After Shanna and Xan escaped him and took his car, JJ got back on their trail and killed Kaye in a new car, then spotted our gamers in *another* car, a van this time.
He’s a professional hitman. Getting a new ride when he needs it isn’t hard for him.
They know he’s upstairs based on the bugs, and only called when they entered the building. He could theoretically jump out the window on the second floor, but he’s already a broken hammer.
Police aren’t there to murder you, they have to give you warning to come out without the gun. Plus, there could be another cruiser waiting out back.
No, it’s not. Police don’t announce themselves when taking down someone who is armed—especially if they can’t see them or have their guns aimed at them.
Might be the case, but I’ve listened to the Houston Police Union’s president on the radio yesterday and he said that modern cruisers are meant to have two people to properly manage both the vehicle and the computer system.
Keep in mind, we may not be seeing all the officers involved. They’re moving in weapons drawn and into a residence, which means they know there is a crime in progress, so they’re briefed on a violent armed intruder.
The panel only leaves room for three cruisers, so there could be more already inside or behind the house in case he runs. Sometimes in a situation like this, it’s better to lock down the neighbourhood with a few cars than wait for a full ETF and let him walk away.
So the perp can kill several officers and still be recognized as innocent before the court of law because he was acting in self-defense against imminent and lethal danger – obviously armed and very aggressive terrorist group? I understand now.
JJ vs. Paper NPC Cops, I’d say JJ has the edge. Several edges in fact, tucked in various places. JJ can, and will, do anything. Cops won’t and aren’t named characters either.
Plus, y’know, story escalation.
Then again, I could always be super wrong.
Just read an interesting post on Imgur about the ‘whys’ of police shootings (that is, where the Police are the ones doing the shooting)- Basically, if the officer feels that a life- any life, his or another’s, is in danger (and that includes permanent or serious injury as well as fatality), he’s been trained to not hesitate, shoot for the center of mass, empty the clip. If these police are acting on knowledge of him being armed (which they certainly are- they wouldn’t go in with their weapons out otherwise) and act as properly trained officers would in real-life? They’ll shoot to kill as soon as JJ makes any move that isn’t lying face-first on the ground with his arms outstretched.
Essentially. The reasoning for ‘permanent/serious injury’ is grouped in along with death is because once you are seriously injured, the perp can easily just choose to kill you at that point, leaving you very little options at that point to fight back. They can take your gun and kill another few people easy. That’s the risk of unarmed targets, you can easily get knocked out. In this case, it’s safe to assume they know he’s armed because they’re entering a private residence (meaning they know of a crime in progress) and with weapons drawn (indicating an active threat).
In terms of ’emptying the clip into centre mass’ is built out a concern that allowing for nonlethal threats would encourage gunplay (warning shots kill a surprising number of people, and shooting to wound often ends up killing people when lethal force wouldn’t be authorized). As a result, if you shoot, they are almost assuredly dead by the time you stop.
I think backing JJ into a corner might not be a great idea… I guess it’s a bit of a coin toss, either he can’t kill the cops and it’s the end for him… or he can do it, and now he’s not going to be mister nice guy anymore, before that he was being pushed to finish the job, but now it’s going to be personnal.
Thought… Now that I think about it I guess there are other possibilities, like Carol hiring another killer to silence JJ once he’s compromised or JJ decides “Screw that, the cops know my face an now the rest of the force is going to be pissed because I killed two of them, I’m going into hiding, time to retire in a non-extradition country!”
The police has a clear picture of him if he kills police officers they are going to hunt him. He might manage to disappear but I doubt he would be in the position to hunt them at the same time.
Maybe, it all depends on JJ’s perspective on gain versus cost.
It’s a common belief that killing a cop is akin to killing a killer bee. It solves an immediate problem, but ends up bringing the whole hive down on you.
Agent Smith, just arriving: “Lieutenant, you were given strict orders.”
Police lieutenant, still outside: “Hey, I’m just doing my job. You give me that juris-my-dick-ion crap, you can shove it up your ass.”
Smith: “The orders were for your protection.”
PL: “I think we can handle one over-impressive mustache. I sent two units: they’re bringing him down now.”
Smith: “No lieutenant, your men are already dead.”
I was worried that the video was just a bluff and they were hoping to make JJ say something incriminating. Then again, if the police are already there they already have him as broken the lock and snuck into someone’s house with a gun.
