• Zombiepirate@lemmy.world
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      The only way to stop a bad kid from ringing doorbells is a good guy with a gun.

      That kid was no angel.

      I’m sure I missed some right-wing thought-stopping platitudes, I may be back later with more wisdom.

    • redsand@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      The running away part adds a bonus felony in Texas in addition to the reckless discharge and I’m guessing murder II maybe negligent homicide.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      On NextDoor somebody posted a link to this story and the comments were all “see? Kids shouldn’t be ringing doorbells and running away like this.” Maybe the real lesson is “don’t shoot kids in the fucking back”?

  • ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online
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    Ding dong ditch used to be a staple of kiddie pranks… for fuck’s sake! Do none of these idiots have any real threat assessment? Or are they so desperate to shoot someone that they just wanna blast some kid and say they feared for their lives?

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      Do none of these idiots have any real threat assessment?

      More that they’ve got a house full of guns, an ear full of “crime wave!!!” media, and a not insignificant amount of mental illness.

      “If someone rings my doorbell and runs away, they’re targeting my house for a burglary” is a thing lots of people unironically believe.

      Or are they so desperate to shoot someone that they just wanna blast some kid and say they feared for their lives?

      Definitely elements of that, too. But in the sense of feeling like they want to be the hero of a story they’ve heard on Talk Radio.

      A lot of these people are legit delusional.

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        “If someone rings my doorbell and runs away, they’re targeting my house for a burglary” is a thing lots of people unironically believe.

        God help me, I’m going to lose it with the next idiot that I hear this shit from. My parents constantly regurgitate simulacrums of that line. Somehow we’ve moved on foolish grans mass spamming the emails about people putting tags on your car at the gas station to follow you home… but it’s ‘moved on’ to the insidious new middle-aged twats on facebook losing their minds about shit like kids being kidnapped from their school by secret russian/chinese/iranian/democrat black-ops teams.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        “If someone rings my doorbell and runs away, they’re targeting my house for a burglary” is a thing lots of people unironically believe.

        Is this really a commonly held belief? The fuck? Makes no goddamn sense whatsoever.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          It’s less a commonly held belief and more an urban myth that gets circulated via Facebook copypasta and local news elevated crime gossip.

          Makes no goddamn sense whatsoever.

          The theory is that you ring the doorbell a number of times and if nobody answers the door then the person must not be home. It is therefore safe to do a break-in and steal all the stuff. More elaborate and sinister theories entail a burglar who is exhausting their prey with sleepless anxiety, hoping to break in an assault/rape the homeowner once they’ve been burned out from sleeplessly monitoring their front door night after night.

          Slap on some fluff about this being a cartel strategy or the sign of a kidnapping ring in your area or whatever other bells and whistles you want to throw on the tale. If it’s a TikTok meme, they’ve brainwashed kids to gather information on behalf of the Chinese/Russian government. This is a prelude to an MS-13 blockwide invasion. Lizardpeople. The sky is the limit.

          Plays on mental illness like a fiddle.

    • Deflated0ne@lemmy.world
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      None whatsoever. They’re bloodthirsty savages. Itching for any excuse to murder someone.

      I give it 2 weeks before the shooter is being interviewed on Fox. Whinging about how he’s really the victim of some nebulous “woke mob” that drug him online for murdering a child.

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
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      As someone raised by conservatives, it’s #2. They fantasize about being in a scenario where they have to defend their home with a gun. It’s a core component of being a conservative.

    • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz
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      I think they are just stupid, scared people who watch Fox 24/7 and really think bad things are happening everywhere. Or to put it more succinctly, they are little bitches.

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      Or are they so desperate to shoot someone that they just wanna blast some kid and say they feared for their lives?

      It is exactly this. These are deeply violent people who are actively seeking any reason to hide behind the excuse of self defense.

    • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today
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      There is something ingrained in certain people I’m finding. I’m a big dude who can handle himself if need be, but I also have guns cause the state does too. Moved from a more liberal area to this purple pearl in a very red area. Had a girl over one night and heard some rustling outside the door. I put on pants and went to go check it out and she asked me why I wasn’t bringing my gun. Jackie, my sister in Christ, we are outside the downtown area of a fairly safe little tourist trap. At the absolute worst it could be is a small black bear that I just scream at. But I’m not going to jail for firing a gun near downtown(although that doesn’t tend to stop anyone else around here).

