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Comment by sinuhe69 | Hacker News Reader

There is no swatting problems in other countries because they don’t have SWAT! :) But seriously, the heavily militarized police is a US only phenomenon.

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Most countries have police tactical units: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_police_tactical_unit...

France even has a national police force, the Gendarmerie, that is literally a branch of the military. The Gendarmerie’s most famous tactical unit is the GIGN, who have responded to high profile incidents including the 2015 terrorist attacks in and around Paris.

Other countries have heavily armed police. In some countries the military is the police.

It's absolutely not a U.S. only phenomenon.

Turns out it less necessarily when you don't have to worry about opening the door to an AR-15 or worse.

That's a thing the police worries about everywhere. And not just AR-15 as the criminals typically will have way more lethal weapons.

Good police elsewhere tend to worry more about whether they have the correct address as reported, whether the correct address was reported, and whether or not the report was factual or made up to waste police time | harress people.

You know, innocent victims and all that.

For 'swating'? Yes. For any other encounter? No.

The only country I've seen police wandering about with submachine guns is France. Just hanging out in the train terminal looking tough.

This is for show only. In very few occasions are they allowed to use them. Ammunition are actually stored safely away. At least that was the case few years ago. The official report about the Bataclan attacks mention such unit not being given clearance to get amo.

Sounds stupid in that case, but I believe they did the maths properly when balancing the chance of armed illiterate young men in public killing innocents versus saving the day.

That's not because the french police is especially militarized or anything, it's just that they are under threat. Swedish police patrolled the streets and malls with submachine guns this christmas too, it happens more than you know. Islamic terrorism is a real and ongoing thing.

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