A lot of people are talking about the police as if they only exist in the form of the few cops we see entering the building. The fact they sent a video into the station means that they have already established a line of contact with the police force, and the police have evidence against the man they are attempting to take in as well as an identity. If these cops DO get killed and he escapes for now, the police will be all the more determined to come after him.
At this point he’s lost, pursuing our protagonists would only be due to a personal vendetta. As far as his employment goes the very fact he has been exposed to the police as a hire killer means he’s unlikely to have contact.
To be fair, that’s because that’s often the way it works in fiction. The masterful criminal who can lay waste to whatever police officers show up on scene is, in the doing, exempt from the further consequences of that particular action unless they reveal their connection somehow later.
Granted, that’s generally when people haven’t already sent a video of them to the police station, but it’d hardly be the first time, in a fictional situation, where the cops theoretically have all the info on someone, but they escape once and the police become largely irrelevant in the context to the criminal’s interactions with the protagonists.
Granted, with the way this comic tends to play things, I don’t find that super likely, but I can understand why people would be speculating upon the cops proving totally useless.
I was gonna say the same.
Even if these couple of cops right here are basically screwed, the fact that there is video evidence, and potentially some dead cops, it might get more peoples’ attention on this whole situation. Which is probably a good thing, but I’m sure there’s a downside to it as well…
@Anon, your premise is not incorrect – it’s the somewhat flawed presentation of reality that readers are questioning. It’s not uncommon (in Texas anyway) to see 3 or 4 patrol cars converge on a site just to handle pulling over someone who fits the profile of a suspected criminal. For someone suspected of being not just a murderer but an armed-and-dangerous hitman, SWAT is the correct response for most police departments. At the very least one would expect to see triple the number of officers shown in the last panel just to enter the building and cover this exit, never mind other officers presumably detailed to cover other exits. The fact that we are not being shown this response is either indicative of poor storytelling or some other situation we readers are not yet privy to.
FYI: I was reading the comment when my page suddenly redirected to what looks like a Firefox site (but clearly isn’t) and auto-downloaded a file to my computer. I don’t *know* that it was an ad here but that was my first thought. I know they auto-serve your ad content, but I think you can also request certain advertisers be removed, right?
Ok Phil what. the. actual. fuck? Do you have, like, a FETISH for making police seem stupid and/or incompetent? Maybe do a BIT of research on police procedure next time you have them in the story, just a suggestion.
1) Whenever the police KNOW they are dealing with a well-armed hostile (assassin with training or not) they ALWAYS send in SWAT or at least get ‘geared up’ properly themselves with body armor and shotguns. You have soon-to-be-plot-sacrificed dumbass cops here with regular uniforms and pistols giving a trained assassin plenty of warning because apparently they decided they don’t care about living anymore…
2) They do NOT yell ‘police!’ in these situations either. They just break in and might yell that only once they confront JJ, that’s it.
Thank you! Well-trained police are really quiet in these kinds of situations. They usually go out of their way not to make a lot of noise until they take the criminal down or at least have their guns aimed at them.
You’re quite welcome and well said. Not to mention the police would likely be keeping in touch with Xan and co. (or have access to the live feed from his cameras) to confirm JJ’s exact location at all times and plan their ambush near perfectly.
Honestly this is really disgusting the way Phil is making these cops LITERALLY suicidally incompetent just so his ‘badass assassin’ can show off his physicality again by either easily escaping or slaughtering these innocent officers. It’s shocking to consider, but at this point I’m thinking Phil may have a personal beef against law enforcement or something…
“Disgusting”? Maybe tone it down a little bit. That’s no way to articulate criticism, even when it may be justified . And what’s the deal with ignoring T?
Coming on a little strong here, guys. Maybe wait for the next page or two before you start ranting.
Alternatively, use the psychic abilities you apparently posses to make a lot of money at the roulette wheel and fund your own police procedural webcomic.
Re: “Not to mention the police would likely be keeping in touch with Xan and co. (or have access to the live feed from his cameras) to confirm JJ’s exact location at all times and plan their ambush near perfectly.”
Yeah, except that 1) there’s four people in the room, so Shauna (or whatever her name is – forgive me, it’s just past 3AM and I’m on day three of an insomnia bout; ) could very well be in contact with the police while this group confronts Mr. Moustache, and 2) Xan confirmed that the police have access to the feed?? In this very page?? “we already sent that video to the police, along with the feed from the bugs I planted“? So… yeah.
