“Geez, they’re not snipers! They’re just using the sniper scope as a telescope! They’re not for use as actual snipers! We just gotta use them to look at the evil protestors!”"
“These are not weapons trained at your precious little foreheads, they’re Democracy Spreaders™’. You go to class & learn all about democracy & when you exit the building, we use these to spread all that democracy stored up in your brains all over the wall behind you.“
Managed democracy is a joke too close to reality.
Managed democracy is not a joke.
The fact that a rifle is attached to the telescope is just a funny coincidence
Love how the narrative went from “nah those can’t be snipers definitely spotters” to “snipers are commonplace at big events!” once it was confirmed. Also the fact that only msn and snopes have published anything about this (or is that just a search indexing problem?).
Yeah, that is why it fits here. The response from Americans is depressing.
I think it is a search index issue, I can find a few things on this. The arrests are also a thing.
There is also the wayback machine to watch in real time the changing of story by the school:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240426123527/https://www.thelantern.com/2024/04/university-confirms-there-are-no-snipers-on-the-ohio-unions-roof/
https://www.thelantern.com/2024/04/faculty-speak-out-against-universitys-continued-arrests-of-protesters-on-campus-look-toward-university-president-ted-carter-jr-for-response/
Just a matter of time before we have another Kent State.
It was really close at UT. State police, city police, and national guard called in by spineless university president (Jay Hartzell).
Fuck Jay Hartzell. Hope he gets recalled. No golden parachute.
The fact that no charges are being filed should result in a strong condemnation and accountability for the administration and the cops. You put everyone in danger when no crime was being committed. There won’t be, but there should be.
Don’t forget about Jackson State.
The event happened 11 days after the Kent State shootings
My fear is that the next one will be worse.
With the artillery that’s out there these days, it’s almost a certainty.
Plus the police which seem even more bloodthirsty
It feels like these protests are going to shape how the governments of the world will respond to mass unrest in the future.
Or in other words - those in charge want the common person to be disempowered, to frame a peaceful protest as an act of terrorism so they can be more aggressive in future.
Hopefully no one on either side does anything stupid.
In the future?
Ask any student population in the past who were shot, beaten, tasered, hosed down with water cannons, and jailed what they thought would happen to future protesters.
The shape of silencing unrest, especially anti-war or liberal unrest, hasn’t changed at all. And it will look just the same a decade from now.
This seems so incredibly ill-advised. If students become martyred by trigger-happy snipers, these protests will boil over into open violence. Imagine thousands of videos flooding social media in an instant showing student corpses. I fear that gasoline has been poured and matches are being lit everywhere.
There won’t be any meaningful amount of violence. People in the US are total bitches when it comes to actually fighting the system. At worst, there will be a riot, where the most predominant activity is looting, and then the National Guard will be called in and everyone will roll over like they always do.
Totally not true lol. Jan 6th, LA riots of the 90s, the various riots during the height of BLM movements, Seattle, Unite the Right rally both sides.
People are upset, they cause damage and even sometimes try to assassinate people. The US probably faces more domestic terrorism than most places.
We have a very strong police state
The People didn’t cause damage in Portland as much as the fucking pigs lit fires and defaced buildings to then blame the protestors for it, FYI. Caught on video from multiple angles and everything, yet still nothing in the way of consequences. “Police state”, you say? It’s fascism in a candy wrapper.
Lol okay my point stands people are constantly in the streets fighting.
Fascism is a police state, a police state is fascism.
Why are you fuckin mad? lmfao
People are not “constantly in the streets fighting”, you nonce.
There is also more to “fascism” than simply “police state”.
Are you purposefully stupid, or just lazy? Smart money’s on you thinking your username was spelled with an “e” when it’s correctly spelled with an “a”.
you’re being dumb yes they are we can literally sit here all day and go through different ways people have attempted to resist the government from Waco and MOVE to the many many many many many domestic terrorist attacks. We can talk about civil rights movements from MLK to Black Panthers to BLM. Occupy Wall Street, Unite the Right Rally(counter protestors), numerous school demonstrations from Kent State to walk outs to what’s happening today for Palestine.
