Possible snipers seen at OSU. Administration says they're not snipers but should be treated like they are.
Update, yes there are snipers:
Nixon invades Cambodia, campuses across the country erupt in protest, armed troops deployed to deal with the unrest on an Ohio campus, guns pointed at students to intimidate them into dispersing...hmmm, can't remember what happened next...everything calmed down, I think, right?
Edit: Autocorrect betrayed me.
God blessed the students with omniscient insight, so they reverted their concerns and joined the army to establish democracy all over the world. An eagle, sounding like a red-tailed hawk, was heard screeching in the distance.
Eagles these days just don’t sound like they used too, back in my day they had this powerful screech that would pierce through even a swelling orchestral track to a movie.
Then the woke mob came for Eagles and now they sound lame.
I want to go back to those good times, that I imagine in my head, those times are great because I can remember whatever bullshit fantasy I want as “history” and just throw a tantrum and scream at anyone who challenges me on it.
Red tailed hawks? What are those? Are they like an Owl or something? Since when did people give a fuck about birds? They are so boring.
( /s )
This summer I hear the drumming.
Do you hear the people sing?
4 dead in O-Hi-O
For those of us with third world level history what happened?
They were shot. Kent State shooting if you want to look into it more.
I think they built some cool light fixtures for kids to study by or something.
They actually did put in light fixtures to mark 4 random spots in the parking lot, no one knows why they chose those exact locations or the number 🤔.
Never forget Kent State, but also never forget the Orangeburg Massacre.
We're so different from those godless immoral Chinese communists, something like Tianenman Square would never happen here.
Lol.
Lmao, even.
Did they shoot and kill as many as in Tiananmen or less?
Let’s try this again without the Tiananmen Square Massacre copy pasta, at the explicit request of “seahorse” the Midwest social owner:
The difference between the two is that there was no weapon here. You can’t even make out what’s in front of the dude in black but most everyone here took a Twitter post as fact.
The Tiananmen Square massacre, on the other hand, did happen and did kill people. That’s the difference here.
To hell with your christofacist state. Worshipping a god of wrath like the abrahamic god is even worse than worshipping your own megalomaniac self
Take a breath, homie. It's a play on an old cold war saying. I'm IRL a Buddhist.
Remember that US intelligence services speculated in using snipers to kill "Occupy Wall Street" protesters on university campuses.
FBI coordinated with banks and universities to get information on students.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/29/fbi-coordinated-crackdown-occupy
But don't worry guys! The first amendment guarantees a right to assemble. The police wouldn't ever do anything to infringe on our rights! If they were to do it, I'm sure there'd be a really sick folk song written about it or something
On the evening of May 13, 1985, longstanding tensions between MOVE, a black liberation group, and the Philadelphia Police Department erupted horrifically. That night, the city of Philadelphia dropped a satchel bomb, a demolition device typically used in combat, laced with Tovex and C-4 explosives on the MOVE organization, who were living in a West Philadelphia rowhome known to be occupied by men, women, and children. It went up in unextinguished flames. Eleven people were killed, including five children and the founder of the organization. Sixty-one homes were destroyed, and more than 250 citizens were left homeless.
Folks familiar with this incident had a remarkably different take on the Waco siege and subsequent fire that resulted when the FBI surrounded David Koresh's church compound. Same with the Ruby Ridge US Marshal slaying of a white nationalist's wife and son, during an investigation into gun sales.
Then there's the assassination of Fred Hampton and Malcolm X, the police storming of the Occupy Wall Street camps in New York, the COINTELPRO operations that targeted anti-war movements during the Bush Administration, the incredibly violence by police in Ferguson and Baltimore during the BLM marches, police kidnappings in Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and LA during the George Floyd protests.
I got to personally witness the mass arrest of protesters in Houston, after they were surrounded and kettled in Discovery Green Park.
America is a cursed land. Something something maybe don't build your country on an ancient indian burial ground something something.
Guess when they apologized for it. (Spoiler - 35 years later)
And guess what they tried and failed to do with remains of the victims. (Spoiler - destroy them without consent from family members)
We got lucky our curse just turns the microwave on every now and then.
Don't worry guys, we're the land of the free /s
People love to hate it but the second amendment is also a thing. Now don't get me wong I don't want this to happen ever to anyone...but there was a time when strikers would shoot and be shot at on the reg.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_violence_in_the_United_States
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain
Union workers got bombed by company men in the skirmishes and the fucking president had to send in troops to stop the fighting.
Should be treated like they are? Okay, so full outrage, comparisons to the Kent State massacre, and the administration facing reprisals and consequences for deploying snipers to intimidate, threaten, and potentially murder students.
We're treating them like they're snipers, Admin, you're welcome.
If they should be treated like snipers, that means protesters should respond in kind:
Make smoke screens. Tires work best. Bicycle tire with gas will make thick black smoke making it hard for the spotter and sniper to see.