1)This is not a joint operation. This is Xan sending information (anonymously, I would assume) to the police when JJ entered the building, and an area car responding.
2)What evidence can you put forward that police, when making raids, only make noise when they have their guns trained on people? Are either of you police officers, or people with relevant background and knowledge? Because although I had surprising difficulty obtaining either police operational manuals or footage of police raids, I did find this, which suggests the *exact opposite* – https://youtu.be/wl3PG4LdYoU?t=3m51s (I also found a bunch of COPS episodes, but, well, no one’s paying me for this, and even if they were they wouldn’t be paying me enough to sit through that).
@Mr Ak, even if you are correct and this is just an area car responding, unless there is evidence that someone is in immediate peril of death, the correct response is to surround the building to prevent escape and wait for backup – in the case of an armed assailant, LOTS of backup. So as pointed out, this isn’t a terribly realistic depiction.
1) Nope, we don’t know the level of cooperation yet only that Xan sent them the video AND the feed from his cameras but if these cops were COMPETENT it would be a HIGH level of cooperation.
2) Ok that video is 99.9% irrelevant and yes I went to grad school with a former cop and we became pretty good friends and talked about his past cases fairly often, and I can assure you he and his partners would be FAR more offended by Phil and T’s god awful depiction of police work than I am.
Even just watching COPS you’ll eventually see episodes that show a MAJOR difference in how police handle a hostile in a dwelling who they KNOW is already armed and possibly very well trained with said firearm. They move as quietly as possible with as much force as possible (yes bordering on ‘overkill’) because they all want to make it back home alive after work.
Is that what cops do? Get offended by inaccurate displays of police actions in media and fiction? I’d expect them to have thicker skin considering the nature of their job.
Just take your meds, put some music on, it’s gonna be ok.
Fine, I admit the more accurate word for both them and I would be ‘disappointed’ than offended. They may not be so put off by a single instance of this lazy trope, but they know most works of fiction not centered around law enforcement depict police as embarrassingly inept and overall said works collectively DO contribute significantly to a general attitude in our society (especially among millennials) that the police truly are mostly incompetent.
*sigh* TBH I actually REALLY don’t like all the pills I was prescribed for my OCD and depression, they give me very frequent headaches and occasional nausea/diarrhea :-(
You really should talk to your doctor about those side effects, if you haven’t already. Having to endure that kind of thing definitely doesn’t help, and they’ll likely work with you to find a new perscription that does what it needs without causing those kinds of things.
Thanks for the advice. My doctor is not at all competent and I’m currently trying to find a better one, emphasis on trying. The very embarrassing truth is…I was a bit “off my meds” when I made my initial comments that included some overreaction.
I’ll try to stop commenting for awhile on this site, I didn’t mean to bother so many fans with my neurosis like this -__-
If anything cops tend to believe their own media hype. See also: Endemic siege mentality in police stations and how seemingly every cop in media has seen their partner or somebody else’s DIE IN THEIR ARMS ON THE MEAN STREETS.
It depends a bit on where you are I think. I’ve actually seen something similar once, with the additional detail that the officers in question left the doors to their cars open and the engines running…
Not the kind of thing you’d expect in a big city though.
People keep assuming that JJ’s a super-badass Hollywood Hitman, but there’s been no evidence of this. He’s a Wetworks guy, yeah, but that doesn’t take a whole lot of combat ability- just the willingness to do sudden unexpected murders with a firearm, or freak someone out enough that you can beat their unresistant form flat with a tire iron. That’s not exactly open combat, and he might not even have any sort of martial arts training or ability.
Granted, he very well might be a crouching moustache hidden dagger sorta guy, but I’ve not seen that in his bearing or actions.
It doesn’t matter what kind of guy JJ is. These days Police only care that he’s presumed armed and dangerous. What’s their typical response to that? Just Google it: “Police response armed and dangerous”, you’ll find several entries no more than 2 months old showing responses ranging anywhere between manhunt and SWAT. Only in 25 year old movies like Lethal Weapon do you see officers responding as depicted here – and even in those movies they’re admonished for not waiting for backup.
The manner in which law enforcement is depicted in this comic is done for service of the story, and does not reflect the attitude of the creators towards members of our law enforcement or similar organizations.
Thank you truly, I apologize for any offense from my initial shocked reaction to this page.
