Cops really need to STOP seeing themselves as the Cavalry riding to the rescue after every 911 call. It seems like a lot of the time they are being played for the fools they are. Family Sues Village of Bellwood After Prank Call Leads to Raid
Geroge Soto, who is running for village trustee, said his back was fractured after a police officer handcuffed him, threw him to the ground and forced a knee into his back.
As for the 911 call...
The Bellwood Police Department released a statement that said its dispatch center received a 911 call regarding a man in possession of a high-powered rifle and a person shot. The department said Bellwood police officers, along with officers from surrounding departments, were dispatched to the address.
Because they all had to get in on the act of being heroes. Instead, they were all in on the act of being puppets.
Yet they'll sit outside of an actual active-shooting event for 20-30-40 minutes, up to two hours before going in.
ReplyDeleteThey'll willingly shoot the family pets, tase grandma (who's in a power wheelchair,) knowingly toss a flashbang into a baby cradle or onto a sofa so as to start a fire, and, yes, shoot innocent people who are awakened by masked gunmen breaking into their house (no, not talking about Breonna Taylor, that lady was guilty as sin...)
But have someone shooting up a school, or a nightclub or a grocery store with a large Kosher section? "Oh, we need to analyze the situation and take stock of what assets we need and have and groupthink a peaceful solution since there's no grandmas to taze, dogs to shoot or sofas to set on fire."
Do tell us about your vast police experience. I'm sure we will all be very humbled and impressed. What I do not understand is why the people calling in these Swatting calls are not prosecuted to the fullest extend of the law. Now why is that?
DeleteWelp (streches, cracks knuckles) worked as a civvy for a local pd for 18 years, and was often the unofficial secretary/staff ass for the SWAT team commander or for the local HIDTA task force or both. Got to help rewrite and reformat several agencies SWAT handbook. And helped clean up and reformat a Hostage Rescue handbook, a Diplomatic Protection handbook. Hung around the SWAT and Bomb Squad guys. And the local Bomb Squad leader was very impressed that I called one of the idiot cops I worked with an idiot for standing over a pile of pipe bombs and other IEDs while on his radio describing what he just found. (Hint. Back out, completely, clear everyone from the area using your mouth, not your radio, and then wait for Bomb Squad to clear it. Do not get on your radio, cell phone, digital camera, turn on light switches, turn off light switches, or do anything else that could create an electronic pulse...)
DeleteMost agencies have a rule, put in place after Columbine, which effectively is "Enter, fast, as quickly as possible, and if in Ones and Twos, stay in contact via radio but enter and engage."
But at the Pulse Nightclub, wait time was 2+ hours before entering.
Parkland, well, the Broward Cowards hid outside and tried to not have other cops enter.
In Boulder the SWAT and cops waited outside while the gunman was walking around shooting people.
So, well, all places that had the post-Columbine immediate entry even if alone rule in place, and all agencies ignored it.
As to shooting dogs, well, thought it was a joke while working at the PD, until it wasn't. SWAT shows up, they're most likely shooting your dog. Their lives are more important than yours.
It is how it is. It is also why, though I fully endorse having SWAT or HRT or whatever you call it in the local PD, I do not condone them being used to serve non-felony level or non-violent felony (or both) warrants in order to 'practice.' Which is when a lot of SWAT overreaction occurs.
So, in the interest of equality, do tell us about your vast police experience, as I'm sure we'll all be very humbled and impressed.
As to not prosecuting the people calling in the SWATTING calls, that's because local prosecutors don't have brass balls or ovaries and are too afraid of peeving off their voting constituents. Happens all the time. Some dirtbag with connections does something wrong and prosecutors plea it down or refuse to prosecute at all. You know, kind of like what happened and what is happening to Hunter (I do Blow and Underage Girls) Biden right now.
Well, why don't you clairvoyant monday morning quarterbacks submit your effective alternative to Police Officers who are acting on scant information???
ReplyDeleteWell, most agencies, and any who are 'accredited,' the policy is to roll the SWAT team and not go all hut-hut-hut-hut into the situation until it has been evaluated. Active shooter? Charge. Non-active Shooter where there has been no issue before (as in, SWAT commander or Comm Center or both pull up criminal history/call history to the address) and the rule is 'slow yer jets and evaluate and make contact - via speaker or phone or one dude not in tactical armor walking up and knocking and asking what's going on.
DeleteSWAT commanders are supposed to use common sense and, unless active shooting is going on, wait to assess (and not wait an hour, two hours) before reacting and moving in.
Prepare the team.
Prepare to enter.
Assess the threat (including any background info linked to address or to known persons.)(If the threat is active, that means GO NOW!)
Then act.
So what's your effective alternative to POs who are acting on scant information.
I have no vast police experience. Except for being present at the scene of numerous gay-bashing-crimes in my club-going youth. Calling the cops was one of the worst things you could do back then, because they all had to compete with each other to prove how much they hated gays. And some idiot suburbanite would be sure to call, because what else did you do in the face of a crime?
ReplyDeleteOh, and gay-bashing in front of a dance club was usually 4 or 5 "straight men" also competing to show how manly they were by ganging up on one gay man exiting said club. Because nothing says 'manly' like 5 to 1 odds.
I have seen cops heading to the scene of such a crime, realize it was in front of a gay club, turn off the blue bubbles - Chicago PD uses blue lights - do a u-turn and leave. I have also seen them arrest the guy bleeding on the ground.
I have dealt with the insanity of cops when they were dealing with gays and lesbians who they didn't like. Though, like most straight men of the era, would often threaten to rape lesbians as a way to "make us straight." Because threatening to commit crimes was a standard cop procedure in my lifetime.
Now maybe Chicago PD and the suburbs in that area have a monopoly on bone-headed cops. Maybe your locale has all Mensa members on the force. Somehow I doubt it. They are not the sharpest tools in the shed, some of them are bullies, and very large number in Chicago - look at the "Cops Behaving Badly" category at the Archives 1.0 - link at the top of the side bar - are demonstrably crooked. Then you can in the 1980s "let's prove to each other how straight we are by how much we hate the gays" mentality... I doubt it has changed all that much; it probably gets expressed in different ways.
Or when they walk up on a house and shoot the homeowner through the door or window. Something that has happened a few times in the past few years. At least twice.
Then there are the instances of "lies on a search warrant to get approval for a SWAT raid." Also something that has happened more than once.
And since this is still (somewhat) a free country, I don't really have to have worked as a cop to be free to call cops out when they are being idiots. Which every swatting call ever to make the news points out exactly how idiotic they can be.