Another innocent, unarmed citizen shot by police
by digby
This story about a fatal police shooting as a result of a "swatting" prank is all over the news. Everyone is very upset that anyone would send police to someone's home as a joke or an act of revenge. There is speculation that it was a video game grudge although they don't seem to know exactly who it was.
A police officer in Wichita fatally shot a man while responding to an emergency call that authorities now say was a tragic and senseless prank.
The 28-year-old man, whom officials did not immediately identify, was killed around 6:20 p.m. Thursday after police responded to a report that there had been a shooting and hostages taken at the house, Deputy Wichita Police Chief Troy Livingston said at a Friday news conference.
“Due to the actions of a prankster, we have an innocent victim,” Livingston said, calling it a case of “swatting.”
Swatting, which has a long history in the online gaming world, refers to the practice of making an emergency call about a fake situation often involving a killing or hostages, in the hopes of sending police to the address of an adversary or random person.
In an interview with the Wichita Eagle, the slain man’s family identified him as Andrew Finch, a father of two, and said he was not armed.
“I heard my son scream, I got up and then I heard a shot,” his mother, Lisa Finch, told reporters Friday.
But I think everyone might be missing the point:
“What gives the cops the right to open fire?” Finch said. “Why didn’t they give him the same warning they gave us? That cop murdered my son over a false report.”
The police didn't even try to ascertain what was going on before they brandished their guns and fired.
Police are shooting unarmed people and getting away with it because they are going into situations as if they are invading Fallujah and average Americans who have no idea what's going on and don't realize that they are living in a war zone fail to perfectly comply and are murdered on the spot.
I didn't write about the cop who was acquitted down in Arizona after screaming incoherent orders at an unarmed citizen and shooting him as he was on his knees begging for his life. It was so grotesquely unjust that I couldn't deal with it. But it's the perfect example of the way Americans are having to deal with amped up robo-cops like the one in this video (who used his personal AR-15 with the words "you're fucked" etched into it). Even if you try to comply they will kill you anyway and get away with it. That message has gone out loud and clear to police everywhere in this country.
So sure, SWATTing is bad. Don't do it. After all, any time you send police to someone's home you could be killing them. But the prank isn't the real problem is it?
