Lots of places in the US have snipers due to the possibility of terrorist threats, mass shooters, and attackers (eg. Major events like the super bowl), the thing about these snipers is that they’re there to make sure the protestors don’t get too out of hand.
It’s the difference between shooting an intruder trying to bang down your door, and shooting your own kid for being too noisy.
I don’t think shooting into a crowd has ever worked to calm a situation. I seem to remember it not working to well in Boston when the British still ran the place.
the thing about these snipers is that they’re there to make sure the protestors don’t get too out of hand.
We have absolutely no idea if that’s the case or not. Considering that snipers are often used when a lot of people are together to protect against terrorism and idiots with guns, it’s safe to assume the same here as well. Unless there is some evidence to the contrary of course.
It’s that or you’re just ignorant to what I’m referencing, and I don’t have any intention of enlightening you, because you keep unintentionally proving my point.
So not justifying this response, but they have snipers out for EVERY football game. I think it is standard practice for large gatherings. You can make your own opinions on this, but this isn’t a unique thing.
Europe has snipers at football stadiums too. One of the first, mainstream, acknowledgements of them was when a protestor parachuted onto the field during the Germany-France Euro match in 2020. When people got mad they said it was common practice to have snipers at most events of this size.
For a protest on a university campus? I mean, the US already has a great history with innocent students being murdered for speaking out, so… Yeah, not unusual for the US.
Yeah, cuz thrice-weekly mass shootings are a US thing. I’m not getting into a chicken-and-egg circkejerk with anyone about which came first, but as long as “we the people” are gonna keep shooting large gatherings of our fellow citizens…especially if we think they disagree with us, then any controversial or highly public event is gonna be crawling with armed police…including snipers.
Honestly, I’d have snipers at any large gathering. Mass shootings/stabbings/drivings/bombings have recently taken place in Europe, Russia, and other parts of the world. It’s good to have security when there are tens or hundreds of thousands of people gathered in a place (eg, the Olympics, mega concerts, wtc)
Apparently the issue is people asked the University if there were snipers, at 8:15 pm they replied there weren’t, and later said they deployed them at 10 pm.
More reasonable than what it looked like but still kinda crazy, at least from my outside perspective.
But don’t worry guys! The first amendment guarantees a right to assemble. The police wouldn’t ever do anything to infringe on our rights! If they were to do it, I’m sure there’d be a really sick folk song written about it or something
On the evening of May 13, 1985, longstanding tensions between MOVE, a black liberation group, and the Philadelphia Police Department erupted horrifically. That night, the city of Philadelphia dropped a satchel bomb, a demolition device typically used in combat, laced with Tovex and C-4 explosives on the MOVE organization, who were living in a West Philadelphia rowhome known to be occupied by men, women, and children. It went up in unextinguished flames. Eleven people were killed, including five children and the founder of the organization. Sixty-one homes were destroyed, and more than 250 citizens were left homeless.
Folks familiar with this incident had a remarkably different take on the Waco siege and subsequent fire that resulted when the FBI surrounded David Koresh’s church compound. Same with the Ruby Ridge US Marshal slaying of a white nationalist’s wife and son, during an investigation into gun sales.
Then there’s the assassination of Fred Hampton and Malcolm X, the police storming of the Occupy Wall Street camps in New York, the COINTELPRO operations that targeted anti-war movements during the Bush Administration, the incredibly violence by police in Ferguson and Baltimore during the BLM marches, police kidnappings in Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and LA during the George Floyd protests.
I got to personally witness the mass arrest of protesters in Houston, after they were surrounded and kettled in Discovery Green Park.
America is a cursed land. Something something maybe don’t build your country on an ancient indian burial ground something something.
The popular take was that the FBI did nothing wrong and Koresh simply had to be stopped at all costs. The more /r/unpopularopinion take was that Janet Reno had something to prove, that the FBI recklessly flooded the compound with flammable gas, and that these deaths were entirely preventable had Bob Ricks not wanted to rush the surrender.
Ruby Ridge was a similar story. Initially, news media portrayed the Weavers as insurrectionists intent on personally waging war on the entire federal government. The US Marshals were given the initial benefit of the doubt, despite the incident turning hot when a marshal shot the family dog and then the Weaver’s 14-year-old boy who was working it.
Oh. I thought that over in the USA the default position was that the feds were in the wrong. Not a day goes by without conservatives talking about how the feds murder dogs.
People love to hate it but the second amendment is also a thing. Now don’t get me wong I don’t want this to happen ever to anyone…but there was a time when strikers would shoot and be shot at on the reg.
LOL they really did successfully rewrite the history on that one. The troops fought WITH the companies, not against them. The only reason they backed off is because they were losing. Had they continued, the legitimacy of the regime would have been brought into question. Not only because they were literally going to war with its own citizens, but also that those citizens were absolutely kicking their fucking asses.