They’re always fighting.
We’ll get some kickass industrial songs about it in 15 years though.
There ain’t gonna be a 15 years from now.
Sir, this ain’t the exciting dystopia, this is the boring dystopia.
What is it with Ohio and murdering college protesters? (See: Kent State)
the land of the free
Never has been. National anthem notwithstanding the United States has always been land of the richest getting what they want.
Hell the entire history of the United States is basically, we want something so we’re going to have it, and if there’s inconvenient people in the way then those inconvenient people will go away or die. The US had race separation until as recently as the 1960s. Wherever was the freedom?
It’s like it was almost designed for the rich to begin with.
Isn’t USSA the land of religions? They even have it in their motto.
That’s a remnant of the previous Cold War that we engaged in, it wasn’t supposed to be that way. The founding fathers specifically separated church and state.
That’s a remnant of the previous Cold War that we engaged in
Really? All of this religiousness of brain is because other side of the Pacific Bathtub wasn’t religious?
Really not sure what you’re asking, but yes, the current wave of fundamentalists and evangelicals is a backlash because the USSR was a non-religious state.
What? The “land of the free”?
Whoever told you that is your enemy
I mean, obviously question: how does one treat them as if they are?
(Make them say the quiet part out loud)
Ideally, countersnipers
If everyone’s a sniper, we’re all safe.
That’s literally how it works, and the Black Panthers proved it a long time ago. The cops stay peaceful when the protesters are heavily armed and heavily organized, because cops are fucking cowards who don’t want an actual fight
I don’t know if it would go like that these days. Cops now have equipment to beat a small army. It’s insane that we let it get like this.
We were so innocent back in the day - my bit of activism was protesting campus security getting certified as a police force. Did no good, so now every incident has someone bringing guns and looking to escalate
Reposting this because it’s relevant here too: A scenario like this is what led to the formation of the Black Panthers during the civil rights era, and subsequently led to gun control laws being started by republicans. During the civil rights protests, people quickly realized that peaceful protests were violently broken. But heavily armed peaceful protests had police nervously watching from across the street.
Because police had no qualms about firing into an unarmed crowd to get people to disperse. But when the entire crowd is armed to the teeth and can immediately return fire, the police are suddenly okay with watching from afar. This was the start of the Black Panthers; a group who organized heavily armed protests.
When conservative lawmakers saw a bunch of heavily armed black people (and allies) on their front steps, and saw the police unwilling to break the protests, those conservative lawmakers got really fucking sweaty. So instead, they gave the police tools to arrest individual protestors. The Mulford Act was drafted and quickly passed. At the time, it was the most restrictive gun control law the country had ever seen. It was written by Ronald Reagan (yes, the same Ronald Reagan that the right uplifts as a paragon of conservative values,) and was supported by the NRA, (yes, the same NRA that lobbies for looser gun control laws in the wakes of school shootings.)
This gave the police the power to arrest individual protestors after the fact. Instead of firing into the crowd to disperse the protest, they would wait for the protest to end, follow the protestors home, then kick in their front doors while they were having dinner with their families. (Remember all of the “don’t bring your cell phone to protests because police will arrest you a week or two later if your phone was pinged nearby” messaging during the pandemic protests? Yeah…)
This led to the Black Panthers diving underground. They realized what was happening after protests, so they took efforts to guard their members’ identities. They pulled tactics straight out of anti-espionage textbooks. Randomized meeting places, so police couldn’t set up stings ahead of time. Code names, so arrested members couldn’t rat even if they wanted to. Fragmented info, so no one person (even the leaders) could take down the entire operation if busted. Coded messages. Dead drops. Et cetera, et cetera…
We’re on a rocket trajectory straight down that same pipeline now.
