Last night, I got to attend a presentation from one of the Lieutenants (one of the two hardest ranks to spell; remember, 'lieu' as in 'in lieu of', 'tenant' as in 'apartment dweller') of the Emergency Response Team, which is kind of MCPD's version of SWAT. More exactly, SWAT is the tactical portion of the unit, which also includes hostage negotiators, medics, etc.
Most of it was an overview of how that unit functions, which was interesting, but a little dry. At the end, though, he went into a little more depth as to the sort of negotiation tactics he'd normally employ, and gave us a few interesting cases he'd worked.
First off, you might wonder why any county, MoCo included, would need a dedicated Hostage Negotiation team. After all, hostage takings are fairly rare occurrences, and doesn't the FBI have people for that kind of thing? You're both right and wrong. There are around 15 or 20 true hostage situations each year in Montgomery County and the surrounding area (face it, we're the richest county around, which is why other jurisdictions sometimes let us step in if they're not prepared).
Twenty isn't very many. However, the negotiators don't just work pure hostage situations, but any sort of barricade or suicide-in-progress as well. There's a fine-ish line between hostage and barricade situations, sometimes. Technically, if the perpetrator hasn't directly threatened the lives of those he's barricaded himself (and nearly all hostage takers are male) in with and made a demand (usually for an escape route, judicial pardon, money, etc.), it isn't a proper hostage scenario.
In general term, the Lt. described hostage negotiating as being "just like talking on the phone, but for eleven hours straight, and with someone you don't like." Essentially, the negotiator calls the perpetrator up and attempts to convince him to give himself up. It's kind of a tough sell, sometimes.
One example he gave was of a man who was accused of raping his 13-year old granddaughter on a weekly basis. The granddaughter's brother had found out, and took the girl to the Family Crimes Section. The presentor's wife (eight months pregnant at the time, no less) was working Child Abuse at that time, and assigned two SAT officers (Special Assignment Team, a district's plainclothes officers, and a sort of 'stepping stone' between Patrol Officer and Detective) to go to the house and make sure the grandfather didn't make a run for it.
He didn't, but when he noticed the police were outside he locked all the doors and threatened to kill himself. The more pragmatically-minded of my readers may be thinking "well, let him," but that's not County policy. Everyone's a person, or some such idealistic nonsense (which I believe, no less).
So they tried everything to get him to surrender. Our presentor, fairly new to negotiating at that time, showed up to the scene a few minutes after his wife (collective 'aww' from the audience, there) and was able to make contact with the grandfather. After about six hours of talking to him, he still adamantly refused to come out. They even let his daughter, the 13-year old granddaughter's mother (who would latter testify that he had raped her, too, years before) get on the phone in order to coax him out.
According to the negotiator, most perpetrators are deeply ashamed of their actions. It seems illogical, but you have to realize that almost no hostage-taking happen on purpose. You go in to rob a place, the police show up, surround the place with guns, and all the sudden you're trapped inside with a bankful of civilians. What would you do? The point is, they don't want to be seen as 'the bad guy', and more importantly, they don't want to die. It's the negotiator's job to provide an out: some way that they can stay alive while maintaining a few shreads of dignity.
Our child-rapist, of course, had probably figured out that there wasn't much chance of that. Even after the family's pleas, he broke off communications, but could still be seen pacing in front of the windows, gun in his mouth.
Rather than allow his to just ignore the police outside, a single rubber shotgun slug was fired through the window. This was, the negotiator assured us, purely as a "wake-up call," letting him know that business was meant and hopefully getting him back on the phone.
Instead, he must've assumed the shot was a precursor to an all-out raid. Rather than be taken alive, the perpetrator committed (commat?) suicide by shooting himself in the heart, on the same couch where he'd alleged raped his granddaughter.
This was, according to our negotiator, "a win."
Was it? I mean, kinda. The guy was about as dirty as they come, and the paperwork involved in filing a suicide is a lot simpler than taking a multiple-rape case to trial. But still. A man died, and a man's daughter and granddaughter were raped, repeatedly. Even on a good day, it's kind of hard to feel happy about that.
But still. At the end of the day, I suppose it's that kind of moral vascillating that stresses people out, strings them out, and in the end, burns them out. It's a lot easier to say "scratch one rapist" than to wonder about whether there was any trace of goodness left in him, or to think that maybe, for all he put them through, his family probably still loved him (they certainly acted like it, at least). That kind of thinking will wear you out, and get a lot of funny looks from the guys at back at HQ to boot.
So scratch one rapist.
Next Time (philosophy): Not GitS; I'll hold off until I finish Season 2
Next Time (Cop Stuff): It's kind of winding down, but hopefully something cool will happen once more before summer's out
Next Time (40k): Augh, I'm so behind. SMurfs next time, Necrons after that.
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Meanwhile! I downloaded Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, my very favorite fighting game about little girls with magical powers beating each other up. To be fair, I generally loathe fighting games (something I've always regretted but never sought to change), but this is one of the few I can enjoy playing (the others being any of the Super Smash Bros. games, mainly).
To anyone not familiar with the Touhou series, they're a series of "Curtain-Fire Shooting Games" - picture a top-down shooter (like that TI-83 classic, Phoenix), but with hundreds and hundreds of bullets. And instead of spaceships fighting other spaceships, they're little girls fighting fairies. C'mon, you know this looks hardcore.
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