    • cley_faye@lemmy.world
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      Or are they so desperate to shoot someone that they just wanna blast some kid and say they feared for their lives?

      Too many people are kept in check by fear of getting caught by the law and will turn into savage beasts at the slightest opportunity.

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          You only know that after the fact, from outside. I assure you the homeowner absolutely did not think of that at 11PM. Get real with your “who cares” nonsense.

          • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world
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            And so maybe you fire a shot in the air to scare anyone, if you are that insanely paranoid. Clearly he could see that someone was running AWAY from him if he hit a moving target at 11pm, and there’s a neighbor wittness, so it couldn’t have been pitch black in the middle of nowhere.

          • SlippiHUD@lemmy.world
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            Someone rang my doorbell at 11pm, better shoot first and ask questions never.

            Noone could ever need help at 11pm.

            Also, are they just posted up in a chair with a rifle pointed at the door ready to fire when the doorbell goes off? Or did they open the door and identify the person running away before firing.

            The whole point of the prank is to run away before they can awnser the door.

      • StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world
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        Bro I used to be out doing shit on the streets at sleepovers at like 3-4 am. 11 is not the justification that you think it is.

      • bthest@lemmy.world
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        11 PM? So what? Is that when ‘the purge’ starts in that nasty rat hole state or what?

        • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
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          It’s when kids, traditionally, are in bed. But you do you if 35 year olds do the ding-dong ditch in your holler, sounds like you’re a good fit.

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    I used to knock doors back in the 1990s raising money for Jump Rope for Heart. Not once did I have to worry about being shot. And that was in Texas! Also in 1999 I was a door to door sales man for Orange Solve. Again never had an issue For fuck sakes my grandfather sold life insurance door to door. We used to have door sales man and not mention religious people who would go door to door. Not once did you hear stories like this.

    I blame fox news. They have made these people so fucking scared. Life was more dangerous back in the 70’s-80’s for a kid.

    Guess that’s what they want to go back to. I hope this man gets life in prison. Goddammit I am sick tired of these fucks ruining and destroying our world. Fucking piss baby.

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        That’s scary and so fucking crazy. We can’t fix these people. We need to one cut off Fox News and any right wing media, then we need to pump billions into education.

        We also need to lock all these people up in institutions until we can deprogram them.

    • ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online
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      In Louisiana in the early 90s a Japanese foreign exchange student was shot during a Halloween party when he accidentally knocked on the wrong house in costume. When he walked away, the home owner came out with a revolver and yelled ‘freeze’. He didn’t understand what that meant since his English was poor and he walked towards them and was then shot. He probably also thought that he DID go to the right house and as it was Halloween it was probably a gag.

      The home owner was acquitted, but it caused an international incident.

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        My mother told me about an incident where a ethnic Chinese man (or woman? can’t remember what I heard) in the US was going through the trash looking for those bottles/cans that you can sell for money (you know those that says 5 cent / 10 cent if recycled?), so there was a kid in the house who their parents left alone at home armed with a fucking gun and he started shouting at the man to leave, but he didn’t understand English, so the kid shot and killed the man, claiming to “feel threatened”. The shooter being a kid means there were no charges.

        That conversation basically set the atmosphere (as in, the mental picture that I have) of what America was like. Its probably one of the reasons why I (as someone who is also ethnically Chinese) have this self-imposed restriction of never going to a republican area or any racially homogenous areas (particularly those all white suburbs / rural places)

        I never looked it up, but let me know if you found an article that matchs what I was told.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      I hope they’ll lock up all of fox news, oann, etc as well as these lying fucks are the reason for people’s minds being so fucked up

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      I canvassed door-to-door in Ohio in the mid-80s for a public interest org and I also never feared for my life. Although one time I had knocked on one door and was actually leaving the property when the homeowner opened his door and let his doberman out. This thing barked at me and seemed to be trying to bite me but I was able to keep my clipboard in front of his head. Anybody trying to defend themselves from a dog should try using a clipboard.

      However, I’m white. I had a friend from Sri Lanka who was working the same job and his experience was a bit different. One time he was walking down a road and heard a noise behind him, turned around and saw a car approaching him with a guy sticking out of the passenger window holding a baseball bat.

      • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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        Holy shit that crazy. When I did door to door always had an uneventful experience. Even when I canvas here in Oklahoma it was meh. Guess other benefit ot being white.

    • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      This is different from just ringing doorbells. The article doesn’t say it and glosses over the fact that this kid was doing it for TikTok. The fuckin stupid ass TiKtOk ChaLLeNgE is to go up and kick the shit out the door as loud as you can, then run away after terrifying whoever is inside.

      It’s no excuse to shoot, but it’s not a simple “kid rang the doorbell”

      • bthest@lemmy.world
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        You might have a point if TikTok was a sex trafficking drug cartel or something. Otherwise it’s completely irrelevant bit of info. As if kids weren’t doing stupid shit like this before.

  • etherphon@lemmy.world
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    Adults: “Kids never go outside and have fun anymore.”
    Also Adults: “If you step on my property I’ll kill you.”

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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      Those are different adults saying those things. The gun nuts tend to instill irrational fear in their kids that they should never leave the house unless they are prepared for life-and-death warfare. It’s a sad cycle of paranoid abuse :(

  • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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    Seems to be a common theme in Texas. Maybe this guy moved from Dallas to Houston.

    “A child just rang my doorbell. Folks you do NOT ring doorbells in 2023. My 6 was loaded. Keep your kids away. -Chris”

    • ThePantser@sh.itjust.works
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      If you don’t want someone to ring your doorbell then why the fuck do you have one? They are usually only secured with two screws. Fuck that guy, he needs to be shot back.

      • logicbomb@lemmy.world
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        If you remove the doorbell button, it leaves an unsightly hole that faces visitors. Instead, you can remove or deactivate the actual bell part inside your house.

        Then, you can put a sign on the door that says not to knock or it will wake the baby, and you may never have to interact with another human ever again.

    • meco03211@lemmy.world
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      Good news is that this idiot can no longer threaten kids (or anyone). He was kicked out of the National Weather Association after his asinine posts. He then seemingly died shortly after. I haven’t found a cause of death yet.

  • asteriskeverything@lemmy.world
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    The kid was shot in the back You know, cause he was running away and all.

    It is wild to me that someone hears their doorbell and their instinct is to grab their gun. I cannot imagine losing your child this way. I know school and mass shootings are awful and kill many more children. The difference is the intent; on some level Americans are aware existing means we could be the victim of gun violence. We do not expect idiots to shoot at us with no intent to go on a killing spree and especially not at our children outside of schools.

    I almost don’t blame parents for not wanting to let their kids play outside anymore

    • leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      It is wild to me that someone hears their doorbell and their instinct is to grab their gun

      Seriously, my first instinct (like any normal person’s) when I hear my doorbell is to pause whatever I’m watching or playing, turn off the speakers, and slowly and silently creep towards the door to peek through the peephole and see if whoever rang without scheduling first has already gone away and I can go back to my normal life.

      What am I going to do with a gun, shoot the bastard and cause even more people to come to my door‽

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      Child homicides and violent crimes are lower now than they were 40 years ago. Around 1992 was when it was the worst in the past 45 years. That’s not even per capital either. Just number per year. In 1980 the population was 226 million. Now it’s 340 million, so even though there’s over 100 million more people, there’s still less violent deaths.

      Kids are safer. It’s just blasted all over the news and internet anytime something fucked up happens.

      • NABDad@lemmy.world
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        While that’s all true, I think it’s a worthwhile exercise to examine if the number of people being shot for ringing a doorbell or turning around in someone’s driveway has experienced a statistically significant increase over the number of instances 40 years ago*.

        It could be argued that the media (and the fascist scum running the country) blasting stories about made-up or exaggerated crime are directly responsible for any increase in insanity by chicken-shit gun-fetishists.

        * Of course, you’d also need to factor in the reality that 40 years ago, in some areas you could murder someone for ringing your doorbell, and depending on the skin tones involved it might not even be reported.

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          You also have to factor in that parents these days don’t let their kids go outside and do anything by themselves. My aunt won’t let her 10 year old grandson walk by himself 150 ft from her son’s house to hers, in broad daylight while she is at the door watching out in the safest suburb of a small city.