I strongly disagree that not wanting an actual fight is cowardice. Turning up armed to intimidate unarmed people is cowardice.
Being willing to attack people who can’t or won’t fight back, but being afraid to attack people who will fight back (especially if they will do so effectively), is basically the definition of cowardice
Ah well you should’ve said that to begin with, because I agree with that!
Civil war speedrun any%
So I have a question I sort of posted in there too but figure I’ll bring the conversation over here (in a more respectful way)
These are called spotters/marksman and they have them at football games, the Olympics, presumably political events, etc. to handle the threat of suicide bombers and other mass-population terrorist threats
How should we handle these threats without police intervention/snipers to quickly take out a bomber?
Looking for civil discourse if at all possible, but I also understand this is a high stakes discussion and directly affects some more than others
Edit: Asks a legitimate question, without ulterior motives, literally just trying to steer the conversation to a productive, constructive discussion: is bombarded with bad faith arguments, downvotes, accused of being down right disingenuous, and minimal attempts (1 as of this edit) to actually address the conversation. Psychotic experience this was.
Do these snipers ever actually intervene ?
Also, the solution is simple : outlaw guns.
I think there might’ve been a miscommunication - I was referring to the threat being suicide bombers and dirty bombs. How do you stop someone from walking into a crowd, pushing a button, and hurting many innocent people trying to peacefully protest?
The cops are literally the ones walking into the crowds hurting the protestors. So you get rid of the cops.
I already asked this but I’m gonna repeat it here for clarity, are cops the only people hurting innocent people at protests?
Charlottesville, Virginia (2017): White supremacist drives car into counter protestors
Minneapolis, Minnesota (2020): Tanker truck drives through a crowd of George Floyd protestors.
Seattle, Washington (2020): Police brutality protest, driver drives through a crowd yet again.
New York City, New York (2017): IED sucide bomber inspired by ISIS in the subway.
Portland, Oregon (2020): Several incidents regarding vehicle usage and other violence against George Floyd protestors
Seems not. People are violent and there are threats to peaceful protesters. I am not saying that police snipers are the solution to this threat, and I am not saying cops are innocent, but to try and pretend that the *only *problem is cops, is disingenuous to the innocent people who have died due to hateful people and I’m not going to let you pretend otherwise, knowingly or otherwise.
Say their names.
Heather Heyer
David McAtee
Horace Lorenzo Anderson Jr
Summer Taylor
Secoriea Turner (8 fucking years old.)
Garrett Foster
Anthony Huber
Joseph Rosenbaum
What a cute list, here is one for the police during only a 6 month period over one large event to show the stark difference between the dangers of strangers and the dangers of police at protests (who I might add where present at all your examples, so what was the point?)
(in case you want to double check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_police_violence_incidents_during_George_Floyd_protests) Sorry this might take a bit:
- May 27, 2020 Memphis, Tennessee An officer was filmed using his police shield to shove a girl.[9]
- May 27, 2020 Minneapolis, Minnesota Police fired projectiles at protesters, damaging a woman’s eye.[10]
- May 28, 2020 Albuquerque, New Mexico Police fired tear gas at protesters who followed officers as they made arrests.[11]
- May 28, 2020 Denver, Colorado Peaceful protesters were gassed by police. Elisabeth Epps, a member of the Denver Police use-of-force committee, resigned her post after she was shot by police projectiles.[12]
- May 28, 2020 Houston, Texas A Houston Police Department officer riding a horse was filmed trampling a woman. Mayor Sylvester Turner apologized for the incident.[13][14] The woman later filed a lawsuit against the Houston Police Department and the city of Houston.[15]
- May 28, 2020 Minneapolis, Minnesota An officer in the tail car of a caravan of squad cars was filmed indiscriminately spraying a chemical agent out the window onto bicyclists and people in a crosswalk.[16]
