CCCXLII

Well, of course some officers use excessive force some of the time. It all depends on your definition of excessive force. IMHO, it's not the answers that need changing, but the question: Do the police in the US use excessive force too often? I.E. Are they consistently, repeatedly overreacting to threats, perceived or confirmed, and using force beyond what is necessary to neutralize that threat?

Your post reminds me of a relevant story: http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023779642_spuheroxml.html

Accurate. I can't find a good, definitive source for the policy but these will have to do (scroll down to 'what to expect from police officers'): http://www.northwestern.edu/up/crime/awareness/activeshooter.html https://protect.iu.edu/police/active-shooter If you look around the web, you can find active shooter instructional videos that say the same thing. Personally I think it's a change for the better, but sometimes you will get incidents of police responding to a 'shooter' that doesn't exist (try searching SWATTING for an example). Some cities actually place police substations inside malls. http://www.wsmv.com/story/22674393/goodlettsville-police-to-open-substation-at-rivergate-mall I get what you're saying, and this is why I feel like awareness, training and carrying is important for all citizens, no matter the country. In my opinion, the police and other emergency services aren't 'First Responders', but rather you and anyone in the surrounding area are.

I think it'd be good if there was some effort made to educate citizens and students on how to interact with law enforcement. It's really not common sense, I was just reading a comment the other day where a person thought you had a legal right to 'resist' (we're talking running, fighting back, so on. It wasn't a troll btw), and was asking about how much resistance you could legally use. Of course, they were very quickly corrected by the people of reddit, but it's very scary to think that there's that sort of misinformation out there. One of my earliest memories is back in preschool, when two firefighters came in to our class to teach a lesson. One was in a plain-clothes uniform, he taught us how to respond to a smoke alarm, how to check doors for fire on the other side, and to stay low to the ground in-case of smoke and toxic fumes. The other firefighter was in full suit and SCBA, and he taught us not to be afraid of firefighters in their equipment who might shout commands and grab us as they try to rescue us from a fire or some other danger. I've carried those lessons through my entire life, and I think it would be awesome if the police would do something similar (and if fire departments would do it more often!). It would be invaluable if they taught things like: How to act appropriately around law enforcement (follow commands, keep your hands out of your pockets, and so on), how to act during a traffic stop (roll down the window, hands on the steering wheel, don't get out), how to call 911 and report a crime (go somewhere safe before calling, give location immediately in-case the call is lost, describe yourself and others, etc.), and basic rights (you must identify yourself and give your ID if asked, you cannot leave unless you're given permission, you can say you don't want to answer questions or a specific question, etc.).

That doesn't sound right to me. Take a look at this video to see the difference between the wall penetration of different firearms and rounds: http://outdoorchannel.com/video.aspx?g=shooting&f=KVKomFAWRC3s&guid=9Eps2Ha3Mz3VEcmFvjdQaOSuMtvNWIIh As you'll see, an AR-15 firing a .223 round has much less penetration than a 9mm or .45 Handgun.

America is an interesting place. Here, a citizen can legally own a tank, WW2-era cannons, powerful firearms and explosives, and strong body armor that deflect bullets (see North Hollywood shootout on wikipedia). And even if a particular item is illegal in your state, you can probably either pick it up in the next state or find a black market for it. And even if you seriously can't find it, then you can probably make it (see Marvin Heemeyer on wikipedia). It sounds crazy, but it's how the whole freedom thing works. Take freedom of religion for example: all religions must be allowed under any circumstances, because if even one is held above another or banned, then any religion is 'free-game' (anything could be banned, a state church could rise, etc.). Same with freedom of speech, either it's all allowed or none of it is allowed. Liberty and justice for all, that sort of thing. It follows then, that if any criminal or potential criminal could get their hands on these sorts of equipment, that the police should already have military equipment available for use (see Hans Hansen at The Oregonian news). This is where we have a problem, because the average person isn't packing a weapon, but the police are always going to assume they are, and that means that if a civilian or criminal makes a bad move that alarms an officer, they could find themselves pinned to the ground or worse, shot and killed (see Officer Mark Rine and Rumain Brisbon at Fox News). The police aren't wrong to respond this way though, because police officers are often killed by criminals just on the virtue of them being police officers (see Officer Jeremy Henwood at NBC San Diego news). In-fact one thing you'll never see here in the US is police officers patrolling on foot, just because it would make them too easy of a target. Bike cops are also rare/non-existent, but that depends on where you live (though I certainly haven't spotted any in Seattle or the rest of Washington state in my two years of living here). Something else that's interesting: Eric Garner isn't the first person to die because of a chokehold applied by law enforcement. In-fact, in most states, chokeholds are banned or restricted for use by law enforcement. This is because police would apply them, someone would die, and there would be protests against the use of chokeholds. But for some reason, in this case, instead of protesting the use of chokeholds for compliance, it's a race issue. It's confusing and suspicious, and there are even some rumors that there are 'agitators' among these protesters that, for their own gain, are actively trying to turn these sort of things into a race issue. Then again, maybe it's just a race issue because it happened so close to the whole Ferguson thing. Who can really say for sure? tl;dr IMHO the police here are rightfully militarized and rightfully violent. There would still be protests if it was a "white guy".