It’s just one of my pet peeves as someone with several former officers as friends, because I know how much it hits them at times seeing police depicted as embarrassingly inept at their professions in fictional media. Sorry guys, I’ll back off on my criticism.
And now we find out how competent JJ is. It’s possible he’s not worried about the video because the moustache is fake and he’s wearing various other face-altering cosmetics. Get out the window and break line of sight, and thirty seconds later “JJ” ceases to exist.
Now THIS I could see happening. As I said above, he doesn’t seem like the “Guns Blazing” sort of ‘hitman’- but rather the ‘covered all his bases, three moves ahead’ sort.
hey, all. i live in MI and we have guns. we also have the right to shoot unidentified intruders. to prevent the police from being ‘unidentified’ they are required to announce themselves before breaching, even if they know there are armed perps on the other side of the door. this was what a cop taught at gun training.
i dont think every state has that law so both sides of this issue may be correct, but this seems like a near future world or alternate reality with vr tanks and magic so police procedure may be different there.
Well, I live in Australia where we don’t really have guns at all, and my understanding is also that police loudly and clearly identify themselves when breaking into buildings., for pretty much the same reason. (Admittedly this is from TV. But pretty well-researched TV, I think?)
Not quite, they are taught to do that as a matter of NORMAL procedure i.e. they don’t know whether suspects inside the dwelling are armed or not. Once they KNOW they are dealing with a dwelling where the only occupant is proven armed and probably very dangerous they move quietly, quickly and in LARGE force. Nothing like what is displayed on this page. Also it would be very bizarre/unorthodox for SWAT to NOT be called in for a case like this.
I’m just surprised at the number of people questioning the verisimilitude of police procedure in a setting where a popular games company has enough pull to cover up human experimentation and has a hitman on call.
A person who kills isn’t “just a killer” any more than a person who hacks is “just a hacker”. There is no inherent discord between his talkativeness and his willingness to kill. It certainly doesn’t make him any less of a human. Humans have been killing other humans for basically as long as humans have existed.
As for police though, I’d be inclined to say most of those fall on the “monster” side of the hypothetical divide, and perhaps killing them is kinder than they deserve… though it depends whether or not they’re “just police” or not, hmm?
Aaaaaand the cops just gave him plenty of time to escape. Hope the gang thought to nail the windows shut or something.
You may recall they took his car. While it’s possible he might escape, it’s not probable.
I guess I don’t recall when the gang took JJ’s car. ???
Chapter 34, pg 9 – Xan and Shanna take JJ’s car.
‘Course now he has a van. So if he can get to it, he’s gone.
After Shanna and Xan escaped him and took his car, JJ got back on their trail and killed Kaye in a new car, then spotted our gamers in *another* car, a van this time.
He’s a professional hitman. Getting a new ride when he needs it isn’t hard for him.
You’d think these people never played a Grand Theft Auto game.
They know he’s upstairs based on the bugs, and only called when they entered the building. He could theoretically jump out the window on the second floor, but he’s already a broken hammer.
Police aren’t there to murder you, they have to give you warning to come out without the gun. Plus, there could be another cruiser waiting out back.
…………..Okay, explain this “stop criminals” thing to me, I’m not getting it.
There are some who consider inertia to be an inadequate deterrent.
There are some who consider inertia to be an adequate detergent, tho.
They’re called police. It’s kinda their deal.
No, it’s not. Police don’t announce themselves when taking down someone who is armed—especially if they can’t see them or have their guns aimed at them.
I think you misunderstood what Dotcom was replying to.
Interesting point nevertheless, I didn’t know that.
There must be more we can’t see. If Police know a armed killer is inside a building they don’t roll in with two men and announce themselves.
They announce themselves after surrounding the building with SWAT and 50 officers. Then ask “politely” for the creep to come out nicely.
Two cruisers. At least four officers.
Not necessarily. They always roll solo around here.
I was used to seeing between five and ten officers dispatched to arrest people sleeping in doorways.
Might be the case, but I’ve listened to the Houston Police Union’s president on the radio yesterday and he said that modern cruisers are meant to have two people to properly manage both the vehicle and the computer system.
Remember, they’re in Idaho. W might be looking at half the town’s police force.
Keep in mind, we may not be seeing all the officers involved. They’re moving in weapons drawn and into a residence, which means they know there is a crime in progress, so they’re briefed on a violent armed intruder.