- May 28, 2020 Minneapolis, Minnesota A reporter from the Des Moines Register was pepper sprayed by police.[17]
- May 29, 2020 Atlanta, Georgia An officer was filmed using his bicycle to shove a black woman who was protesting.[18]
- May 29, 2020 Atlanta, Georgia An officer was filmed body-slamming a woman near Lenox Square Mall. The woman later sued the city of Atlanta.[19]
- May 29, 2020 Columbus, Ohio Police fired a non-lethal projectile at a man, striking and shattering his knee.[20]
- May 29, 2020 Columbus, Ohio A woman was hit by a police horse. The city of Columbus later agreed to pay $5.75 million to injured protesters.[21]
- May 29, 2020 Columbus, Ohio Police pepper-sprayed and shoved a reverend.[21]
- May 29, 2020 Columbus, Ohio Police fired a wooden bullet at a woman near a protest, striking her in the chin.[21]
- May 29, 2020 Dallas, Texas A CBS news crew was caught in tear gas.[22]
- May 29, 2020 Denver, Colorado KMGH-TV news crew reported police targeting them with paintballs and tear gas. Their photographer was shot four times and their camera was destroyed.[23]
- May 29, 2020 Denver, Colorado Police fired a sponge-tipped projectile at a protester, hitting her eye.[24]
- May 29, 2020 Denver, Colorado Police shot tear gas at a couple in a vehicle waiting at a traffic stop in Denver. When the man came out of the vehicle to confront the officers because his pregnant wife was in the vehicle, the officers ordered him to move along. He refused and the officers opened fire on him and the vehicle with pepper balls.[25]
- May 29, 2020 Las Vegas, Nevada 80 people were arrested as police clashed with protesters on the Vegas strip, including two journalists. Charges against the two journalists were later dropped.[26][27]
- May 29, 2020 Las Vegas, Nevada Officers were filmed rushing and tackling a protester. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said the man was an agitator.[28]
- May 29, 2020 Louisville, Kentucky A Louisville Metro Police Department officer was filmed firing pepper balls directly at a WAVE 3 News crew, hitting correspondent Kaitlin Rust and photojournalist James Dobson.[29][23]
- May 29, 2020 Minneapolis, Minnesota CNN journalist Omar Jimenez and his three-person news crew were arrested by a group of Minnesota state police officers while reporting live on protests in response to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[30] According to Jimenez, he was arrested for failing to move back from the position where they were reporting after being ordered to, despite their media credentials being visible and valid, and their agreeing to move where directed.[31][32]
- May 29, 2020 Minneapolis, Minnesota Swedish Expressen correspondent Nina Svanberg was shot with a rubber bullet and VG photojournalist Thomas Nilsson had a red laser sight trained on him.[33][34]
- May 29, 2020 Minneapolis, Minnesota Journalist and author Linda Tirado was permanently blinded in one eye after police shot her with a non-lethal projectile.[35]
- May 29, 2020 New York City, New York New York City Police Department officer Vincent D’Andraia shoved a woman, Dounya Zayer, to the ground at a protest in Brooklyn.[36] The officer was recorded throwing down the protester with both hands while allegedly calling her a “stupid fucking bitch”; the protester was hospitalized after the assault and said she suffered a seizure.[37] On June 9, the officer was charged with assault, criminal mischief, harassment and menacing.[38]
- May 29, 2020 New York City, New York As police cars drove past protesters, an officer opened his passenger door, causing it to hit a protester. The suspected perpetrator received modified duty.[39]
- May 29, 2020 New York City, New York Outside Barclays Center, police were filmed repeatedly striking protesters with clubs after they had fallen on the concrete.[40]
- May 29, 2020 Omaha, Nebraska A man was shot in the eye with a pepper ball. A different person was shot by pepper balls in the groin, although it is not known exactly what date this occurred.[41][42]
- May 29, 2020 Omaha, Nebraska Police fired tear gas at a line of protesters sitting in the street.[43]
- May 29, 2020 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania An officer threw a pepper spray container at a man.[44]