We’re talking about an empire that could barely hold their own when fighting against a nonviolent people with primitive technology, and then went on to lose a war against fucking farmers in Vietnam. The odds couldn’t be further in their favor and yet they keep collecting Ls. If people collectively realized just how much of a complete joke these fascist clowns are, they would run away pissing themselves crying. God only knows what would happen if a nation actually engaged them in war on their soil. They’re not even at war and the entire place is already crumbling.
Should be treated like they are? Okay, so full outrage, comparisons to the Kent State massacre, and the administration facing reprisals and consequences for deploying snipers to intimidate, threaten, and potentially murder students.
We’re treating them like they’re snipers, Admin, you’re welcome.
Yeah, you’re putting snipers on a university aimed at the students. That’s not the behavior of a government that values personal freedoms like speech and assembly.
Free speech on college campuses means they have to pay bigots to speak and allow disruption from religious protests by non students, but students get riot cops and snipers for protesting genocide
If they should be treated like snipers, that means protesters should respond in kind:
Make smoke screens. Tires work best. Bicycle tire with gas will make thick black smoke making it hard for the spotter and sniper to see.
Force projection works both ways: make their advantages into disadvantages. Snipers are long range units, meaning they have to be away from what they are targeting. If you can create enough distractions they won’t be able to see the forest from the trees.
I dunno about the smoke. On top of probably seeming to be an escalation because you’d be burning stuff (I’d probably go with fog oil and a generator instead, only object is price, but, hey, tires can also get pretty expensive depending on where they’re sourced. Theater department might also have some stuff on em), but also a large amount of smoke might serve to obfuscate documentation and recording, which I would say is a pretty big priority. Keep a camera fixed on these snipers at all times, and you can tell when they’re firing and probably who’s been killed at what moment, and that’s maybe an important and large deterrent, compared to a smokescreen. I’d imagine if you were going with that and if it came to that, you’d just want to render the snipers ineffectual by other methods, which, you know, maybe your mind can wander about how you might accomplish that one, without me having to suggest a specific course of action there.
Okay so they have spotting scopes and tripods for sure. Now they could have just brought those for the sake of gathering accurate info on protests I assume are 100-300 meters away to pick out details better (ie Is that person pointing a gun or a dslr camera with a long lens?)
A modern AR-15 (most patrol car rifles) with a proper zero, consistent ammuntion and in the hands of a capable person (it’s not hard it just takes regular practice) could easily be used effectively to engage man size targets with a guy on the spotting scope doing the target id I mentioned earlier to get the right guy.
With a basic bolt action precision rifle, even if it’s chambered in the same round, could be used even more effectively with target id capabilities of the spotting scope using the magnification of better rifle optics. I bet they have one on that second tripod.
And honestly I’d prefer that over 50ish dudes with rifles with their own set of mob mentality like they had at Kent back in the day.
Nixon invades Cambodia, campuses across the country erupt in protest, armed troops deployed to deal with the unrest on an Ohio campus, guns pointed at students to intimidate them into dispersing…hmmm, can’t remember what happened next…everything calmed down, I think, right?
God blessed the students with omniscient insight, so they reverted their concerns and joined the army to establish democracy all over the world. An eagle, sounding like a red-tailed hawk, was heard screeching in the distance.
Eagles these days just don’t sound like they used too, back in my day they had this powerful screech that would pierce through even a swelling orchestral track to a movie.
Then the woke mob came for Eagles and now they sound lame.
I want to go back to those good times, that I imagine in my head, those times are great because I can remember whatever bullshit fantasy I want as “history” and just throw a tantrum and scream at anyone who challenges me on it.
Red tailed hawks? What are those? Are they like an Owl or something? Since when did people give a fuck about birds? They are so boring.
Here’s the thing. You said a “jackdaw is a crow.” Is it in the same family? Yes. No one’s arguing that. As someone who is a scientist who studies crows, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls jackdaws crows. If you want to be “specific” like you said, then you shouldn’t either. They’re not the same thing. If you’re saying “crow family” you’re referring to the taxonomic grouping of Corvidae, which includes things from nutcrackers to blue jays to ravens. So your reasoning for calling a jackdaw a crow is because random people “call the black ones crows?” Let’s get grackles and blackbirds in there, then, too. Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It’s not one or the other, that’s not how taxonomy works. They’re both. A jackdaw is a jackdaw and a member of the crow family. But that’s not what you said. You said a jackdaw is a crow, which is not true unless you’re okay with calling all members of the crow family crows, which means you’d call blue jays, ravens, and other birds crows, too. Which you said you don’t. It’s okay to just admit you’re wrong, you know?
Here’s the thing. You said a “jackdaw is a crow.” Is it in the same family? Yes. No one’s arguing that. As someone who is a scientist who studies crows, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls jackdaws crows.
Whatever schmuck, the thesis title of my double-PHD from Beige University (Rhode Island Ivy League) was “Crows And Jackdaws, A MetaAnalysis Of Corvidae Interchangeability Along Intersectional Metrics Of Culture, Science and Archival Preservation”.
National Guard units shot and killed four student protesters in Ohio at Kent State University in 1970, wounding nine others. I’ve read the police used excuses like they had intel there were communist agitators involved, funnily similar to what they say today.
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