The panel only leaves room for three cruisers, so there could be more already inside or behind the house in case he runs. Sometimes in a situation like this, it’s better to lock down the neighbourhood with a few cars than wait for a full ETF and let him walk away.
So the perp can kill several officers and still be recognized as innocent before the court of law because he was acting in self-defense against imminent and lethal danger – obviously armed and very aggressive terrorist group? I understand now.
Yes, the police are supposed to identify themselves to a perp before arresting them or opening fire upon them.
This doesn’t mean they do it from the front door without laying eyes on the criminal, especially if they know he’s a professional killer-for-hire.
There’s legal, and then there’s sloppy and stupid.
That was more discussion than I expected from what was intended to be a joke… XD;
The question is: who will prevail and how? JJ or the cops? And if JJ manages to escape, what happens next to our gamers?
JJ vs. Paper NPC Cops, I’d say JJ has the edge. Several edges in fact, tucked in various places. JJ can, and will, do anything. Cops won’t and aren’t named characters either.
Plus, y’know, story escalation.
Then again, I could always be super wrong.
Just read an interesting post on Imgur about the ‘whys’ of police shootings (that is, where the Police are the ones doing the shooting)- Basically, if the officer feels that a life- any life, his or another’s, is in danger (and that includes permanent or serious injury as well as fatality), he’s been trained to not hesitate, shoot for the center of mass, empty the clip. If these police are acting on knowledge of him being armed (which they certainly are- they wouldn’t go in with their weapons out otherwise) and act as properly trained officers would in real-life? They’ll shoot to kill as soon as JJ makes any move that isn’t lying face-first on the ground with his arms outstretched.
Essentially. The reasoning for ‘permanent/serious injury’ is grouped in along with death is because once you are seriously injured, the perp can easily just choose to kill you at that point, leaving you very little options at that point to fight back. They can take your gun and kill another few people easy. That’s the risk of unarmed targets, you can easily get knocked out. In this case, it’s safe to assume they know he’s armed because they’re entering a private residence (meaning they know of a crime in progress) and with weapons drawn (indicating an active threat).
In terms of ’emptying the clip into centre mass’ is built out a concern that allowing for nonlethal threats would encourage gunplay (warning shots kill a surprising number of people, and shooting to wound often ends up killing people when lethal force wouldn’t be authorized). As a result, if you shoot, they are almost assuredly dead by the time you stop.
I think backing JJ into a corner might not be a great idea… I guess it’s a bit of a coin toss, either he can’t kill the cops and it’s the end for him… or he can do it, and now he’s not going to be mister nice guy anymore, before that he was being pushed to finish the job, but now it’s going to be personnal.
Thought… Now that I think about it I guess there are other possibilities, like Carol hiring another killer to silence JJ once he’s compromised or JJ decides “Screw that, the cops know my face an now the rest of the force is going to be pissed because I killed two of them, I’m going into hiding, time to retire in a non-extradition country!”
The police has a clear picture of him if he kills police officers they are going to hunt him. He might manage to disappear but I doubt he would be in the position to hunt them at the same time.
I do not believe this will work out well for them. If they’ve sent the video to the police he now has nothing to lose.
They should have gone with the gas trap.
Well those cops are fucking dead.
Maybe, it all depends on JJ’s perspective on gain versus cost.
It’s a common belief that killing a cop is akin to killing a killer bee. It solves an immediate problem, but ends up bringing the whole hive down on you.
Agent Smith, just arriving: “Lieutenant, you were given strict orders.”
Police lieutenant, still outside: “Hey, I’m just doing my job. You give me that juris-my-dick-ion crap, you can shove it up your ass.”
Smith: “The orders were for your protection.”
PL: “I think we can handle one over-impressive mustache. I sent two units: they’re bringing him down now.”
Smith: “No lieutenant, your men are already dead.”
This was just brilliant.
Just police? Not a SWAT team? I’m predicting dead cops and a hitman who’s still a problem to the protagonists of Sepiaworld.
Well, he knows that they have at least one gun. It’s possible he picked up a bulletproof vest.
Stay tuned for The further adventures of Srinj and Byron and Frig and the man in the Green helmet. I love this webcomic.
The police are coming in with guns drawn. But will they be able to bring themselves to shoot at that glorious mustache?