- May 29, 2020 San Jose, California San Jose Police Department officer Jared Yuen drew national attention on social media due to videos of his behaviour. Yuen was videoed holding a projectile launcher, telling a protester “Shut up, bitch”, then within seconds he leaned around another officer to fire a projectile at close range, which caused a fight. In other videos, Yuen is filmed saying: “Let’s get this motherfucker”, or seen “smirking, licking his lips and rocking back and forth, looking a little too excited to be facing off with protesters”, reported San Jose Inside. The videos were viewed over 10 million times, and thousands called for Yuen’s firing. SJPD chief Eddie Garcia reacted that Yuen “let his emotions get the best of him, and it’s not right”, but he also called Yuen a “kid” and “good cop”, “who has put his life on the line for the city multiple times.” As a result, Yuen was removed from protest duties.[45][46][47]
- May 29, 2020 San Jose, California A bias trainer was shot in the groin by riot guns.[48]
- May 29, 2020 San Jose, California A former San Jose Planning Commissioner was pushed to the ground and repeatedly shot with impact munitions by police.[49]
- May 30, 2020 Albany, New York Police used tear gas after a protest turned violent. Tear gas spread into a nearby home, causing a resident who inhaled some of it to suffer lingering health effects.[50]
- May 30, 2020 Atlanta, Georgia Officers from the Atlanta Police Department pulled two black students from their car, broke a car window, and used tasers to shock them. This came after officers arrested a classmate of theirs whom they wanted to pick up; an officer ordered the students to continue driving, which they complied with. One officer claimed that one of the students possessed a gun, but no gun was found. One of the students stated that he was punched over 10 times in the back after being arrested. Within days, six officers were charged as a result of the incident; two were fired and four were put on administrative leave. The Fulton County District Attorney, Paul Howard, stated that the two college students were “innocent almost to the point of being naive”.[51][52][53]
- May 30, 2020 Austin, Texas 16-year-old Levi Ayala suffered brain damage after being shot in the head with a less-lethal round by Austin police officer Nicholas Gebhart.[54][55][56] Gebhart and several other officers were later indicted for shooting protesters with non-lethal projectiles.[57]
- May 30, 2020 Austin, Texas A deaf man was hit by less-lethal projectiles in the ear and crotch.[58]
- May 30, 2020 Chicago, Illinois Journalist Jonathan Ballew was broadcasting the protest when he was allegedly assaulted with a chemical agent.[59]
- May 30, 2020 Chicago, Illinois Police attacked actor John Cusack, who was filming the protest.[60]
- May 30, 2020 Chicago, Illinois An officer beat a woman in her vehicle and wrongfully arrested her. In 2022 the officer faced dismissal for the incident.[61]
- May 30, 2020 Cincinnati, Ohio An officer shoved a man from behind with a shield.[62]
- May 30, 2020 Cincinnati, Ohio A singular protester standing with his hands raised was tear gassed.[62]
- May 30, 2020 Cincinnati, Ohio Police fired pepper balls at a group of 20 people without warning.[62]
- May 30, 2020 Cincinnati, Ohio Police shot a man taking photos in the eye with a marking round, causing the man to suffer vision problems. The man filed an excessive force complained but it was ruled not sustained, as the Citizen Complaint Authority was not able to determine which officer fired the round.[63]
- May 30, 2020 Cleveland, Ohio A man lost sight in one eye after being hit with a beanbag round.[64]
- May 30, 2020 Cleveland, Ohio A sheriff’s deputy fired beanbag round at a man passing out water, hitting him in the back of the head. The same deputy fired a beanbag that blinded a different man on the same date. The man hit with the beanbag round later filed a lawsuit.[65]
- May 30, 2020 Columbus, Ohio Columbus Police were filmed pepper spraying Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, Commissioner Kevin Boyce, and Council President Shannon Hardin during a demonstration near the Ohio Statehouse.[66][67]
God damn, owned.
The fact you Americans think this is normal for a protest says more then anything I can comment.
