Two Los Angeles cops fired for ignoring robbery to chase a Snorlax in Pokémon GO

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Originally published at: Two Los Angeles cops fired for ignoring robbery to chase a Snorlax in Pokémon GO | Boing Boing

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They really should look on the bright side: They now have a shitload of time to chase a Snorlax in Pokémon GO.

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Wait, that’s still a thing?

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Well I’m sure they would have been all over the robbery if it had been committed by Team Rocket

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Yep. My GF recently convinced me to give it another try. It does give me an excuse to walk around the block a little more often.

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Looks like the actual incident took place in 2017 (after the game peaked but before it was obscure) and has been making its way through the disciplinary and appeals process ever since.

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That makes more sense.

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Too big a thing, this time. :smiling_imp:

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Still wild they were able to hang onto their jobs for over four years after getting busted for the misconduct.

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It’s important to prioritize…

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Petitioners also denied playing Pokémon Go while on duty. They claimed they were monitoring a “Pokémon tracker” application

I.e. “we weren’t wasting our time playing a game while on the job - we were wasting our time collecting information for a game while on the job.” As defenses go… it has some problems.

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But please, now isn’t the time to talk about defunding the ACAB’s. /s

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Why do people always ask that? No, it’s not still in the news like it was when it was released, and yes, I know a good number of people who still enjoy playing it, especially since they update content from time to time. That’s how most games work, isn’t it?

Honestly, the idea that a cop blew off work to play a video game…even in a situation that could have led to serious consequences…is so much less of a problem than all the things you hear about things they do while they are working.

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If I stop to think about it, it makes sense that it would still be bubbling along, but I also would honestly not be in the least surprised to learn that the servers behind it were shut down without announcement years ago when the active player numbers dropped below some number.

I remember some of my co-workers being deeply into it for a time, and then it just sort of went away, and I never thought to go look it up again.

I guess I thought of it as a flash-bang-and-over thing, rather than something like Candy Crush which is just sort of always there.

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Pretty impressive (and a good sign) that these asshats finally got their just desserts, rather than the usual “hey, here’s two weeks of paid vacation and a slap on the wrist”.

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I mean, in reality they probably aced the judgement call here. Based on closure rates they were far more statistically likely to catch a Snorlax than the thief…

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Odds were even higher that Snorlax would end up going down with a couple clips’ worth of bullets in his back.

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But department policy is to use a Pokeball prior to firearms! /s

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It is difficult indeed to think of a Snorlax being particularly noteworthy nowadays. (Now, if it was a Tirtouga or an Archen, that might be a different matter.) This is dated 2016:

It so happens that Wizards Unite, the Harry Potter-themed derivative, is shutting down at the end of the month, to the great dismay of a small but devoted fanbase.

But PoGo is still raking it in.

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Some of us are still playing Ingress…

(L16 ENL)

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