
Police using decoy buses to catch attackers targeting Apple and Google shuttles - kelukelugames
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/2/17071308/callifornia-highway-patrol-decoy-shuttles-apple-google-bus-shooter
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newman8r
Why is the CHP publicizing this? I'd assume they'd want to keep it a secret.
Unless it's just security theater.

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xvf22
I may be just a scare tactic to get the person to stop doing it. If the person
keeps things random then it's unlikely they'll be able to catch then without a
heap of luck. Pellet guns can go quite far and be made pretty silent.

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IntronExon
I imagine they’re also worried about escalation. The person who takes potshots
with a pellet gun today, might do it with a long rifle tomorrow. They’ve
already crossed a lot of moral and legal lines already.

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xvf22
Yup, it's just damn difficult to guard all busses all the time from a
determined adversary. Hopefully the person backs down instead of escalating.

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IntronExon
Hopefully, and there is no guarantee of further escalation, depending on the
pathology/motivations of the shooter. Still, a lot of roads lead to thst
escalatiom, especially if there is a thrill-seeking, or power-dominance aspect
to the behavior. Humam behavior is notoriously hard to predict, but the
biggest risk factors for violent, serial crime is a pattern of escalation.

For example, from the world of sexually motivated crime, the peeping Tom is a
concern because they might escalate, but most don’t. Of far greater concern is
the peeping Tom thst stsrts to burgle underwear, engages in overt stalking
behavior, etc. Once they reach the realm of attempted sexual assault, the risk
of further escalation is much greater. By the same token the person who enjoys
torturing cats today may become someone who tortures people tomorrow.

I worry a lot about the future patterns of behavior from someone who is
comfortable shooting pellets at busses full of people. I would guess the
police are too, since they’ve seen where this kind of thing can lead.

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nappy
>The hope, Sanchez says, is that if the decoy buses are also attacked the
agency can “[look] at damage on the bus and [look] at what angle the
projectile is coming from.”

They're not saying it... but there must be cameras all over this bus to catch
the shooter, right? Trying to figure out "the angle of the projectile" is
almost nonsensical if they have a decoy bus set up.

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IntronExon
It would probably make more sense to fly a drone with FLIR over the area.

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kevmo
I predict that there will be a rising tide of this sort of civil unrest until
income inequality reverses direction.

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glenra
Given that the US Gini index hasn't changed appreciably since the 1990s...why
now?

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seattle_spring
Because now it's those darn nerds making all of the money, and people just
can't have that.

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dahdum
If they attack the bus filled with officers, does this also stack on
additional charges for assault on the police?

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jacknews
Presumably this very specific protection is paid for indirectly by the taxes
Apple and Google pay.

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sverige
Oh, I hadn't read anywhere that Google has changed its tax strategy to
increase its effective rate beyond the 2.4% they've paid in recent years. But
maybe so.

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valleyer
2.4%? Their earnings reports say ~16%:
[https://abc.xyz/investor/pdf/2017Q3_alphabet_earnings_releas...](https://abc.xyz/investor/pdf/2017Q3_alphabet_earnings_release.pdf)

Still lower than you'd expect given that the corporate tax rate was 35%, but
way different from 2.4%.

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sverige
Sorry, I was looking at older data. Or maybe that's a 16% rate on 0.5% of
their actual profits....

[https://www.theguardian.com/business/ireland-business-
blog-w...](https://www.theguardian.com/business/ireland-business-blog-with-
lisa-ocarroll/2011/mar/24/google-ireland-tax-reasons-bermuda)

[https://www.zerohedge.com/article/how-googles-refusal-pay-
us...](https://www.zerohedge.com/article/how-googles-refusal-pay-us-taxes-
means-us-taxpayers-fund-its-innovation-resulting-benefit-10)

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redleggedfrog
If America doesn't get a handle on wealth disparity we're going to see a lot
more of this, and certainly worse.

You can say that attacking the buses the wrong thing to do, but the moral high
ground isn't going to stop it from happening.

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Meekro
How did Google employees making $250k/yr become the symbol of unfair
distribution of wealth? Why not shoot at some CEO who makes $100m/yr? The
Google employees on those buses are much closer in income to the typical
protester than they are to the CEO.

For that reason, I say this is just senseless violence that has nothing to do
with wealth inequality.

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deelowe
Because there's a concerted effort happening to point the blame at those who
aren't the source of the problem.

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cinquemb
PMC's sometimes get killed when they are protecting someone/something they are
paid to protect/enable…

Employees of organizations like these could be considered PMC's in the eyes
for someone who has out out for their employer…

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chrisbennet
“PMC” is what? Google didn’t help. Thx.

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cinquemb
Private Military Contractors

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lovich
I had wondered when people would feel upset enough against the megacorps to
attack them, but I didn't think it would happen in the near future

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ocdtrekkie
Bear in mind, this is merely an escalation (mind you, a violent one), of
something that's already been going on since 2013. People have been staging
protests in front of these buses for a while now.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bus_protests](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bus_protests)