A good test is to think of a private entitiy doing this and if that passes the smell test. I don’t think deploying snipers at events has ever saved anyone (correct me if I am missing an incident) and in this case if they are there to protect the students why does the school not hire their own sharpshooters?
You bring up a good point. The prevention part - snipers are seemingly ineffective. The reaction/response portion however, does point to guns being used to prevent further damage. 2016 dallas shooting - police used a bomb to take out the shooter after the fact. LA airport shooting in 2013 - taken down with regular guns.
Overall, I think you make a good point, they’re ineffective at prevention, and even response can be handled w/o the need of long range or automatic weapons. There’s always the argument that “well there aren’t any attacks because we have these” that I can see people making but that feels fallacious somehow, just not sure how exactly.
I am still left to wonder, how do you actually prevent the bombing and other attacks from happening. What is effective?
When the bomber intends to die in glory, there is no deterrent possible. Death isn’t any deterrent. It can only be stopped before they get to the scene.
Why won’t anyone answer my question, I know this.
What can be done to prevent
OK…
Reeducation or incarceratin of zealots. Large investment in mental health. Prosecution of group’s and individuals that call for violence or have violent philosophies. Reduce access to weapons and materials. High bounties for reporting suspicious activity or behavior. Promotion / enforcement of a homogeneous society.
None WILL be done. Many are undesirable. But they can be used to prevent. Does that help you?
Yes absolutely. These are most definitely actionable and are also excellent conversational pieces that can be discussed further, which was all I wanted instead of outrage commenting basically.
I think healthcare in general (including mental health) services would be hugely impactful to the general population.
I also think our educational system is being eroded and a lot of kids are pushed away from continuing education (in any form, not just traditional university which fails a lot of people) in favor of blue collar work
Now I’m not saying blue collar work is bad, but I do think continuing education is important, especially as our life expectancies are increasing. It’s important people stay educated and continue to practice things like the scientific process so that we don’t lose that information and become disinformation spreaders.
Without solid education, we can’t possible expect a “bright” future imo.
What did you mean about the homogenous society? In what ways? Looking forward to any examples/explanation you could give!
In a homogeneous society, everyone has the same background. No differences of traditions, religions, art, music, etc. They all look roughly similar. They have no fuel to make another member into the “other”. As I understand, Iceland has something approaching this. I expect the Sentinalese do, to. The ways to get to this from a large and diverse society are, of course, appalling.
I think you might be mistaken as to the point of the police being on site. Its not really the job of police to protect (and extra so for protesters). The risk of a terror attack on any large group of people is a weak excuse for this sort of response from police.
Something about those who give up liberty for safety deserve nether…
I sorta agree, but wanted to ask for some clarification - what liberties do you see being given up here? They didn’t really take anything away, they were just there. It’s definitely intimidating, and nobody trusts the police (for good reason, namely lack of appropriate oversight, action, and training) but I can’t see how anything was taken away or given up here for the illusion of saftey that the snipers would hypothetically be providing, know what I mean?
You have normalized a police state where as a people you now think it is normal to have things like sniper teams set up at all major events with a lot of people. This has been done as you have stated; “to handle the threat of suicide bombers and other mass-population terrorist threats” even though sniper teams have almost no ability to stop or even just not make the situation considerably worse.
The thing about trading liberties for extra safety is not only about the liberties lost but that it is a fools journey since the things done for safety are more likely to be ether useless, or just bad (think TSA vs militarizing the police).
You are not stopping a mass casualty event at the time and place of the event itself but well before it. This show of force is just control, theatre, a waste of taxpayer money and in the worst case the cause (ironically enough) of a mass casualty event.
“These threats” what threat?? People protesting? These snipers have never once protected protestors from the violent freaks that show up to run people over or shoot people.
From my point of view/questioning, it’s the threat of suicide bombers and other terrorist efforts (acid, dirty bombs, driving through a crowd of people) when it comes to protesting middle eastern matters in the states. Hell we have American terrorists doing terrorism here too, how do we better prevent that or are we stuck only responding?
