Guest Post by Eric Peters
A prank call to “heroes” has resulted in an innocent man’s death at a home in Wichita, Kansas.
Andrew Finch, 28, was shot and killed Thursday after police responded to an anonymous call about a shooting involving hostages.
The caller claimed someone had an argument with their mother; that the woman’s husband was accidentally shot; and that a brother, a sister and the mother were being held hostage, according to head Wichita “hero” Troy Livingston
“We learned through that call that the father was deceased, shot in the head. So that’s the information we were working off of,” Livingston said. “Our officers came here preparing for a hostage situation. Several got in position. A male came to the front door, and one of our officers discharged his weapon.
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Note that the anonymous caller’s assertions were taken as verbatim truth – “we learned through the call that the father was deceased ” a statement of fact that was anything but – and no effort was made to verify the actual truth.
Instead, the “heroes” effectively judged-and-juried and carried out sentence. The baffled – and entirely innocent of any crime deceased victim – probably never knew what hit him.
The “heroes” claim they shot Finch – a “hero” “discharged his weapon” – after they say he moved his hands to his waistline. Naturally, the “hero” who “discharged his weapon” – the clinical language is revelatory – “feared for his safety.”
Which made Finch’s life forfeit. Which makes any of our lives forfeit.
This is the state of things in America, the “post-911 reality” – as the “heroes” and their apologists themselves describe it. That reality being ordinary people must live in abject terror of the government, accepting outright murder for the sake of can’t be-too-careful.
Livingston admitted Finch was not armed. But the most maddening thing is that Finch was in his own home, minding his own business.
There was no evidence of anything amiss; no shouting, no signs of an actual disturbance. All of this was triggered by an anonymous phone call. On the basis of that alone, a gang of screaming, hut-hutting “heroes” fingering assault rifles – the real thing, capable of fully automatic fire – assaults Finch’s home. He is startled by the sudden ruckus and wonders what is going on and why; perhaps is not immediately supine and compliant. After all, he hasn’t done anything and is in his own home. He may have been irritated by the intrusion.
He moves his hands ever so slightly.
And so is made dead.
“Three or four people from the home were taken to be interviewed,” according to news reports. No one was found dead at the home – other than Finch, of course.
Livingston called the shooting “tragic and senseless.”
Which it was, but not in the way Livingston means.
“The irresponsible actions of a prankster (italics added) put people’s lives at risk,” he said Friday. “The incident is a nightmare for everyone involved, including the family and our police department. Due to the actions of a prankster, we have an innocent victim. If the false police call had not been made, we would not have been there.”
A prankster?
What about the “irresponsible actions” of the “heroes”?
Who stormed an innocent man’s house and shot him dead in front of his family on the basis of a prank call – without even a cursory attempt at fact-checking the situation, something even hack reporters usually at least go through the motions of doing? And hack reporters can only murder the truth – while armed government workers – “heroes” – murder flesh and blood human beings.
And get away with it.
Will the “heroes” who murdered Finch be charged with any crime, even reckless endangerment? Of course not. The armed government worker who murdered Finch has been placed on paid administrative leave. Having murdered one taxpayer, he is now paid by other taxpayers to go home and watch TV while the “investigation” proceeds. It is extremely unlikely he or any of his fellow”heroes” will be charged with any crime.
If Finch’s family successfully sues over this extremely wrongful death, it will be the taxpayers who pay – not the “heroes” who did the death-dealing.
And who, accordingly, will continue to deal death while uluating that they “feared for their safety.”
The fact that a man can be shot to death over an anonymous call ought to outrage Americans. But most Americans have become inured to such atrocities by the “post-911 reality.” Official barbarism is now par for the course – the new routine. It reaches to the highest levels – the president of the United States speaks like a street corner thug, braggadociously. That having been normalized by the thug from Texas who preceded him and who, more than any other single individual, created “the post 911 reality.”
It now trickles down to every street corner in the country, like a raw sewage tsunami.
And it will stop only when people demand that it be stopped. When “heroes” who murder innocent people on the basis of anonymous calls are treated as murderers. When armed government workers who murder people while claiming they “feared for their safety” are no longer thought of as “heroes.”
Which doesn’t look like it’ll be anytime soon.
We commented on this yesterday
This is fucked up and bullshit. The cop needs drawn an quartered. The “prankster” should be slowly roasted and flayed. This shit needs to stop.