I was going to wait until the 15th to post a mirror, but... MIRROR: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzn7rRc8SbEOQTBKUWpWZms3SUE/view?usp=sharing EDIT: Added two youtube videos to the OP

Yeah, the file still hasn't been approved. I don't know why it's taking so long. I would appreciate it if a mod or admin could contact me about this. I'll try uploading it somewhere else if a whole month passes by.

(LINK BECAUSE OF SIZE) http://www.emergencyrigs.net/viewphoto.asp?PhotoID=5164&Size=L (PHOTO NOT MINE) From my hometown, Gilbert AZ. Probably the most famous person to come from the town is Lindsey Sterling. It's not odd to get temperatures up to 120°F in Arizona, so most people there drive white cars that reflect the sun and heat. This includes the emergency services and especially the fire departments, who don't want to die from the heat before they get to the fire. I always thought the GFD was beautiful (try searching for pics of the fire station, for starters). Something you can't see in the picture is that all the wording on their apparatus are reflective, which you can see below. There's just something magical about walking past an engine and watching it twinkle out of the corner of your eye.

According to the Youtube description, some of the riders were arrested. I feel like what the police were really trying to accomplish here, was to get some lights and sirens near the head of the pack (which they did). That way the riders are encouraged to disperse (which they did), and other vehicles on the road are given advanced warning to slow down or stop (which they did), so they don't slam into or get slammed by one of the motorcycles. All in all, I think the police had an intelligent, effective strategy that worked well in this situation. Lets pray some of these riders are thinking to themselves, 'That was incredibly scary, dangerous, and stupid. I'll never do anything like that again!'.

There's a thread here on the game: http://forum.emergency-planet.com/topic/19621-enforcer-police-crime-action/ According to Steam, there are going to be some big updates in the near future.

Try turning off shadows in the options menu.

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://forum.emergency-planet.com/files/file/598-standard-quality-911fr-em4-new-soundtrack-mod-la-mixrar/ MIRROR: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzn7rRc8SbEOQTBKUWpWZms3SUE/view?usp=sharing NOTE: Download is pending administrator approval and is not yet available to the public. Check back often. EDIT: Alternatively, you can download from the mirror link. -SAMPLES-

For future reference, this is the corona fix you need for WHITE BOXES (link is from the Mayberry Emergency Services Facebook page). From now on, everyone can just copypaste a link to this post. https://mega.co.nz/#!e5AHTCBC!co4BZLLGwHb_BokJCH9GYthpJQMw2mYnGjh-sg_u0mc

Hi StevenEhlert2 (or any other Inception Clan Staff), I'm interested in joining Inception. However, the link to the rules provided in the Inception Member Application redirects to a login screen. In other words, the site requires me to be a member before I can read the rules. Because I can't reasonably apply for membership without reading the rules, I would appreciate it if you (or another member of Inception Clan) could either add the current rules to a new or existing guest-friendly page on the website or post the current rules on this topic. Thank you, and sorry for the inconvenience. - CCCXLII

Sounds neat! I'll be watching.

New update tomorrow. Sorry for the double post, just want to make sure this is bumped and people stay updated. If it's a problem, I'll merge this into my earlier post. This will be my last post on this game, unless something really major comes up. The game looks cool and the devs seem awesome, but unfortunately my computer doesn't meet the minimum specs, and that means I can't justify buying the game myself. Because I don't own the game, and because I don't plan on buying it in the near future, I don't see much point in following its development. Hope everyone enjoys the game!

