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His parents said he just needed to sleep. A SWAT team came instead.
The Boston Globe ^ | 7/16/17 | Jenna Russell

Posted on 07/16/2017 11:33:33 AM PDT by Pontiac

HINGHAM — As police cars rolled into his pristine suburban neighborhood last Saturday night, past the sprawling Colonials and manicured lawns, and as dozens of officers from across the region surrounded his home, Russell Reeves begged them again and again to back off.

In a bedroom upstairs his son Austin, 26, was distraught over a breakup. He had told his family he needed time alone. With him was his dog and his 9 mm handgun. If you pressure him, if he feels cornered, Reeves said he told the police, this will end with Austin killing himself.

snip

“Please,” the frightened father says he asked them, “why can’t you just let him go to sleep?”

snip

Reeling as the sun rose higher in the summer sky, Austin’s parents tried to understand how a simple police check on their son’s well-being had become an all-night siege.

snip

As they reached the corner, Harrison turned to look back at her home. Distant enough now to see the entire scene, she realized for the first time the full scale of what was happening: the street thick with police vehicles, teeming with armed officers in SWAT gear.

snip

“It was totally preventable,” he said, weeping as he stood outside his house looking up at Austin’s window on Tuesday. “He wasn’t a criminal. He didn’t have a hostage. This was a kid distressed about a girlfriend, and they turned it into a life-and-death situation.”

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Local News; Society
KEYWORDS: boston; donutwatch; hingham; leo; notboston; swat
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Think twice or maybe three times before you call the police with a family problem.
1 posted on 07/16/2017 11:33:33 AM PDT by Pontiac
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To: Pontiac
Then the van door opened. The Hingham police chief stepped in. They had found Austin; he had shot himself, he told them. As Austin’s mother screamed, the chief offered to call friends or clergy. The couple asked instead to have their son’s dog, his loyal friend, with them.

No, the chief said, according to the couple — we can’t bring a dog in here; it’s against protocol.

This is a sad story that shows just how clueless the police can be.

They are a bunch of script kiddies that get out their protocol books and follow them to the end

And I guess you can’t blame them. If they don’t and something bad happens they will be burned at the stake. Follow protocol and their a$$ is covered. (Sorry folks, S**t happens).

2 posted on 07/16/2017 11:41:59 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.L)
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To: Pontiac
Think twice or maybe three times before you call the police with a family problem.

From the full article, it was the former girlfriend rather than the family who initially called the police and told them he had a gun.

3 posted on 07/16/2017 11:50:53 AM PDT by Bob (Damn, the democrats haven't been this upset since Republicans freed their slaves.)
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To: Pontiac

Never call the police on anybody or anything that you wouldn’t want them to kill.


4 posted on 07/16/2017 12:14:10 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Some people consider government to be a necessary evil, others their personal Ponzi scheme.)
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To: Bob
“Don’t back me into a corner,” his father remembers Austin saying. “Because I’ll make it go away in four seconds.” To Russell Reeves [the father], the meaning was clear — Austin would hurt himself if he wasn’t left in peace. Stunned and afraid, Reeves [the father] dialed the Hingham police just after 10 p.m. to ask for help.

I'm confused. Mr. Reeves says he believed his son should be left alone, or he would "hurt himself," but Mr. Reeves called the police. It sounds as if Mr. Reeves really believed that Austin might hurt somebody else (the ex-girlfriend?) if he were left alone.

5 posted on 07/16/2017 12:15:27 PM PDT by Tax-chick (I know what I'm about.)
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Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: Bob
The girlfriend made the first call the father made a second.

“Don’t back me into a corner,” his father remembers Austin saying. “Because I’ll make it go away in four seconds.” To Russell Reeves, the meaning was clear — Austin would hurt himself if he wasn’t left in peace. Stunned and afraid, Reeves dialed the Hingham police just after 10 p.m. to ask for help

7 posted on 07/16/2017 12:17:01 PM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.L)
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To: Pontiac

“””This is a sad story that shows just how clueless the police can be.”””

