Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/22/calculated-destruction.html
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4 Likes
Cops: a national gang with the firepower of an occupying army.
45 Likes
But did they at least recover the $30 or so in stolen goods?
34 Likes
How much destruction for what amounts to less than $50 of goods. Jesus people shouldn’t even ask why run from the cops when this is the conclusion.
27 Likes
hey - stop - it was in the name of safety!
who will think about the children!!!
$5k is more than enough to repair all that
5 Likes
50 SWAT officers and a host of expensive technology
a shirt and two belts from Walmart
19 Likes
Surprised the guys last name wasn’t Valjean.
18 Likes
Thanks to qualified immunity, the police department won’t be liable!
18 Likes
Only in the Sims game-verse.
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How else were they supposed to test out all the military surplus gear, munitions, etc… that they got for next to nothing. Wouldn’t want the stuff to go stale from lack of use. Or something.
We’re breeding and selecting for compliant supersoldiers, retiring them and incorporating them in local law enforcement without meaningful oversight and re-training, and somehow we’re surprised when they act exactly like they’d be expected to act???
21 Likes
Because nothing says “Protect and Serve” like blowing up your fucking house to capture a suspect you don’t even know and who wasn’t even the guilty person they were seeking. Jesus, imagine if it had been an actual offender!
“We better nuke it from space, it’s the only way to be sure.”
EDIT: my fault for not reading more closely, he did fire at them, and turned out to have a bunch of drugs, even if he wasn’t the shoplifting they were initially chasing. That said… no, that’s not how you end a standoff, and not how you treat the innocent home owner whose house you completely destroyed to capture one man armed with a couple of weapons. Overkill is overkill.
15 Likes
From what I’ve read (haven’t gone to the actual article) they guy was only suspected of shoplifting and was actually innocent? At least that is what the headline implies.
Edit: After reading the linked article, it doesn’t say whether the guy actually shoplifted, though he was high on meth and fired shots at the officers. Still an over-reaction on the police’s part. One wonders why they didn’t just wait him out or use alternative methods? There would probably be more support for draconian measures if innocent bystanders were adequately compensated for damages.
8 Likes
Perhaps they had good reason to believe he might be the person, and upon trying to ascertain that the guy ran from them and shot at them. After the suspect shot at the cops, well, it really doesn’t matter what he did or didn’t do. The standoff apparently took 19 hours. Perhaps this was a last resort tactic? Perhaps.
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They should still repay the homeowner who was not the suspect or knew the suspect for ALL THE DAMAGE caused. Hell looking at that picture I would say the Popo owe the man a brand new furnished house not a piddling $5000.
22 Likes
Pffft. CTRL+SHIFT+C motherlode
A few years ago I owned a condo in Asbury Park, NJ that I rented for a while after I moved. Police came over late one night looking for a friend of the tenant and kicked in the front door of the building and the unit door. Then left without finding him. I got a call from a neighbor (while I was 5 states away) concerned that the place was left wide open and that the police had just driven away. No warrants apparently, no notice to owner, other tenants, etc.
I had to call a handyman and locksmith and paid over $800 to have the damage fixed that night. Called the Asbury Park Police department and they told me to submit receipts, which I did and never got a response. Called and followed up, and in the end they told me it was my fault for renting to criminals (although they weren’t looking for the tenant, they were looking for an acquaintance of hers) and that I should be grateful there wasn’t more damage.
Apparently I got off lightly
33 Likes
It should come out of police pension funds, otherwise the taxpayer will get the bill.
28 Likes
'Murica (home of the brave?)
S.W.A.T.: Swine Without Accountability, Thoroughly
6 Likes
The American Zetas?
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