You could change the base game's soundtrack, but you can also go into each individual mod folder and change the soundtracks for that particular mod. For example, you could have totally different music depending on whether you were playing LA Mod or London Mod. You should be able do this without replacing any of the game's or mod's original files. Go through Data/Audio/Soundtracks or Mods/YourModNameHere/Audio/Soundtracks. If your mod doesn't have a Soundtracks folder, you can create one. You should see a soundtracks.xml document (if not, you can grab this from the base game's Soundtracks folder), which can be opened and edited in Notepad. The soundtracks.xml document dictates what music is played for each section of the game and in what order. EXAMPLE: <soundtrack name="freeplay"> <music id="0" file="mod:Audio/Soundtracks/background_06.ogg" level="0.0" next="0" /> <music id="1" file="mod:Audio/Soundtracks/action_short_01.ogg" level="0.1" next="0" /> <music id="2" file="mod:Audio/Soundtracks/action_short_02.ogg" level="0.2" next="0" /> <music id="3" file="mod:Audio/Soundtracks/action_short_03.ogg" level="0.3" next="0" /> <music id="4" file="mod:Audio/Soundtracks/action_short_04.ogg" level="0.4" next="0" /> <music id="5" file="mod:Audio/Soundtracks/action_short_05.ogg" level="0.5" next="0" /> <music id="6" file="mod:Audio/Soundtracks/action_short_06.ogg" level="0.6" next="0" /> <music id="7" file="mod:Audio/Soundtracks/action_short_07.ogg" level="0.7" next="0" /> <music id="8" file="mod:Audio/Soundtracks/action_short_08.ogg" level="0.8" next="0" /> </soundtrack>The above is a section in the soundtracks.xml document that controls the music when playing Freeplay mode. music id="x" Each music file is identified by the game through a number that you assign. The number can be anywhere from single or double (maybe triple and so on) digits. Because each file is differentiated by an id number, you could list the same file twice (but with different id numbers). file="mod:Audio/Soundtracks/yourmusicname.ogg" The file associated with that particular music id. "mod:" means that the game looks for the Audio folder in the current modification. If there isn't a particular music file in your mod's Soundtracks folder, it will instead look for the music file in the base game's Soundtrack folder (i.e. Data/Audio/Soundtracks). level="x.x" This value determines when the music is played. "0.0" designates normal background music, which is played when there isn't any emergencies. Anything higher than 0.0 will play when an emergency happens, interrupting the current background music and playing to completion. next="x" This determines which music id is played next (the "x" being a particular music id) after the current music is played to completion.

New update:

I had this problem with LA Mod. I would just get the same few events every time I played, just in different order. Strangely enough though, after I modded in my own choice of music and turned music back on in the settings (up until now I played with music off), the game threw new events at me that I hadn't ever seen before.

That's an awesome idea, but I would replace or supplement the Battalion Chiefs with EMS Paramedic Captains. Here's why: 1) The EMS Paramedic Captain not only has all the same abilities as the Battalion Chief, but he can also use an EMT Bag and heal people. 2) The EMS Supervisor's Car is much cheaper than the LAFD Battalion Chief Vehicle. 3) The EMS Supervisor's Car can hold more personnel, and can thus hold way more FF/Paramedics.

Glad to hear everyone's enjoying the list! I'm actually working on another one called "10 More Things Every LA Mod Player Should Know"! Here's something new I discovered about the Vintage Ambulance: if you take out the FF/Paramedic that comes with it, leaving only the Stretcher Team/Paramedic when you deploy, it's 70~ credits cheaper than a BLS Ambulance. So really, the Vintage Ambulance is awesome for everything xD PROS: - Paramedics. - Same stats as an ALS Ambulance, including the same equipment. - Cheaper than a BLS Ambulance (with the removal of one paramedic). - You start out with a couple. CONS - It doesn't have floodlights. - It makes the roleplayer inside of me cringe when I use it.

Devs say they're releasing a patch later this evening. EDIT: Update 1.0.2.1 Is Live

You do realize that Iraq, Libya, and Syria have all formally asked for US and NATO help, right?

According to the developers, they sent out some 300 codes to different youtubers, so we should see lots of LPs cropping up in the next few days. Also, the devs say they plan to update the game as they receive support and reception. You can unlock new cars by visiting the game's website (undercover car and jeep). From what I've heard, there's a few bugs right now, but most of those will probably be patched in the coming days.