I was worried that the video was just a bluff and they were hoping to make JJ say something incriminating. Then again, if the police are already there they already have him as broken the lock and snuck into someone’s house with a gun.
Meh, he just have to shave and nobody will ever recognize him.
A mustache like that is a life’s work! He’d sooner chop off his arms and legs and escape with the circus as the snake man.
A lot of people are talking about the police as if they only exist in the form of the few cops we see entering the building. The fact they sent a video into the station means that they have already established a line of contact with the police force, and the police have evidence against the man they are attempting to take in as well as an identity. If these cops DO get killed and he escapes for now, the police will be all the more determined to come after him.
At this point he’s lost, pursuing our protagonists would only be due to a personal vendetta. As far as his employment goes the very fact he has been exposed to the police as a hire killer means he’s unlikely to have contact.
To be fair, that’s because that’s often the way it works in fiction. The masterful criminal who can lay waste to whatever police officers show up on scene is, in the doing, exempt from the further consequences of that particular action unless they reveal their connection somehow later.
Granted, that’s generally when people haven’t already sent a video of them to the police station, but it’d hardly be the first time, in a fictional situation, where the cops theoretically have all the info on someone, but they escape once and the police become largely irrelevant in the context to the criminal’s interactions with the protagonists.
Granted, with the way this comic tends to play things, I don’t find that super likely, but I can understand why people would be speculating upon the cops proving totally useless.
I was gonna say the same.
Even if these couple of cops right here are basically screwed, the fact that there is video evidence, and potentially some dead cops, it might get more peoples’ attention on this whole situation. Which is probably a good thing, but I’m sure there’s a downside to it as well…
@Anon, your premise is not incorrect – it’s the somewhat flawed presentation of reality that readers are questioning. It’s not uncommon (in Texas anyway) to see 3 or 4 patrol cars converge on a site just to handle pulling over someone who fits the profile of a suspected criminal. For someone suspected of being not just a murderer but an armed-and-dangerous hitman, SWAT is the correct response for most police departments. At the very least one would expect to see triple the number of officers shown in the last panel just to enter the building and cover this exit, never mind other officers presumably detailed to cover other exits. The fact that we are not being shown this response is either indicative of poor storytelling or some other situation we readers are not yet privy to.
FYI: I was reading the comment when my page suddenly redirected to what looks like a Firefox site (but clearly isn’t) and auto-downloaded a file to my computer. I don’t *know* that it was an ad here but that was my first thought. I know they auto-serve your ad content, but I think you can also request certain advertisers be removed, right?
This was the site (for documentation purposes)
https://eichebasket.net/3901233186118/3901233186118/1468409255494690/firefox-patch.js
I will add that I’ve been seeing those lately as well, although I don’t recall if it was from this site or not.
JJ’s face in panel five is glorious.
I was just going to say the same thing.
Shoot him if you must, but spare the mustache!
Shoot JJ, no matter what, but put his ‘stache in the seventh tank.
Ok Phil what. the. actual. fuck? Do you have, like, a FETISH for making police seem stupid and/or incompetent? Maybe do a BIT of research on police procedure next time you have them in the story, just a suggestion.
1) Whenever the police KNOW they are dealing with a well-armed hostile (assassin with training or not) they ALWAYS send in SWAT or at least get ‘geared up’ properly themselves with body armor and shotguns. You have soon-to-be-plot-sacrificed dumbass cops here with regular uniforms and pistols giving a trained assassin plenty of warning because apparently they decided they don’t care about living anymore…
2) They do NOT yell ‘police!’ in these situations either. They just break in and might yell that only once they confront JJ, that’s it.
Thank you! Well-trained police are really quiet in these kinds of situations. They usually go out of their way not to make a lot of noise until they take the criminal down or at least have their guns aimed at them.
You’re quite welcome and well said. Not to mention the police would likely be keeping in touch with Xan and co. (or have access to the live feed from his cameras) to confirm JJ’s exact location at all times and plan their ambush near perfectly.
Honestly this is really disgusting the way Phil is making these cops LITERALLY suicidally incompetent just so his ‘badass assassin’ can show off his physicality again by either easily escaping or slaughtering these innocent officers. It’s shocking to consider, but at this point I’m thinking Phil may have a personal beef against law enforcement or something…
“Disgusting”? Maybe tone it down a little bit. That’s no way to articulate criticism, even when it may be justified . And what’s the deal with ignoring T?