Actual prevention of terrorism comes by building a just society. People who have basic needs, healthcare, education, and justice do not become terrorists.
And how do you expect a sharpshooter team to stop a suicide bomber, acid attack, or dirty bomb? Even stopping a crowd-driving-maniac would require significant luck. This isn’t an action movie.
I never made this claim… I was asking the question literally, which you answered and lead with, before going back to say I was implying something else. I’m confused how we ended up here, but I think we both agree that snipers are a threatening, and apparently not that effective means to prevent these things from happening. And even in reacting, snipers are overkill.
Yeah, you think all those people on January 6th weren’t having their basic needs met? No, terrorists are not logical people fed up with the system. They’re fanatics and psychopaths, and in Gaza it’s a revered profession. They literally don’t have their basic needs met because they are spending all their money and resources on violent extremism. They’ve been doing it so long their economy depends on it; if they stop killing Jews, they stop getting money from their benefactors in Iran and Qatar. Panislamism, which includes Hamas and its allies, is an ideology of violent repression of non-muslims and infidels, it’s not a freedom movement, it’s MAGA for Islam.
This is a complete distraction. The only people spilling protestors’ blood on American soil right now are cops. And your response to it is to try to justify why they need intimidation snipers on top of that?? Absolutely not.
You did not address what they said and instead made a slew of assumptions about their intent. They actually had a question
There was an updated image that clearly shows the barrel of a rifle, so no. These are not for spotting. They are for sniping.
While it’s possible that people shot by guns are bad people, there is very little reason to assume it is likely at a peaceful protest on a University Campus that is ALWAYS crowded. Especially with the current track record of US Police.
My understanding of the original comment was that it was a marksman/spotter. Those are two people who work in tandem to perform a function.
The spotter looks at the larger picture, usually with some kind of binocular or similar, looking for threats and scanning a large area. Their other function is to protect the marksman. So if a threat (or anything really) approaches their position, the marksman can continue to focus on their job, while the spotter defends their position.
The marksman is simply just a sniper. It’s a fancy name for a sniper.
They deploy like this in pretty much every operation. Two man teams. The spotter providing protection and support for the marksman, and the marksman executing the mission.
I feel like people missed that, or maybe I misunderstood the poster? IDK.
Killing people is bad.
A needless inaccurate distinction obscuring what it really is, it is a sniper. It is not normal. These crowds existed before the snipers arrived and will exist long after the protests end.
Are they also not the students from the school? So they would have been on campus but not all in one place anyway.
Again with pointless and needless distinctions that attempt to lessen the sin being committed.
Umm, I think you have my point backwards… unless you are implying the protesters are sinners?
I’m saying it doesn’t matter if the people at the protest went to school there or not, that the sniper isn’t warranted, but I do apologize that in a heated moment I accused you of intentionally aiding the opposition.
Why aren’t they going to where the lawmakers are to protest? /s
Oddly enough as the world saw a few Januarys ago, that might have less of a police response.
Those don’t look like rifles from this angle. They appear to be monoculars.
Yeah, a monocular with a bipod attached. The first picture ok maybe, the second one is 100% a rifle.
I agree. Look at the dude’s clothes and kit. That’s someone who’s out for a shoot.
this is the monthly post of someone realizing that crowds of people in public venues, particularly large ones, draw snipers.
Love to see it.
Snipers flock like birds.
wouldnt be a comment about snipers if someone didnt post furry tf2 i suppose
Da fuck? Not a furry. He is wearing the hat Sir Shootsaloot. TF2 is hat simulator, not a furry simulator.
wait until you figure out the lore
Halloween magic except Medic which “experimented on his own head”.
that crowds of people in public venues … draw snipers.
No, not here. Must be an american thing.
We should treat them like snipers? ie. We should rush them and neutralise the threat they pose?