Force projection works both ways: make their advantages into disadvantages. Snipers are long range units, meaning they have to be away from what they are targeting. If you can create enough distractions they won't be able to see the forest from the trees.
All in Minecraft, of course.
I dunno about the smoke. On top of probably seeming to be an escalation because you'd be burning stuff (I'd probably go with fog oil and a generator instead, only object is price, but, hey, tires can also get pretty expensive depending on where they're sourced. Theater department might also have some stuff on em), but also a large amount of smoke might serve to obfuscate documentation and recording, which I would say is a pretty big priority. Keep a camera fixed on these snipers at all times, and you can tell when they're firing and probably who's been killed at what moment, and that's maybe an important and large deterrent, compared to a smokescreen. I'd imagine if you were going with that and if it came to that, you'd just want to render the snipers ineffectual by other methods, which, you know, maybe your mind can wander about how you might accomplish that one, without me having to suggest a specific course of action there.
Yeah, you’re putting snipers on a university aimed at the students. That’s not the behavior of a government that values personal freedoms like speech and assembly.
Free speech on college campuses means they have to pay bigots to speak and allow disruption from religious protests by non students, but students get riot cops and snipers for protesting genocide
Shoot first
So climb the building and eliminate the threat? How else do you deal with snipers?
Wtf... Cops in riot gear arresting students before 10pm, and fucking SNIPERS intimidating in a peaceful one night protest on a college campus. And a university spokesperson saying "demonstrators exercised their first amendment right for several hours and then were instructed to disperse" like yeah, that's enough first amendment right for you guys, go be quiet now.
Nope. Just nope. You are not free. Burn it all to the ground before it's too late or we're actually fucked.
So not justifying this response, but they have snipers out for EVERY football game. I think it is standard practice for large gatherings. You can make your own opinions on this, but this isn't a unique thing.
This is a US thing
Europe has snipers at football stadiums too. One of the first, mainstream, acknowledgements of them was when a protestor parachuted onto the field during the Germany-France Euro match in 2020. When people got mad they said it was common practice to have snipers at most events of this size.
Yeah, cuz thrice-weekly mass shootings are a US thing. I'm not getting into a chicken-and-egg circkejerk with anyone about which came first, but as long as "we the people" are gonna keep shooting large gatherings of our fellow citizens...especially if we think they disagree with us, then any controversial or highly public event is gonna be crawling with armed police...including snipers.
That's why snipers are being prepared for the Olympic Games in Paris. SAM sites might be used in case protests would involve use of airplanes.
Jesus
Normal country.
Fucking cowards.
I welcome them. Hamas isn't known for their peaceful protests.
As someone who's worked large events and closely with police or other big wig officials, I am consistently surprised at how people are surprised about how high profile event security works.
The amount of work that goes into keeping people safe regularly is monumental. You'd also be surprised at just how much hard targets don't get attacked when a limelight is cast on them compared to soft targets. It's violence prevention 101 and easily the most important.
If you see something, say something.
PDF warnings:
https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/whats-next-soft-target-attacks
Agreed, most of the responses here are ridiculous.
They bring snipers out anytime there's a big event or a major public figure. Michelle Obama visited the University of Akron when I was going there, they had snipers all over the place.
They're not bringing out snipers for some kind of perverted crowd control. It's almost definitely so if someone shows up with a gun and starts firing into the crowd all the protestors don't get shot.
I'm really not sure a sniper would be super useful in that situation. Obviously, different environment than the 2017 las vegas shooting, but I don't really think that those snipers on rooftops would really be effective at all in taking out a committed shooter, which could just shack up in one of the many buildings with windows facing the crowd and fire down or into the crowd. Maybe in that case, a sniper might be able to peep out where the shooter is, or might be able to get a shooter on the way in or out, but with the level of people there and the level of surrounding buildings, I'm really not sure they'd be able to do very much. Obviously if someone just walks in off the street and opens up on everyone, then a sniper might be more effective, but I dunno.
It seems insane to me because I've only met armed police once in my life, and that was at download festival in the UK after a spree of terrorist attacks across the UK and the rest of Europe.
That was quite entertaining however as the armed police kept having to run away from drunk people who wanted pictures taken with the guns.
Le sigh..... Time for another crosspost to a boring distopia.
Conservatives
Liberalism is when you blame conservatives for what you're both doing.
My God the bootlicking in this thread
Look up at the sky, at the dark shapes of Coalition airships hanging there. Ask yourself: is there something sinister in moralism? And then answer: no. God is in his heaven. Everything is normal on Earth.
If they’re actually snipers, they suck at their job.
Their job is intimidation, so they are succeeding.
Touché
I mean, they're cops, chances are very high that they suck at their jobs.
Including the shooting part.
Their "job" here is intimidating protestors....
They can't do that if they're not seen.
They aren't trying to hide. OSU has these guys out for every football game or large gathering.
Sometimes they need to hide, some times they need to be seen
If you can see one team, there is probably at least one more you can't.