Coming on a little strong here, guys. Maybe wait for the next page or two before you start ranting.
Alternatively, use the psychic abilities you apparently posses to make a lot of money at the roulette wheel and fund your own police procedural webcomic.
Re: “Not to mention the police would likely be keeping in touch with Xan and co. (or have access to the live feed from his cameras) to confirm JJ’s exact location at all times and plan their ambush near perfectly.”
Yeah, except that 1) there’s four people in the room, so Shauna (or whatever her name is – forgive me, it’s just past 3AM and I’m on day three of an insomnia bout; ) could very well be in contact with the police while this group confronts Mr. Moustache, and 2) Xan confirmed that the police have access to the feed?? In this very page?? “we already sent that video to the police, along with the feed from the bugs I planted“? So… yeah.
Two points.
1)This is not a joint operation. This is Xan sending information (anonymously, I would assume) to the police when JJ entered the building, and an area car responding.
2)What evidence can you put forward that police, when making raids, only make noise when they have their guns trained on people? Are either of you police officers, or people with relevant background and knowledge? Because although I had surprising difficulty obtaining either police operational manuals or footage of police raids, I did find this, which suggests the *exact opposite* – https://youtu.be/wl3PG4LdYoU?t=3m51s (I also found a bunch of COPS episodes, but, well, no one’s paying me for this, and even if they were they wouldn’t be paying me enough to sit through that).
@Mr Ak, even if you are correct and this is just an area car responding, unless there is evidence that someone is in immediate peril of death, the correct response is to surround the building to prevent escape and wait for backup – in the case of an armed assailant, LOTS of backup. So as pointed out, this isn’t a terribly realistic depiction.
Sorry, two area cars (my mistake). And, if I may ask, what’s your basis for that claim?
My god! Which one is the real me!?!
1) Nope, we don’t know the level of cooperation yet only that Xan sent them the video AND the feed from his cameras but if these cops were COMPETENT it would be a HIGH level of cooperation.
2) Ok that video is 99.9% irrelevant and yes I went to grad school with a former cop and we became pretty good friends and talked about his past cases fairly often, and I can assure you he and his partners would be FAR more offended by Phil and T’s god awful depiction of police work than I am.
Even just watching COPS you’ll eventually see episodes that show a MAJOR difference in how police handle a hostile in a dwelling who they KNOW is already armed and possibly very well trained with said firearm. They move as quietly as possible with as much force as possible (yes bordering on ‘overkill’) because they all want to make it back home alive after work.
Is that what cops do? Get offended by inaccurate displays of police actions in media and fiction? I’d expect them to have thicker skin considering the nature of their job.
Just take your meds, put some music on, it’s gonna be ok.
Fine, I admit the more accurate word for both them and I would be ‘disappointed’ than offended. They may not be so put off by a single instance of this lazy trope, but they know most works of fiction not centered around law enforcement depict police as embarrassingly inept and overall said works collectively DO contribute significantly to a general attitude in our society (especially among millennials) that the police truly are mostly incompetent.
*sigh* TBH I actually REALLY don’t like all the pills I was prescribed for my OCD and depression, they give me very frequent headaches and occasional nausea/diarrhea :-(
You really should talk to your doctor about those side effects, if you haven’t already. Having to endure that kind of thing definitely doesn’t help, and they’ll likely work with you to find a new perscription that does what it needs without causing those kinds of things.
Thanks for the advice. My doctor is not at all competent and I’m currently trying to find a better one, emphasis on trying. The very embarrassing truth is…I was a bit “off my meds” when I made my initial comments that included some overreaction.
I’ll try to stop commenting for awhile on this site, I didn’t mean to bother so many fans with my neurosis like this -__-
If anything cops tend to believe their own media hype. See also: Endemic siege mentality in police stations and how seemingly every cop in media has seen their partner or somebody else’s DIE IN THEIR ARMS ON THE MEAN STREETS.
It depends a bit on where you are I think. I’ve actually seen something similar once, with the additional detail that the officers in question left the doors to their cars open and the engines running…
Not the kind of thing you’d expect in a big city though.
People keep assuming that JJ’s a super-badass Hollywood Hitman, but there’s been no evidence of this. He’s a Wetworks guy, yeah, but that doesn’t take a whole lot of combat ability- just the willingness to do sudden unexpected murders with a firearm, or freak someone out enough that you can beat their unresistant form flat with a tire iron. That’s not exactly open combat, and he might not even have any sort of martial arts training or ability.
