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Comment by dmix | Hacker News Reader

I'm curious, couldn't they have warned the police or alarm security company ahead of time so they dont get accidentally shot by confused responding police? Or were they so confident/cocky that they assumed this wasn't a possible outcome? At a minimum you could warn the top managers the night in question.

Especially at a serious government building that's typically always has law enforcement during the day as security there in important. As opposed to some mid-level corporation office which they'd normally hit up.

Some precautions in the situation just sound prudent.

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The police aren't supposed to be shooting unarmed people.

That's never stopped them before

Exactly. Police killed an innocent man with no gun and won't even charge the policeman who opened fire.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/15/casey-...

Heck, the state will not even tell the cops name who executed a civilian at his own door.

If that had been in Florida it would of been revealed.

False. Some un-armed have been shot. I've had police point guns at me and I'm not shot, same with the folk I was with - mixed racial group, Oakland, CA, c1995, 1997, 2001

E: oh yeah, and I've seen Seattle police draw but not fire on many occasions. Most recently was a few months ago, chasing a dealer up my street and hiding in the stairwell just outside my place.

E2: also, this is not the place for it - like all the other flagged comments

Notice we have this comment but no comments from innocent people who were killed by the police.

I do notice. The the parent said it "never" stopped them - I'm aware of a few. I'm sure not saying the police are perfect (they are not) - but "never"!? That's an absolute that's simply not true. Shit, kids I knew were killed by police (I also knew kids that were killed by other kids). Let's all be for real tho.

Some police have killed some Innocents - and it seems to be getting more frequent - but it's not an always/never thing.

I hope shit like this never happens to anyone you know.

Now, give me more downvotes, I'm still here and have a session tomorrow.

"That's never stopped them before" is a common figure of speech, it doesn't literally mean that they always do it, just that they have in the past. Think of it as similar to how people from the US say "could care less" instead of "couldn't care less".

And cars aren't supposed to crash, but you still wear your seatbelt.

Car crashes happen on accident even with the best intentions from driver. Gun don't fire on accident.

You’ve never heard of a gun going off unintnetionally?

It happens all time time.

People are also accidentally shot all the time.

We even had a VPOTUS who famously shot one of his friends in the face accidentally.

The friend who apologized to the VPOTUS? I’d like to hear other stories where a friend apologizes to another friend who shot them.

Guns almost never go off unintentionally. Yes, people think the gun is unloaded, or toddlers are playing with the gun, or the person with the gun is being unsafe. But the vast majority of the time, somebody pulled the trigger. They are not accidents.

Since they were "line hunting", pretty much every hunter thought Cheney should have been charged with something. In Canada, he definitely would have been charged with unsafe usage of a firearm.

That’s something of a no true Scotsman argument, if someone did not intentionally fire it’s accidental.

There are ~500 accidental gun deaths in the US per year and vastly more accidental firings.

If you ever take a gun course a lot of effort is placed on getting people to never point a gun at something they are unwilling to shoot because of accidental firings. Trigger safety is similar emphasized because of how much it reduces accidental firings.

No, I'm saying that "unintentionally" is being used in the "accidently" sense when it should be used in the "negligently" sense.

500 accidental gun deaths are almost all negligence and should result in criminal charges. But, in actuality, many are suicides.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

All accidental discharges are negligent. That does not prevent them from also being accidental.

You could say the same about car accidents... it is rarely a mechanical failure, it is usually a driver not paying attention or doing something wrong.

Why does it matter, though? Whether it is negligent or accidental, it is out of my control and has a chance to happen. Whether I accidentally or negligently get shot by a cop, I am just as dead.

Car accidents can happen when the driver has incomplete or wrong information about the state of the roadway, e.g. roadway is slick, but doesn't appear so.

I'd concur that the majority are negligence, but I'd also wager that a non-negligable amount aren't.

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