San Francisco Police Department S.W.A.T. (The Snuffies)

Created By: Jay P Hailey
Appearance: San Francisco, c2040
Number of Members: Between 24 and 100
Organization: Military
Game Role: Extremely dangerous thugs and opponents, with the best weapons, tactics and popular support
World Role: Ending insanity in San Francisco - NOW
Relative Influence: Medium. Their actions could influence local politics, but almost never deliberately.
Public or Secret?: Public
Publicly Stated Goal: BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! "You're under arrest!"
Relative Wealth: The Snuffies were well equipped and supported. They carried as much firepower as any adventuring Group and more than most
Group advantages: Legal enforcement powers. Unbelievably violent and quick to resort to violence
Contacts: The SFPD, The Mayor's Office, California National Guard
Special Abilities: The Snuffies were recruited from a pool of combat veterans - they were all very physically capable and capable of enormous violence
Group disadvantages: Their reputation for violence lead to hatred and fear in some sectors of San Francisco society
Special Disadvantages: When their rampages became public, individual Snuffies were often thrown to the wolves to insulate political figures.
Those who favor them: People who prefer safety to civil rights and due process.
Those opposed to them: People who prefer civil rights and due process to safety.
Area of Operation: San Francisco, occasionally elsewhere in California by invitation
Headquarters Location: San Francisco Police Headquarters
Public Face: Capable, well trained, well armed men standing between the upstanding citizens of San Francisco and cyberpunks of all descriptions
Notable Members: Hanson Mychels of the Bendross stories
History of the Group: In the cyberpunk era (2030s through the 2080s) Violent crime suffered a major upsurge. Street Gangs and So called "cyberpunks" roamed the streets of the U.S., Gun control laws became a poor joke and every large city suffered 5 - 20 deaths by violence every 12 hours.
       In 2040 The San Francisco Police Department, stung by repeated shoot outs with gangs and cyberpunks that didn't fear them launched a new Special Weapons and Tactics organization. The New SWAT team, with the tacit approval of the civil government was composed of hardened combat veterans who were as well equipped and armed as feasible. Their mission was simple - any violent looney tunes who threatened the over all safety of the city were to be taken down, period. No questions, no attempts to de-escalate, no nothing. Survivors (if any) could be read their Miranda rights after the situation was rendered peaceful. The peace of the grave was fine by the city fathers and the SFPD command structure.
        Civil rights groups were outraged and lawsuits flew. However the public, desensitized by years of violence and warfare shrugged and ignored the outrages. The popular feeling was that only street gangs and cyberpunks were getting slaughtered so it was their own fault (This was definably untrue, for every two suspects killed, the Snuffies got one bystander - with occasional forays to take out bystanders the snuffies didn't like, such as members of the press), lawsuits were largely dismissed or settled out of court.
       The Snuffies continued to operate into the 2080s where they formed the front line of defense for the city of San Francisco against the war machines of Sky-Net. Afterwards the remains of the Snuffies took part in the crowd control and recovery efforts from the AI war.
       During the reformation period of the 2090s the Snuffies became wildly unpopular and were disbanded when Northern California ratified the Earth Alliance treaty in 2095. A few of the surviving Snuffies were arrested and charged during the reconciliation period of the 2110s. Most elected to go out fighting and were obliged.

       Jay's GM History - The Snuffies were a response to a story I heard once RPGers always have a stock of stories they consider highly amusing about their games (Not pointing fingers, I am no different)
       This one fellow who played Cyberpunk regaled me with the stories of his cyberpunk game. He was proud of the nihilistic and fatalistic violence that went with his game. He spoke of his character's adventuring group in a bar in Spokane, when they didn't like the band, wasting the band.
       I wondered "Didn't anyone call the police?"
       The answer: "Oh yeah, but our characters wasted them, too."
       This is not too unusual a point of view for a cyberpunk team in a roleplaying game.
        I thought to myself "How long would the average city let gangs of punks shoot up the place before the response to a 911 call was an attack chopper and wasting everyone in the vicinity?"
       The Snuffies are an intermediate step - They are counter-cyberpunks. The bar brawl that Hanson Mychels speaks of breaking up is modeled on the story that Cyberpunk player told me.
       A group of cyberpunks didn't like the band, and gunned them down. The band, the bouncers, the owner and a few regular patrons tried to fight it out with the cyberpunks, with casualties on both sides.
        Mychels and his group arrived and hosed down the whole place with machine gun fire, killing almost everyone involved and arresting the wounded or maimed survivors.
       It became a political issue because reporter was there with a live camera. The Snuffies wasted her on camera and the signal continued to be broadcast, as the Snuffies continued to pacify the building.
       The public, with the violence of the Snuffies rubbed in their face demanded some action. Mychels and his crew were fired and this allowed the SF public to write the event off as an aberration and return to ignoring the behavior of the Snuffies.
       Everyone who ran the streets, participated in the black market of the cyberpunks or engaged in cyber crime knows the reputation of the Snuffies. You never stand up and fight with them. They like it and it's not over until you're dead. If you must do a job in San Francisco, do it quietly and get the hell out of there.
       The city fathers of SF didn't mind this. Crime was just crime. Violent insanity of the streets was a challenge to their control and the Snuffies would always respond.
        The name comes from the colloquial term to kill - to snuff out. They have one purpose, to snuff things.
 
 

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and situations are fictional. Any resemblance to persons, places, or situations living or dead is coincidental.

© Garry Stahl: 1997-2006 unless other Copyrights apply. All rights reserved, re-print only with permission.

 
 
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