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
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    wtf from the cops

    a homicide detective with the Houston Police Department, told KHOU, noting the boy’s death does not appear to involve self-defense because the shooting “wasn’t close to the house.”

    Implying that if they rang the doorbell and waited (you know, the entire purpose of a doorbell), it could have been considered self-defense? I know, that’s a bit of logical fallacy but wtf

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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      Everyone is entitled to their day in court. This is a cop doing a good job of cutting out any possibility of bullshit weaseling by pointing out that the possibility of self defense doesn’t even need to be debated or discussed.

    • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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      It just means they don’t even need to consider if it could have been in self defense because it was ruled out at step 1. Not that if it passed step 1 it would be guaranteed that it was.

      They just want to head off that entire line of defense from the get go.

    • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca
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      could have been

      as the other user said, yes, exactly. depending on other factors it could have been

  • BeeegScaaawyCripple@lemmy.world
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    i mean i’ve seen signs in austin, on the same lawn, that say “we don’t call the police” with a picture of a gun and “ring my door and i’ll shoot”

    lovely, warm neighborhood…

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      So doesn’t that person have any deliveries or visitors or anything? Imagine ordering a pizza and then being shocked when some anxious guy (anxious because they got tons of deliveries to make on a deadline or be fired) shows up?

      • ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one
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        I have one of those shootin’ people signs on my lawn. One time, I ordered a pizza. When the pizza delivery person showed up, they were acting mighty shady. So I shot them. That bastard may have been trying to case my place. When the beautiful boys in blue showed up. I showed them my badge and all was good.

        • Some person I made up for this post
      • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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        Any country that goes through a Sandy-Hook style shooting and doesn’t amend their gun control regulations, is a shithole country.

        QED.

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        Are you trying to defend a shithole country where kids get shot for ringing doorbells or going to school?

      • MountingSuspicion@reddthat.com
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        Trump famously referred to other countries as shithole countries. People often darkly mock him and the us by referring to the us as a shithole country. Not really sure how ignorance plays a role in their comment, but it’s possible you’re ignorant to that context so just adding that here.

    • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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      Once saw a mother with kids in her car, drive past another group of kids playing soccer in the street. She’s sped past them yelling, “next time I’ll just run you idiots over!” (not a busy street at all!) maybe one car every 10 min. Those kids don’t play soccer any more.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      There was more violent deaths in children in the 70s, 80’s, and early 90’s, than there is today, even though there’s over 100,000,000 more people in the US than there was in 1980. Kids are safer. People like you just think it’s worse because now it’s blasted all over the news and internet for you to see anytime something like this happens.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        While there was more violence and crime then, normal people seem entirely unhinged now. Maybe it’s just the news but back then I would have trusted neighbors and feared crime whereas today the neighbors seem scary (at least in certain parts of the country. That doesn’t generally happen here)

        • NABDad@lemmy.world
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          Statistically, it is just being blown out of proportion by the media. No one sells ad space by reporting that nothing terrible happened again today.

          Ignore the stories you’ve heard about things happening “somewhere”, and think about what’s happened on your street.

          Your neighborhood may be a cesspool of violence and death, but the smart bet is that it’s just as peaceful and boring as mine.

          • ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online
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            Didnt the media report on crime in the 80s and 90s, too? I mean with the incredible amount of crime happening back then (at one point New York City had 2000 murders a year, while today it is closer to 200 or 250) they could have made it a fuckload more sensational. How the fuck did greatly reduced crime translate to more media sensation?

            • NABDad@lemmy.world
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              News reporting was different then.

              In the 80s, most people got their news from broadcast network news shows or newspapers. CNN only just started in 1980. The Fairness Doctrine wasn’t eliminated until 1987. Fox News didn’t start until 1996.

              There wasn’t ever a need for a 24x7 news channel. There still isn’t, but we have multiple 24x7 news networks. They have to blow things out of proportion like never before to try to get viewers.

      • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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        People like you

        You know nothing about me.

        I’m aware that violent crime against children is down significantly over the last few decades. But have you considered that the same news reporting allowing us to see these stories, also allows parents and children to see them? Could that possibly have an effect on children’s behavior? You’re ignorant and overconfident. Blocked.

      • ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online
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        Not only was there more child murder back then, but they were less likely to be solved. Do you remember the whole missing kids on milk cartons? It started when a paperboy was abducted and never seen again. Also whoever did it completely disappeared, too. The police didn’t have any leads or suspects.

        In the 90s it was the same thing. You know the Amber alert? It was named after a girl who was kidnapped and murdered. Her killer was never found. Not a single suspect interrogated, either. Some DNA did surface in 2022 or so, but that didn’t lead to any suspects either.

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    Had someone fire a gun at myself and 2 friends for doing this when we were teenagers. No vandalism, no destruction, just knocking on the door (friend happened to bang particularly fast and hard while screaming “Satan Loves You”) and hightailing it. I also live in the south, so guns a-blazin’, I guess.

    I’ve also been threatened with a gun and other acts of violence for dressing in all black and not believing in some bullshit god. Police have also been called on me for sitting in front of the mall in my trenchcoat while waiting on my ride as a teen. And I’ve had a cop train a gun on me while my friends and I were goofin’ around in their backyard.

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    5 days ago

    I live just outside of Houston, and I’ve had kids play ding-dong ditch at my house, and honestly it’s fucking creepy. It wouldn’t bother me during the daytime, when people are around and there are often children playing on my street. But it only happens late at night, when my two little kids are in bed. I check outside and they’re gone. My street is well-lit, but I never see them running away. There’s a green space nearby that they must be running to, but there’s nothing to hide behind there.

    Anyway, it’s creepy as fuck. I really hate it. If I caught the kid in the act, I’d probably get real serious at him and try to get him to stop. But I’d never point a gun at him. I hope he trips while he’s running and busts up his teeth, but I don’t want him to die.

    The murderer here is completely unhinged.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      You could always respond like a normal human being and get a doorbell cam. You can at least see what is going on and maybe go talk to their parents (if you didn’t live in a dystopia where people think it’s ok to just start blasting)

      • moakley@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        We don’t have a doorbell cam because we live in a dystopia and I don’t want the cops or the government to have visual access to my front door at all times.

        • ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online
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          5 days ago

          Also savvy criminals would have jammers on. There is little question in my mind that tech bro bastards probably shut down all cameras they don’t fully control if they go anywhere. They want all the privacy in the world while they probably want a nice shot of your ass as you take a dump.

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            4 days ago

            We’re talking about children playing a harmless prank… They’re not bringing “jammers” with them. Point was that a doorbell cam would let them see that it’s just kids goofing off. If the bell rang late at night, they looked at the cam, and it was all scrambled, I think it would be pretty safe to assume that wasn’t ding dong ditch.

            • ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online
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              4 days ago

              I was referring to actual criminals and not kids playing pranks.

              Ring cameras absolutely have been hacked and jammed. The people who did that weren’t kids being annoying. They were car theft rings who used the time that cameras were downed to steal cars.

              • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                4 days ago

                Yes, I understand. The point is, if your shit is being jammed, then you likely have genuine reason to be concerned. So the doorbell cam helps you realize they’re not kids playing a prank doesn’t it

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            jammers

            No idea why you need something as sophisticated as a jammer when you can just stick a piece of tape over the lense.

            Either way, yeah. These cameras are more useful for a panoptican security state than any individual home owner.

            And even then… not that beneficial.

      • someguy3@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Chances are astronomically low you know who the parents are. Maybe this is a legit use of that nextdoor app.

        • Lyrl@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 days ago

          Given that kids sometimes play outside, or take some time to get loaded into or out of cars in a driveway, and I am also sometimes outside or driving to or from my house, I feel like I have a decent handle of what kids live where in a one block radius of my house. I may not know the parents, but I would know which door to knock on to meet them.

    • jaschen306@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      I had this happen to us as well, but we put a sign on the door with a please don’t ring the door bell, baby is sleeping and it never happened again.

      For some reason this also stop solicitors.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          4 days ago

          Maybe I’m alone here, but if my doorbell rings and I look out and nobody’s there, I see that as a win lol

        • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
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          5 days ago

          Unless you think ghosts are real, there really aren’t many possibilities. Late in the evening it’s more threatening than creepy.

