next [-]

> High trust society

Um, no. In a high trust society "swatting" would not be a thing--because people would understand that it's a huge violation of trust. And people who did make hoax calls like this would suffer severe punishment--because that's what a high trust society has to do to people who violate trust like that, in order to stay high trust.

> Act now (to reduce potential loss of life)

Not necessarily, since SWAT teams are generally not noted for their restraint--certainly not if their response on swatting call number 55 to the same house is the same as it was for call number 1.

> and verify later

Okay, let's say this is valid for call number 1. Still, what about call number 2 to the same house? Let alone call number 55? Especially when the owner of the house produces evidence that people had threatened to swat him?

So no, we do not have the kind of society where your logic makes sense; the rare cases where the quick knee jerk response actually prevents harm are more than overwhelmed by the much more common cases where it's a false alarm but the police keep on violating innocent people's rights anyway.

	▲	vachina 32 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I said high trust not high intelligence. Your law enforcement gives blanket trust to reports, because in a high trust society false report is rare.

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yongjik an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Ignoring that "high trust society" is a dog whistle for xenophobia... it still doesn't make sense because in an actual "high trust" society, police officers breaking down the door of an innocent resident will make news the first time. By the third time, people will demand answers about what the fuck is wrong with police training process to make them think they can do this. Preferably, heads will roll.

America is one of the lowest trust society among developed nations. People don't trust government officers to do the right thing, like, at all, and they wear the distrust as a badge of honor.

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valleyer 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Definitely. But I've at least heard about the people doing the false reports being prosecuted, even if not consistently enough for my liking.

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rectang an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

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