Granted, he very well might be a crouching moustache hidden dagger sorta guy, but I’ve not seen that in his bearing or actions.
It doesn’t matter what kind of guy JJ is. These days Police only care that he’s presumed armed and dangerous. What’s their typical response to that? Just Google it: “Police response armed and dangerous”, you’ll find several entries no more than 2 months old showing responses ranging anywhere between manhunt and SWAT. Only in 25 year old movies like Lethal Weapon do you see officers responding as depicted here – and even in those movies they’re admonished for not waiting for backup.
And this where its pointed out that “this is just a comic, not meant to be real life. A story is being told here, relax and enjoy it.”
The manner in which law enforcement is depicted in this comic is done for service of the story, and does not reflect the attitude of the creators towards members of our law enforcement or similar organizations.
Have a great day.
Where is my +1 button? Cause this is a surprisingly calm response to all the overreaction going on here.
Thank you truly, I apologize for any offense from my initial shocked reaction to this page.
It’s just one of my pet peeves as someone with several former officers as friends, because I know how much it hits them at times seeing police depicted as embarrassingly inept at their professions in fictional media. Sorry guys, I’ll back off on my criticism.
Haha! They’re hiding in Toronto!
Hey there fellow Torontonian! I noticed the cop cars looked oddly familiar as well
Yes!! Glad to see I’m not the only one to think so!
Of course, the white cruisers are being phased out for a sleeker, dark smokey grey metallic. Saw the first one around 2015. Much nicer.
The biggest surprise, for me, is that all this is happening in Toronto.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/G20TorontoPolice_cropped.jpg
But the question is, are we supposed to notice that?
đź’–
And now we find out how competent JJ is. It’s possible he’s not worried about the video because the moustache is fake and he’s wearing various other face-altering cosmetics. Get out the window and break line of sight, and thirty seconds later “JJ” ceases to exist.
Now THIS I could see happening. As I said above, he doesn’t seem like the “Guns Blazing” sort of ‘hitman’- but rather the ‘covered all his bases, three moves ahead’ sort.
In that case, I wish they had gone with the gas attack. Nitrous oxide gas, that is.
*slow… clap*
hey, all. i live in MI and we have guns. we also have the right to shoot unidentified intruders. to prevent the police from being ‘unidentified’ they are required to announce themselves before breaching, even if they know there are armed perps on the other side of the door. this was what a cop taught at gun training.
i dont think every state has that law so both sides of this issue may be correct, but this seems like a near future world or alternate reality with vr tanks and magic so police procedure may be different there.
Well, I live in Australia where we don’t really have guns at all, and my understanding is also that police loudly and clearly identify themselves when breaking into buildings., for pretty much the same reason. (Admittedly this is from TV. But pretty well-researched TV, I think?)
Not quite, they are taught to do that as a matter of NORMAL procedure i.e. they don’t know whether suspects inside the dwelling are armed or not. Once they KNOW they are dealing with a dwelling where the only occupant is proven armed and probably very dangerous they move quietly, quickly and in LARGE force. Nothing like what is displayed on this page. Also it would be very bizarre/unorthodox for SWAT to NOT be called in for a case like this.
Murderous lifes matter…or don’t they?
Dang those modern times.
The Sepia Five are still holding a card up their sleeve it seems. And by that I mean, where is Shanna?
I’m just surprised at the number of people questioning the verisimilitude of police procedure in a setting where a popular games company has enough pull to cover up human experimentation and has a hitman on call.
Considering how much importance we put on entertainment these days, I’d say this is the future we chose.
Well, their hitmen probably rarely do wetwork. Their primary task is probably technical consultation for the FPS game development teams. ;)
Of course, it might be good to think twice before violating the license agreement…
Should I be more worried, when I see a Blue Screen Of Death, while playing a Microsoft game?
A person who kills isn’t “just a killer” any more than a person who hacks is “just a hacker”. There is no inherent discord between his talkativeness and his willingness to kill. It certainly doesn’t make him any less of a human. Humans have been killing other humans for basically as long as humans have existed.
As for police though, I’d be inclined to say most of those fall on the “monster” side of the hypothetical divide, and perhaps killing them is kinder than they deserve… though it depends whether or not they’re “just police” or not, hmm?