If you have information that there is a person who has just committed a serious crime and is heavily armed, there is no threshold for error.
It is a bit like standing in the street and someone says, “Lookout!!!” You could stand there, look at the person, and ask, “Lookout for what?”, except you couldn’t, because before you opened your mouth you were face down unconscious and dying from being hit by the speeding car you didn’t see.

In the situation where the police expect to encounter a heavily armed person willing to use their weapons, they don’t have a lot of time to wait on niceties, a 2 second hesitation means an officer may be killed and there is a new widow and fatherless children. My son is a police officer and was responding to a call about a disturbance at a local hairstylist/barber shop. When he got there the door was open but nobody was there. he realized that to the side of the shop was a metal stairway to an apartment over the shop. He went up the stairway and knocked on the door. When the door opened he saw a man and a woman sitting in the living room of the apartment, and the man opening the door, standing in a way so his R side was hidden by the doorjamb/wall. He asked the man to move so he could see both his hands. The man didn’t move so he asked again. There was some movement by the man at the door, then the man sitting in the room yelled, “He’s got a gun” and dove for him. A struggle ensued and the suspect pushed by my son and fled without firing (he was about 6″ taller and 100 lbs heavier). he was disarmed as he was tackled by my son from behind while other officers who had arrived approached him from the bottom of the stairs.
The “suspect” was trying to load the chamber of his gun without being noticed when the man being held hostage yelled and jumped. Had the suspect been more adept at using his gun, or the hostage too scared to do anything, my son would have been shot because he was reluctant to make the conclusion that the suspect was uncooperative because he was armed and still weighing his options. Had he received a call that an armed robbery was in progress, he would have been much quicker to shoot when a suspect refused to show his hands. If a neighbor had called as a “prank”, if the person answering the door would have been slow showing both hands simply because he didn’t want to be ordered around by the police, or had drugs of some sort in his hidden hand, he might have ended up dead because my son would have needed to make the split second decision, “Am I going to stand here and get shot while waiting for this guy to comply or shoot first”? That’s a heck of a choice for someone to be forced to make.

If it’s a SWAT scenario with multiple people involved, then there are multiple split second decisions to be made and things to go wrong.

Kudos to Patterico for stepping up to the plate. Well done, and I appreciate it.

But I think what you have done is laid out a good indictment of this Brynaert guy (who has sent me a couple of nasty emails already this morning — thanks, y’all). Obviously, the swatting thing is disturbing.

I’m not convinced that I should paint Kimberlin with the same brush, or assume that Brynaert does things as Kimberlin’s bequest. It’s possible that Kimberlin is the mastermind/puppetmaster, and these other guys are his minions. But there isn’t much evidence of that. Not yet. Just speculation.

I mean, yes, Kimberlin is using the court system to redress his grievances, but you know, so is Aaron. I think that’s what we would want him to do — it beats bombs, right? I’m not weighing in on the merits of his lawsuits (he’s won a few, so obviously the courts don’t think they are all meritless)… I’m just saying that in the bill of particulars that has been leveled here, using the court system to litigate harassment-type claims doesn’t strike me as all that bad (and if it is, then Aaron is just as guilty).

Anyway, thanks for advancing the ball in a constructive way, Patrick.

Comment by Patterico — 5/25/2012 @ 6:37 am

Including the Stack call and the radio call-in?

100%, take it to the bank.

There’s a story there buy I’ll truncate. Preface: Hubs is a trained speaker, a trained actor, stage and voice, and a talented mimic. Talking is like music to him.

He came upon me repeatedly listening to the stack call just a few weeks ago. I had just heard it that day for the first time and was feeling distresed and ill. I was listening to it over and over, in my bed and comparing it to a clip I’d found of Ron. His reaction was interesting…but Ill skip over.

Later I got more samples. I kept my opinion to myself. I asked him to listen and compare He didn’t have to listen long. He told me they were the same person, and that day I got a little disquisition on things like register and timbre, range and pacing.

I knew what I heard, a match – and it was backed up by a person I would trust more than myself.

I don’t care about the blog dispute.

Comment by Burgers Allday — 5/25/2012 @ 8:11 am

I’d say no. GTFO.

I don’t care about the blog dispute.

Are you calling sending armed police into someone’s house… into their children’s room, putting a family’s life in danger… a “blog dispute”?

Pat gave the police the benefit of the doubt in the Gates incident. He wasn’t without basis, but agree to disagree on that. It was years ago. I do not see how someone sane could be bringing that up in this context. You’re saying it’s time for him to take in your “Teaching moment”, so you’re actually taking advantage of Patterico being swatted (which you describe as “a little bit bad”) to make this trollish point.

I feel sorry for you for being that heartless.

Comment by Deez — 5/25/2012 @ 8:01 am

Wow. Yikes. I’m truly not being glib or sarcastic when I observe people like you and realize that the human mind can become quite corrupt, twisted or defective. Something has to be innate or inherent about people who suffer from such odd, extreme ideological impulses. In your case, impulses of the far left.

I never trust very extreme people (of any persuasion) and suspect they’re even more likely to be just the opposite of what they hold up as their ideal.

Lastly, Brett Kimberlin used to have a Wikipedia entry, but it has been deleted twice and is currently locked so it cant be created again. Did Kimberlin sue, threaten, or did someone there just circle the wagons for a friend?

Comment by MJ — 5/25/2012 @ 7:18 am

I doubt anyone at Wikipedia is particularly friendly with Kimberlin’s crew of eighwholes. You’d be surprised how some Wikipedia people are dedicated to protecting lies they’ve established there. I gave up trying to correct the record of murdered 13-year-old Arkansas teenager Jesse Dirkhising after an activist who guards that page like a sentry would switch out changes within 24 hours.