It will NEVER stop so long as the government maintains the legal monopoly on “security” and “justice” in our society. Private, competitive, and free markets provide REAL accountability, liability, etc. for violations of contracts, murder, mayhem, loss of consumer trust, etc. Government monopolies on the other hand hide behind “sovereign immunity,” STEAL the money they need from their victims, and write all the laws the rest of us must suffer under. Time to end this backasswards relationship while there is still time.
Mmmmmm ……. how is that related to the “swatting” of one gamer by another gamer seeking revenge for something?
The lack of accountability by the police, the massive increase in SWAT raids (from around 100 their first year to over 50,000 annually now), and the knowledge that an armed confrontation with government goons will generally result in the death of an innocent, all point to the need to get rid of this government monopoly. Do you honestly think that things would have transpired in this manner if this pissed off gamer had been forced to present his “evidence” to a private security company? The sheer presence of the government goon squad in our society makes this kind of behavior by others so easy to instigate. This guy wouldn’t have had the balls to go to this man’s house and confront him, but much like those who use the violence and force of government to steal from others, destroy the rights and freedoms of others, etc. this man simply used the violence arm of the government to kill someone he had a dispute with. Underlying common denominator – government monopoly.
I’ll take government cheese over government protection any day of the week.
“Heroes”
The propaganda is so thick it’ll never be undone. Why – at this point – is anyone joining the military, for example? Why does no one dissuade their kids from doing so? Do they really want their kids’ destiny in the hands of our vile politicians, “intelligence community” and military industrial complex?
You have to laugh to keep from crying.
The subject is police use of excessive force. Here are two brilliant comedic looks at it from different perspectives.
https://m.facebook.com/NABSS2007/posts/10155613928777534
If the sonofabitch had kept his hands up he wouldn’t be dead, would he? If the dead cop and father of two in Denver had shot first and asked questions later then he would be alive to go home to his family, wouldn’t he? Go put on the Cop’s uniform and answer a few domestic violence calls and that will sure as hell change your attitude enough to know that those people in blue truly are heroes. Cops aren’t killing nearly enough people. Those involved in hot pursuits, those going into a fast food restaurant and attacking an employee because their chicken sandwich didn’t have enough mayonnaise on it, drunk driving, drug busts, and just about any other situation that places the public at risk of the slightest injury should be handled with deadly force. Then we could see a real change on the streets of America. thanks
Fuck you dickhead. I hope a cop blows your fucking brains out because you scratched your balls.
Where is the video of the innocent murder victim reaching into his waistband. Fucking cops can say anything they fucking want when they murder us.
I never said anyone should be shot for scratching their balls. You people don’t have, and probably never will have the slightest idea how a decent, Christ fearing, organized society works. You just want the right to terrorize the neighborhoods with impunity. God help us all and may the Cops aim be true and the perps keep falling to the ground, never to rise again. thanks
You’re a fucking demented nutjob, with your terrorizing neighborhoods bullshit. The dude opened his fucking front door, was unarmed, and had done absolutely nothing wrong. When sickos like you inhabit this planet, I worry about our future. Go fuck yourself. You’re done on this blog you fucking troll. THANKS!!!
Dear Hondo,
A song for you —- Vera Lynn – Auf Wiedersehn Sweetheart ( 1952 )
The fucking heroes shot him from across the street hiding behind their police cars and wearing body armor. Yeah he was a real threat. The murderer needs to be hung by his balls.
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article192229414.html
Hondo I cannot believe your comment and blind support in this matter . Hero’s are people that have gone to extremes above and beyond any expectation risking life and limb in a selfless act for others . Very few people in police departments are true hero’s . Like the fact that everybody gets a trophy in today’s touchy feels world .
You completely ignore the fact that there are badge wearing minions that are nothing more than steroid raged trigger happy jerks with a gun . Our Free Republic has had the well poisoned by total and absolute actions without accountability and responsibility for the results .
This is the problem with police today . Your rush to blame the victim speaks volumes about you . I hope you never sit on a jury , I bet you can see a guilty person a mile away !
Hondo,
Let me be clear from the start. I believe Andrew Finch was murdered. Having said that, let me say this. I’m a conservative by nature. As such, I tend to line up with the law and order side of the policing equation. I agree with you that cops often interact with the absolute dregs of society and have to approach the scum with which they deal in a manner which the more genteel among us would find overly aggressive. This fact is, however, no excuse for letting common sense and reasonable restraint to be thrown out the window.
