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Comment by mchanson | Hacker News Reader

This is an amazing top comment. Like maybe almost anything. So many better options. For one if I were the subject of this harassment I would prefer the cops to never come.

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This is just handing harassers a foolproof method for avoiding police intervention if they wanted to harass (or worse) in person.

Attempting to target a person that is being harassed is a great way to end up under a tombstone. Swatters are scared ass punks that play games with other peoples lives and not their own.

All you're saying is that likelihood of swatters committing additional crime is low, but there is still likelihood. There can be others taking advantage of this situation (or also mad at the couple), who are in fact willing to commit more serious crimes.

Serious crimes are generally a low percentage stat in society overall, which is part of the reason why it's so hard to judge "oh, this isn't serious". Most police encounters aren't, except the ones that are.

"Only come to my house if I'm the one calling"

There, done.

The swatters then can exploit this to commit crimes against the person, no?

Swatters are little bitches on the internet in some other state hiding behind proxies, not some hardened criminals.

Going to peoples houses and committing crimes is a risky proposition that could end up with you injured or dead. Hence why these types play games with law enforcement to put other peoples lives in danger rather than their own.

As opposed to the status quo, where the swatters are exploiting the police's behavior to commit crimes against the person?

You would prefer that cops never respond to a call for your address? What happens when you actually need them?

Personally, if I need them, I'll drive down to the cop store and let them know myself. Probably get there a lot quicker than the average cop-response time, too.

I can't understand why so many people are replying like this. This part of the public service is for quality of life and security. If someone has more of those without the "service", of course they'd want to call it off and assume the risk.

Who cares if police don't show up during the 1 in 100,000 lifetimes chance you need a swat team, when you're getting harassed weekly.

Police is not like most services, where you can hire and fire them at will. If you (or anyone else) called police to complain about a domestic situation, once they're involved, you are no longer in control of when they get uninvolved. I'm not saying "this is good" or "bad", but it is how it was setup, and there were good reasons for this.

The dedication to being unreasonable is truly impressive. A history of dozens of false alarms changes nothing? The only response possible, forever, even if it happens every day, is full SWAT?

If you actually need them, they wouldn't come. Or come and do nothing. As they've demonstrated when parents had to go inside a school to stop a shooter.

Yeah when i need them, so they can show up two hours after the perp has fled and my shit is gone so they can write my name in a notepad and prosecute me for the weed on my table. How will i ever do without

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