Rocket jump up there and disrupt them, that’s your job as a soldier
As a former pyro main: w+m1 with a back burner.
Use jetpack
When you play as pyro, do you get the rainbows and song?
I think those are to protect from psychos that want to kill the protesters.
Think about it, it would be idiotic for any crowd control “measures” and doesn’t make any sense otherwise.
Oh you sweet summer child.
No. The cops ARE the psychos that want to kill the protesters.
Just look at the past century of protests in America and how much “good” cops did vs how many innocents they hurt.
Maybe touch the grass. No, seriously. Break from tankie doomerposting in some insane web bubble.
I am scared to think how you must feel on a day to day basis if you believe they will do what exactly?
It must suck to be you honestly.
Doomerposting is all the rage nowadays but while I acknowledge things aren’t going that great some people take it a lil bit too far. Bordering on mental illness. I blame twitter
Triggered much, kitten? 🤣
OK, so lets think this out. These are pointed at the crowd correct so lets assume the threat is from the crowd.
You have some Ne’er-do-well in the crowd who is planing some type of trouble, you notice this person looking “dastardly” from your sniper nest. You radio in and get the go ahead to take the shot with your trusty Remington M700. You shoot centre mass as you have been trained to do and the villain drops like a puppet with its strings cut.
You saved the day right? Oh no that is just the start, since the round fired was a 7.62x51mm NATO (there is no “rubber” round for this firearm) it went straight through the torso of that protester with a box knife and into and then back out of at least a few other people in the dense crowd (must be their fault for not wearing better body armour). The gunshot is still noticed even with the police issued silencer and at seeing the carnage the crowd does what crowds do, they stampede.
After the chaos settles down the body count will be a lot higher then that one person with a box cutter could ever manage (not that you can even say they where going to do anything).
These are not there to protect people, that is not their role, this is not an action movie.
I think you either overestimate overpenetration at range or underestimate the training a sniper has on that very subject.
As someone who has shot this round, no I don’t think I am overestimating the penetration. Also as it turns out police (I think state troopers in this case) snipers operate at ranges of 100 yards or less according to the police https://www.police1.com/swat/articles/a-first-of-its-kind-effort-describes-police-sniper-use-of-force-engagements-in-us-j7JjrYjYZmPtsoMt/. I know of no way to magic a bullet fired into a crowd to not over penetrate and yes I checked if there was some sort of less lethal or low pen police round (I found none).
Know your target and what is beyond it. This is basic firearm safety, but that seems to not be common in the US of A.
I imagine there are situations where benefits outweigh the risks. Probably not your interestingly creative scenario. But congratulations for your vivid depiction.
The issue is I can not even with my vivid imagination can think of a scenario where shooting into a crowd (where these teams have their rifles pointed) would have benefits that outweigh the risks.
The use for sniper teams on roof tops is in VIP protection (as in fuck all the little guys as long as the important one is safe) and offensive actions.
Or you know, like, deterrence.
From protesting or attacking protesters? Its getting hard to tell.
I don’t need to go back in time by far. Moscow shootings. One or four well positioned snipers could save some lives there.
Probably someone in a car driving over protesters, someone shooting an automatic weapon. Any person or humanoid unleashing high explosive fragmentation devices.
In all these cases the teams would have to reaim outside of the crowd, and also unless they have been given permission to shoot at their discretion (oh please no) they need to call it in. Not really a great solution where the benefits outweigh the risks.
And since no snipers saved the day in Moscow it does not really work as an example of snipers being used to defend a crowd. I also doubt with what we now know about the internal workings of the Russian federation I kinda doubt their snipers would have been fully capable.
And yet they are always present during such events so some people that aren’t random internet experts, like us, must see the benefit.
Your yearning for fitting this into narrative got the better out of you this time around. I blame twitter.
Never had a twat account, sorry. I am more coming at this from a gun nuts thinking, Oh and the complete absence of any evidence of sniper teams being used to save a crowd. But maybe I just am not looking hard enough.