This particular incident is disturbing in the extreme in that it brings into sharp focus several problems with policing in this country:
First, an anonymous call initially triggered the police response. This call was apparently never verified or authenticated. Reasonable due diligence would seem to demand that the cops should verify the intel they receive before marshaling the manpower and equipment used in this case.
Second, victim in this case was standing in his own front door on his own porch. Had he come out of the house carrying a shotgun to see what the disturbance was, he would not have been doing anything illegal. There was no crime in progress at the time. There was only the allegation of a crime from an anonymous caller. Common sense would seem to call for a lower key response from law enforcement in order to assess the situation, rather than the type of overwhelming force that descended on Andrew Finch’s home.
Third, the cops were standing in the shelter of vehicles, no doubt wearing body armor and toting scoped rifles at a distance that appeared to be around 30 to 50 yards from Finch’s porch. Even if Finch did have a handgun and was reaching for it, should any cops have truly been in “fear for their safety” from a man with a handgun at that distance. Do you know how hard it is to hit a target with a handgun at those distances. If you think it’s easy, you’ve been watching too much TV. Plus, the whole “reaching for his waistband” crap has become such a transparent, clichéd excuse for the use of deadly force by the police, that it is laughable
Fourth, Finch was dropped and died from a single shot from the “hero” in question. This would lead one to believe that the shooter, when he made the decision to shoot, intended to kill Mr. Finch. If he is that good a marksman, why not shoot to disable Mr. Finch. It seems as though deadly force has become a first resort in modern American policing rather than a last.
Lastly, this and the recently publicized video of “hero” cop Phillip Brailsford pumping five rounds into a young man who was absolutely no threat might lead one to believe that many cops in this country are eaten up with testosterone, think themselves above the law so long as they are in “fear for their safety,” and have wholeheartedly embraced a “comply or die” mindset when it comes to their fellow citizens. Many of those citizens are rightly worthy of contempt for their behavior, but my guess is very few are worthy of death at the hands of badged and armored government drones suffering from “little man syndrome.”
So, Mr. Hondo, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that policing has reached this state in part because of the endless, mindless, slavish, drooling, unquestioning adulation of authority displayed by you and your ilk. So long as the populace continues to worship at the altar of authority, the nation will continue to spiral into the dark abyss of jackbooted tyranny. These sorts of incidents are harbingers of dark days to come. If this slobbering defense of state-sanctioned murder by people like you goes on much longer, the backlash is bound to come.
First, Only call 911 for medical assistance, never call the cops.
Second, Never open the door to any stranger, cops are included in that list, they are not our friends, they serve themselves and their government.
Third, I am always armed in my home and vehicle. I always answer the door at home and I never give the cops a reason to pull me over while on the street. (Last encounter 2008 for rear ice chest basket covering license plate)
Fourth, Be kind to all people you encounter throughout the day. Avoid confrontations with the psychopaths that walk among us, 10-20% of which are LEO.
Be safe out there.
I just saw this on the news this morning, having been literally out of contact with the world outside by choice. My first comment to my husband was “He can’t hear what they are saying and the glare caused him to lift his hand to shade his eyes. He wasn’t sure they were talking to him, I bet.”
Then, when I learned the context of the strange California gamer call, I realized we are now being normalized to accept the cold-blooded murder of innocent citizens as long as the murderer comes up with a plausible excuse for fearing for his own life. After all, think of all those images of cops in swat gear hiding behind trees while gunshots were ongoing at Columbine. Remember Columbine? And other instances where time was of the essence but the policemen obviously had been convinced to save themselves at all costs.
Skip that for now. If I am remembering correctly (and it could be very doubtful the reading is now so long ago), after the Bolshevik Revolution, the former middle class lived in ghettos where “assigned” and learned to not look around when gunshots rang out, just being thankful they weren’t the one targeted by the Chekists, which were Lenin’s version of KGB. They learned how to NOT be outraged that government policemen could steal from them, assault their persons and even kill them and they had no recourse except to file a complaint with the same agency/bureaucracy which controlled the police and probably profited from favors and cronyism. Does that sound familiar?
Most times I agree that Chris Rock is right. Not this time. Fearing for his life from that distance from any weapon in his waist band is bull shit. Honda you are wrong on this one. Cops that do this stuff must be held accountable.