No, these are police snipers their job is to shoot anyone who actually succeeds at hurting cops. They aren’t the same tactical role as military snipers
In case anyone wants to see the university's now removed claim these are not snipers here is the wayback link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240426123527/https://www.thelantern.com/2024/04/university-confirms-there-are-no-snipers-on-the-ohio-unions-roof/
Wonder what Neil Young is gonna say
Probably something like, "Young man look at my life. You're a lot like I was."
Indiana University also has snipers: https://lemmy.ml/comment/10599404
We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire No, we didn't light it But we tried to fight it
They're law enforcement but not snipers
https://www.thelantern.com/2024/04/university-confirms-there-are-no-snipers-on-the-ohio-unions-roof/
Snipers are well trained professionals...
These are state troopers, which makes them far more dangerous because they're untrained idiots and likely have the same high powered weapons.
Yeah, I don't think this is one for the semantics game. There are guys with guns on the roof. There.
Okay so they have spotting scopes and tripods for sure. Now they could have just brought those for the sake of gathering accurate info on protests I assume are 100-300 meters away to pick out details better (ie Is that person pointing a gun or a dslr camera with a long lens?)
A modern AR-15 (most patrol car rifles) with a proper zero, consistent ammuntion and in the hands of a capable person (it's not hard it just takes regular practice) could easily be used effectively to engage man size targets with a guy on the spotting scope doing the target id I mentioned earlier to get the right guy.
With a basic bolt action precision rifle, even if it's chambered in the same round, could be used even more effectively with target id capabilities of the spotting scope using the magnification of better rifle optics. I bet they have one on that second tripod.
And honestly I'd prefer that over 50ish dudes with rifles with their own set of mob mentality like they had at Kent back in the day.
They have better pictures available. It's 100% a scoped rifle.
Here we go again.
dude has his bipod deployed on top of his tripod, in possibly the least comfortable and most obvious position of all time, hoo lee, get this guy a medal or something we're sending our best to protect against the dangerous student body
I’ve seen this before, they intend to begin beating students soon and fear reprisal.
Shocked they didn’t bring the tank
In any case, the people saying this is pretty standard security for a large gathering of people are correct in it's regularity, but I'm not particularly convinced that they're correct in its efficacy as a practice. They're all visible enough that they can be seen by the student body, which is either bad planning or blatant intimidation, and obviously gives up their position immediately, which is bad since they're potentially a would-be ne'er-do-well's greatest threat. If anyone becomes embedded in the protesting crowd, they become much less effective, if anyone takes up a tactical position, they become much less effective. If anyone starts to try to instigate violence between the protestors and police, which would probably be what any bad actor would do since it has a pretty high chance of success, they're much reduced in their efficacy, or potentially even negative in their efficacy as it leads to an escalation of violence. If anyone has a bomb or does chemical attack, the sniper is probably too late.
Plus, from what I've seen of the other protests, the police already have a perimeter set up on the ground keeping track of who enters and exits, which makes sense. Snipers would probably be better served as a part of that perimeter rather than surveying the inside of the protest, since they can cover a pretty large distance, you could turn them around pretty quickly, if they did need to fire on where the protestors are actually gathered, they can screen who's entering and exiting, and it's overall better optics. They could probably keep their position better concealed since there's not a huge crowd of people looking at that side of the building (if they even made any attempt to be concealed, which should be really the bare minimum).
This doesn't make any sense to me, even just as a kind of surface-level tactical decision. Maybe I'm missing something here, but this just seems like it's maybe stupidity, or intimidation or something else I can't think of.
I knew this was a terrible country but Jesus fuck
Sadly, this is what we voted for.
I think a lot of people here were too young to vote in even 2000-2008, let alone 1968 onward
I guess these guys are always on the rooftops around campus.
Of course they're not snipers.
. . .
Raises eyebrow: But what if they were?
Yeah, duh they aren't snipers, they are police marksmen with high-powered scoped rifles, totally different.
Time to go full French on these fuckers. Molotovs are easy to prepare, as are pipe/nail bombs. Tires burn for a long time. There's a lot of barricading materials inside the school which can be used, no doubt.
That’s the kind of self fulfilling prophecy where the snipers will truly turn out to be the very thing falsely accused of. Ironic even
Disinformation post ahead of election season - big shocker.
These aren’t snipers, they’re spotters. You can’t even make out what is in front of the dude in all black.
OPs only response to the closest thing we have to real fact being given was “I don’t buy it”
Seems legit. Toodles.
And now you’re deleting my posts lol. What a joke.
TIL spotters like to use one normal sized spotting scope alongside another one that's the size of a rifle with a cover on it. Doesn't make sense to me but I'm no spotter.
different optical prescription of each eye.
One is prescribed for myopia the other for dystopia.
So is the guy with a big ol' rifle a spotter too?
Maybe if you'd considered what spotters are for you wouldn't be baselessly asserting that US police aren't preparing to use unreasonable force.