They are NOT clueless. They are trained bureaucrat automaton union led quasi military. Incapable, if fully prohibited, to think for themselves. And, they like it that way.


8 posted on 07/16/2017 12:24:58 PM PDT by raybbr (That progressive bumper sticker on your car might just as well say, "Yes, I'm THAT stupid!")
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To: Pontiac

Another snowflake unable to deal with reality in today’s society.


9 posted on 07/16/2017 12:25:12 PM PDT by AlaskaErik (I served and protected my country for 31 years. Progressives spent that time trying to destroy it.)
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To: Pontiac

The only surprise is that the police didn’t shoot the dog.


10 posted on 07/16/2017 12:27:07 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Pontiac

No, the chief said, according to the couple — we can’t bring a dog in here; it’s against protocol.


Isn’t proper police protocol to shoot the dog, no matter what else is going on?


11 posted on 07/16/2017 12:28:26 PM PDT by samtheman (As an oil exporter, why would the Russians prefer Trump to Hillary? (Get it or be stupid.))
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To: Pontiac

Thanks. I missed that the father had called as well.

It’s still unclear to me exactly who first brought up his having a gun - former girlfriend? father? police? The article doesn’t specifically say. (While the police appear to have asked, that may have been prompted by the gf or the father.)


12 posted on 07/16/2017 12:29:56 PM PDT by Bob (Damn, the democrats haven't been this upset since Republicans freed their slaves.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum; doorgunner69
Never call the police on anybody or anything that you wouldn’t want them to kill.

Well of course modern police are trained to deal with threats.

When the father told the first responder what his son had said to him the officer understood that a threat had been made on the father’s life. The father had understood a threat of suicide.

Either understanding guaranteed a larger police response but the threat to the father guaranteed a SWAT response.

Thanks to the War On Drugs and Bill Clinton our Peace Officers have be turned in to a paramilitary organization that sees every situation as threat requiring overwhelming force.

13 posted on 07/16/2017 12:32:03 PM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.L)
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To: Pontiac

This is what happens when people come to accept government killing citizens for no good reason as a normal thing.


14 posted on 07/16/2017 12:33:57 PM PDT by thoughtomator
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To: Pontiac

Cop h8ters showing up in droves. The usual suspects. Yawn.

CC


15 posted on 07/16/2017 12:34:54 PM PDT by Celtic Conservative (Veni, vidi, Vomui- I came, I saw, I hurled.)
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To: AlaskaErik
Another snowflake unable to deal with reality in today’s society.

Young men have killed themselves over lost love since there has been love.

The issue here is; would this young man have gotten past it alive had the police not forced the issue.

16 posted on 07/16/2017 12:37:33 PM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.L)
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To: DuncanWaring

Go find your valium asap..


17 posted on 07/16/2017 12:42:57 PM PDT by samantha (keep up the fight..)
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To: Pontiac
this could just as easily have been handled by one or two men but we are in an age where every cop on the force has to show up no matter what the case just so they can say "I was there." and get a little blood on their spear...
18 posted on 07/16/2017 12:46:09 PM PDT by Chode (You have all of the resources you are going to have. Abandon your illusions and plan accordingly.)
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To: Celtic Conservative

Yeah I’m a little shocked at some comments. Fact 1. Girlfriend and father called police. Fact 2. He had a gun. Fact 3. Threatened suicide. Assumption 1. Threatened father.
Who in their right mind would think the police would say “ok, we’ll let him get some sleep and check back in the morning? Is this freerepublic or a redirect?


19 posted on 07/16/2017 12:49:34 PM PDT by enduserindy ( I always smile when my competition doubles down on stupid.)
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To: Pontiac

Better to call your clergy...if you have any.


20 posted on 07/16/2017 12:53:09 PM PDT by kanawa (Trump Loves a Great Deal)
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