To all of you that put me down…go wear the uniform. Tell me how you fell after a year of wearing the badge. thanks
You sure like sucking that cop dick.
Put me down for one uniform. Then you can suck my dick.
Listen up A**hole. I tried the rational approach first. Let’s try this. The “uniform” confers no right to act above the law, nor does it cloak the wearer with a universal excuse to get away with breaking it. Conversely, not “wearing the uniform” does not preclude one from using rational thought to assess the rights and wrongs of any given situation. Your lame ass “wearing the uniform” cliché is the product of a stunted mind. You are the “I was just following orders” type that digs ditches for the killers of the innocent. You sir, are a helot in the making. Either that or you will find yourself getting well acquainted with a lamppost when your fellow citizens have had enough of your authoritarian bullshit. If you need me to explain any of what I just wrote in simpler terms, let me know.
By putting on the uniform, you accept a higher responsibility and standard, which is not an easy order to fill. This standard does not include a blank check on using deadly fucking force at your discretion you fucking dick.
Your attitude is going to get a lot of good cops killed when that day of “fuck it” arrives. That attitude is poison and I pray to god you’re not actually a cop.
Hondo be all:
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Hondo , the put downs are due to your lack of objective ability . To proclaim we should have to put a uniform on to have the ability to judge from the pure evidence of any case is ridiculous . Your attitude indicates you believe law enforcement personal are infallable . My duty here is to inform you such is not the case . Remember the nurse being dragged out of the emergency room after informing the cop his authority to draw blood from a patient was to late in the prescribed protocol . She was dragged out in cuffs by one of your so called hero’s . Your hero was full of shit in that case . Your inability to be objective for anyone but your team in blue speaks volumes !
I understand your point about empathy for cops, but if it’s so dangerous, why not quit?
Become a firefighter. Everyone LOVES firefighters. They can do no wrong.
By contrast, nobody likes cops, not even law-abiding people.
At best, they’re hall monitors. At worst, they’re violent bullies and road pirates out collecting donations for the state. And they’re practically impossible to punish in all but the most blatantly egregious instances.
Because after cases like that unarmed man shot in the back in SC by the cop who then claimed he was armed, well, nobody is apt to take the cops’ side. Or the swat team that blew up a baby with a flashbang in Atlanta. Or swat teams serving non violent warrants. OR the many cases of asset forfeiture against regular folks. Or those Baltimore cops who accidentally videoed themselves planting evidence before making a bust. How about the cop in AZ who shot an unarmed man in a hotel hallway with an AR15 he had customized with a dust cover marked “YOU’RE FUCKED!” And the cops who assault non-violent people, the retarded, handicapped, etc like those Berkely protestors pepper fogged for sitting on the sidewalk and the retarded guy laying on his back with his therapist/companion trying to calm him down. etc etc etc
I had a friend who was a cop who admitted to me he pulled people over for random tiny things, just to see if he could make it stick. He ticketed one dude for not stopping at the bottom of his driveway before entering the street. He didn’t think it would be upheld and he was surprised when it was. I knew another cop who pulled a guy over and by the time he caught up to him, he had forgotten why he pulled him over, so he just ticketed him for speeding.
Oh, I can’t help mentioning the double standard that holds me accountable for not knowing the law, but not the cops who invent the law on the spot, such as the goons who threaten people for recording or takeing pictures in public.
As long as good or at least benign cops cover for the bad ones, and the system is calculated to protect the bad ones, and they’re practically never held responsible for their outrageous behavior, and there’s a lot of outrageous cop behavior, I don’t think you’re going to find many people on your side.
I know they have a hard job and nobody likes them. But they also treat us all like we’re a threat to them and create the impression of an occupation force, not members of our own community out to protect and serve us.
I went to report a break-in to the cops and the cop was giving me the blade treatment and demanded I keep my hands where they could see them. I’m an upright uptight citizen and I don’t appreciate being treated like another potential threat inside their own station house. On the other hand, I had a very friendly and helpful cop save my butt when my car broke down during rush hour. They loaned me their phone so I could call AAA. That was pretty cool. That cop earned my respect as very decent and genuinely helpful person. I think interactions like that are how departments earn trust in the community, not acting like violent roid-raging military occupiers in Iraq.
If it’s really so hard, go to the fire department and be a hero.
Intrepid police work.
They did a real bang-up job on this one.
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