de-escalation of the law enforcement going in, and the reason why you want to do that is it looks like they can de-escalate the situation. if that s true, they re either in contact with the hostage taker, or he s known, so there is only two option, someone has come in who is a stranger, or known, and the police are at least at this stage not calling an active shooter, right now protocols for active shooter are you go in fast, this is the post-columbine world, whether it s a reconciliation use facility, or it s a school, you go in fast. due wait. there s no benefit to waiting anymore with active shooter cases. so the fact that they are specifically calling it a hostage situation is at least an inkling of good news right now, right? and none of this is good, in the world you and i live in, but this is an inkling of good news, which is they might be in contact with the person, or feel that they can de-escalate before there is any physical harm. yeah, let s hope that that is the case, ju