          • I guess I’m not at all into supernatural stuff, so I wouldn’t think “creepy” as in ghosts, but I’d for sure be wondering if there was someone waiting away from the door to cause me problems if I stepped out to look without locking the door behind me. And I don’t live in a place where that kind of thing is common.

    • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      I hope he trips while he’s running and busts up his teeth, but I don’t want him to die.

      You hope a child is seriously disfigured and has to endure painful reconstruction and likely very expensive dental bills for… checks notes… annoying you? I mean, at least you don’t wish death up on him for playing the prank that nearly every child ever has played. Just serious injury, which is totally OK.

      • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        That’s obviously hyperbole for “I want them to face some consequences for their actions after alarming me in my home in the middle of the night for their own enjoyment.”

        • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          Is someone ringing your doorbell alarming to you? Especially in a city like Houston. I get that in the country it is rare for people to be out and about. I also get that you might be scared if they ring the doorbell late at night, but that’s what peepholes are for. Or Ring cameras. Or keeping the door closed and yelling, “Who is it?”

          • moakley@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            Yes, someone ringing my doorbell late at night and then running away before I can get to the door is alarming. I don’t like it. Maybe you’d like it, but it disrupts my peace, wakes up my kids, and I don’t like the feeling that someone is targeting me for their one-sided enjoyment. It’s fucking creepy.

            • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              5 days ago

              You could always have a switch for your door bell so that when the switch is off the bell doesn’t ring. Just turn the doorbell off each night and enjoy some uninterrupted sleep.

              Plus when the ding-dong-ditchers realize that the bell no longer rings they’re likely to stop hitting your bell.

            • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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              5 days ago

              And that is the same rationale used by the guy who just shot and killed a kid. Maybe they are targeting you because they can see how mad you get over a simple and common prank.

              It’s not creepy. It’s the most common prank done around the world by nearly every generation of kids. Or it was until people started killing kids for it.

              • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
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                5 days ago

                Being an adult involves tolerating a lot of things without externally reacting in the moment. There’s always an incompetent boss we can’t call out, or an insufferable family member that we still have to be nice to, or a neighbor that we have to somehow share a wall/fence with. We still get annoyed about things, we just save it for appropriate times and places. For example, frustration about ding dong ditching, could be shared on a post about ding dong ditching.

                It’s sad it needs to be said, but calmly expressing an opinion online ≠ going overboard IRL.

      • Deacon@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        We can’t all lead a blameless thought life like yourself but I’m sure we’re all hoping you can teach us a few things.

        • NABDad@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          Except, Moakley didn’t say they are trying to kick down the door. You brought up kicking. Moakley just said they are ringing the bell and running away. No kicking involved, so disfigurement seems extreme.

          However, it’s also a wish, which means it has no effect on anything. Feel free to wish anything on anyone, it won’t happen.

          Although, my high school bully did get brain cancer and die, so who knows? Maybe wishes work sometimes.

          • Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            This article left that out. Other articles say they were doing the door kicking challenge.

            Either way the dumb kid shouldn’t be dead.

          • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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            5 days ago

            Please read articles before posting comments about them. Otherwise it’s just baseless flame wars.

            • NABDad@lemmy.world
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              5 days ago

              I did. The article that was posted didn’t mention kicking.

              Edit:

              Also, this particular comment thread was about a person experiencing ding-dong ditch personally, not necessarily what happened in the event described in the article.

    • themadcodger@kbin.earth
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      5 days ago

      Three teenagers rang his door as a prank, and his response is to get in his car, follow them, and then mow them down? Totally reasonable. He was clearly just defending himself. 🙄

      • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
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        5 days ago

        There are people that seriously argue that it should be legal to chase down someone who has wronged you in some way and take out any form of revenge you wish against them.

      • smeenz@lemmy.nz
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        5 days ago

        Not that this is an excuse but I’m going to make the assumption that he was addicted to being kept in a perpetual state of fear by fox news etc.

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Some teenagers mistakenly banged on the back door of the wrong house near me and the home owner chased them down and fired on their car when they were trying to get away. The kids ran into the woods and the car went missing for a few hours. The home owner was a cop, so anyone paying attention was suspicious where the car went. The whole incident was sweep under the rug, so I assume that either the chief didn’t let them plant evidence or there was nothing in the evidence locker to plant.