Possible snipers seen at OSU. Administration says they're not snipers but should be treated like they are.
cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/11490010
Update, yes there are snipers:
"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.“
The fact that a rifle is attached to the telescope is just a funny coincidence
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
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio
Gotta get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been gone long ago
What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
For those who don't know it. https://youtu.be/h-w_V0ikniA?si=oacP4alhBgcRGBrq
minus tracking link
Thanks! I am 43 and had no idea that Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young had ever collaborated.
Pretty sure Nixon was napping
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
What is it with Ohio and murdering college protesters? (See: Kent State)
We should treat them like snipers? ie. We should rush them and neutralise the threat they pose?
I mean, obviously question: how does one treat them as if they are?
(Make them say the quiet part out loud)
Heavy artillery? FPV drone?
Hell yeah
FPV drone with mine from fields of Ukraine.
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/
Can't wait for a headline about them accidentally shooting an innocent person and then admin goes on the defensive, claiming that the snipers were only doing their job. That, or hush the grieving family by either paying them to shut up or flat out erase them by buying off the police.
I don't know why but this amuses me. An amateur can easily hit a target at 200 yards the size of a baseball using a 6.5 Creedmore. These snipers are extremely visible and exposed. I'm guessing an attacker or a mass shooter would probably not be thinking about taking out snipers though.
I think they felt safe and being seen was the point.
True, I guess the point is to make a show of it
They are visible on purpose. They're there as a message
Is that bitch wearing a mask to hide their identity?
Maybe pantyhose? Are we sure these are the police? It is getting very hard to tell.
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
This is fucking cope... I guess you lived in a cave during the BLM protests
Or lived in saner country.
EDIT: for some reason I typed "like was" instead of "lived"
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.
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
High angle means it would likely go into the ground. Also could use hollow point though, I don't know if police use hollow point on rifles.
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.
it depends on how densely packed the people are and how high the approach angle of the bullet is, at 45 degrees, in center mass, it's only grazing a foot or two before being at knee level lol.
They're just business men with business plans. They're totally not cops.
Too many assholes in this country think they are the American Sniper.
this is the monthly post of someone realizing that crowds of people in public venues, particularly large ones, draw snipers.
Love to see it.
that crowds of people in public venues … draw snipers.
No, not here. Must be an american thing.
yeah idk distinctly american, much like our mass shootings.
I think they might be related. Not sure.
Happens here in the uk, used to see them all the time at big events.
It happens, usually for the protection of the crowd
Let's hope they're fond of Mondays.
they have plenty of lasagna, im sure they'll be fine.
In other parts of the world, snipers would draw in the authorities but I guess in the US they are LEO themselves
they're paid to be there :)
Administration speechcraft level 100
The trick is to say something very confidently and ambiguously in as few words as possible. And also lie.
"Those are leftover telescopes from the solar eclipse. And yes they are loaded."
Civil war speedrun any%
Is there a better source than a screenshot of a tweet?
To my knowledge no. I asked and was downvoted to hell for trying to prevent disinformation (yet again) before an election to verify.
And then the person (mod of Midwest social Ohio or something) posted another picture w/o source
shrug take that as you will
I also couldn't find anything. The screenshotted tweet is from someone who's not even there
edit: updated article https://www.thelantern.com/2024/04/university-says-officers-had-readied-firearms-directed-toward-protesters-from-ohio-unions-roof-once-arrests-began/
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.
The US saying how free it is compares to a small guy telling you how much of an alpha male he is. Unreliable narration
So we need to get on the roof and detain the snipers.
I put this in the other thread but they have these guys out for EVERY football game. I believe its their standard practice for crowded events. Have your own options, but its not like this is a unique situation. Like I see people talking about trigger happy snipers and shooting kids but that just isn't something that had happend dispite being frequently deployed.
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 didn't see the 2nd picture. Nevermind what I said then.
I agree. Look at the dude's clothes and kit. That's someone who's out for a shoot.
An eagle never misses
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.
“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.
Poignant point
The most likely reasoning is also the saddest.
The tensions about israel/palestine are real. Theres a non zero chance that someone who is very pro-israel and very unhinged might decide the pro-palestinians need shooting. You know how I know this? Because this is an American school, people get shot because someone feels that they need to shoot some people, they dont need a wildly divisive issue to spur them on. One anonymous email talking about how the "terrorist supporters are going to get whats coming to them" and the school/police have to do something. If they do nothing and it does happen everyone will be screaming that "They were warned and did nothing! They wanted this to happen!"
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?
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?
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.
Right, I have a feeling that the "spotting" thing and the "not snipers" is the university using some sort of literal definition to dodge the facts that there was a man with a rifle and scope on their roofs.
I don't agree with it, and as I said in the other threads (or maybe it was here, they're starting to blur), I don't think the police are even trained properly enough to handle traffic stops, let alone a rifle at a protest in a university. But I don't know how to reconcile the, very real threat based on rising tensions, and other terrorist attacks, that someone could walk into one of these protests and hurt a lot of people.
How do we prevent this from happening.
One person suggested that this is a systemic issue, that these attacks (both from outside and from inside from other americans) are solved with better living conditions, better mental health care, better health care period, etc. etc. That happy people don't do this stuff. But the fact is, that number is falling and very quickly and our only plan (in the states) is apparently to have a fucking sniper on a roof.
This is sickness manifest.
Do these snipers ever actually intervene ?
Also, the solution is simple : outlaw guns.
The police forces would never give up their guns, though.
I think people do not realize that for large gatherings where violence could break out this is pretty standard.
Most Sports stadiums have them.
I do not think it is wrong to be cautious, or at least have some pieces on the table in case something breaks out.
Which I am sorry to say, could very well happen.
1:5 Americans believe that an act of force is justified. RIght wing or left wing, that could be a terrifying concept if someone motivated by zealous anger to attack a protest they don't fully understand.
A couple of thoughts.
Yes, these are the same people you see at football games (although they usually are better hidden).
