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This could have just been an unfortunate escalation of the political tension which seems to be omnipresent, but once you drag the police into the game it become

This could have just been an unfortunate escalation of the political tension which seems to be omnipresent, but once you drag the police into the game it becomes deadly. I suspect the idea of "counter-doxing" made sense at one time, when CNN was threatening to dox people over memes, or when someone is doxed, fired, and humiliated, because a twitter-ista thinks you've manspread too far (/s?), but none of that even remotely compares to swatting. Sending a (generally speaking) overzealous police force to a persons home after convincing the police a violent crime is underway, is on the scale between assault, and attempted murder in my opinion (and that's assuming no one actually gets hurt). Edit: There seems to be some confusion below. I'm not excusing the police of their responsibility by any means. Its important to remember the vast majority of swatting incidents end without violence, thanks almost entirely to the professionalism of the men who have just kicked down a door (or chose not to kick down the door, but knock instead) and found out that the phone call they got about a guy in his living room butchering small children is actually just a dude playing video games or whatever. Edit2: I'm a pretty libertarian fellow but if you are incapable of thinking of a scenario where you would want the police to kick in your door and storm your house with guns, then you either have no imagination, or you live in a magical fairy tale land and I'm super jealous.

jMyles 7y ago
I think I prefer to live in a society in which these sorts of fake calls are intentionally and randomly made - without notice or authorization of any sort - in order to continually test and verify that emergency services are functioning properly (in this case, not killing anyone based on an anonymous tip). Making a 911 call is an anonymous venture; there's no deposition or oath or penalty of perjury here. A civilized society is one in which calls made to such an endpoint (whether by a human or bot or whomever) are treated accordingly. Police need to stop killing people. Stop violating people's rights. SWAT teams have not made society better and are easily deprecated. That's the real message here.
- dmix 7y ago
  There was absolutely no need for that cop to shoot that person who got SWAT'd either. The guy was completely surrounded by police with rifles, at a far distance, and he was obviously confused at being told multiple different commands. They are way, way too quick to pull the trigger. All 911 calls are and should be taken seriously though. Even when you misdial 911 they will sometimes even send a car out to make sure, unless you explain yourself well over the phone. So these scammer guys will always be able to get a police response, especially as long as phone calls can be spoofed to look like it's coming from "inside" the house. The only variable is how the police handle it and, of course, how many sociopaths there are who can pull it off properly without getting caught.
  - FireBeyond 7y ago
    > as long as phone calls can be spoofed to look like it's coming from "inside" the house. Many times they don't even need to bother that far. A fatal incident last year involved a 911 call from an overseas number (that couldn't accurately describe the house he was supposedly looking at as he called). There has to be some astronomical odds about you internationally roaming, and seeing a supposed multiple execution style homicide "from the sidewalk", but yet, SWAT still showed up, and killed someone.
  - jMyles 7y ago
    > All 911 calls are and should be taken seriously though. It depends what "taken seriously" means here. If it means followed-up upon in a rapid way to see if there is any corroborating information to indicate that there's a real emergency, then sure. If it means instead to suppose that any of the provided information is true tout court, then no, this is a recipe for ongoing disaster. It's important to have a rapid, anonymous reporting system. It's also important to have auxiliary systems in place to verify information that comes in through this system.
    - dmix 7y ago
      Plus a calm rational authoritative person on the ground who isn't in Captain America hero mode but instead expects verifiable and multi-sourced evidence that the situation requires escalation to extreme force. Rather than relying on his lackeys to observe for very lax rules of engagement based on some hyper-pessimistic risk models.
the8472 7y ago
It is ultimately still the cops' judgement to kick down doors and shoot at anything that moves. The swatter just provides low-credibility information that sets them into motion.
- AcerbicZero 7y ago
  I agree, and have added an edit to reiterate that.

jMyles 7y ago

I think I prefer to live in a society in which these sorts of fake calls are intentionally and randomly made - without notice or authorization of any sort - in order to continually test and verify that emergency services are functioning properly (in this case, not killing anyone based on an anonymous tip). Making a 911 call is an anonymous venture; there's no deposition or oath or penalty of perjury here. A civilized society is one in which calls made to such an endpoint (whether by a human or bot or whomever) are treated accordingly. Police need to stop killing people. Stop violating people's rights. SWAT teams have not made society better and are easily deprecated. That's the real message here.

dmix 7y ago
There was absolutely no need for that cop to shoot that person who got SWAT'd either. The guy was completely surrounded by police with rifles, at a far distance, and he was obviously confused at being told multiple different commands. They are way, way too quick to pull the trigger. All 911 calls are and should be taken seriously though. Even when you misdial 911 they will sometimes even send a car out to make sure, unless you explain yourself well over the phone. So these scammer guys will always be able to get a police response, especially as long as phone calls can be spoofed to look like it's coming from "inside" the house. The only variable is how the police handle it and, of course, how many sociopaths there are who can pull it off properly without getting caught.
- FireBeyond 7y ago
  > as long as phone calls can be spoofed to look like it's coming from "inside" the house. Many times they don't even need to bother that far. A fatal incident last year involved a 911 call from an overseas number (that couldn't accurately describe the house he was supposedly looking at as he called). There has to be some astronomical odds about you internationally roaming, and seeing a supposed multiple execution style homicide "from the sidewalk", but yet, SWAT still showed up, and killed someone.
- jMyles 7y ago
  > All 911 calls are and should be taken seriously though. It depends what "taken seriously" means here. If it means followed-up upon in a rapid way to see if there is any corroborating information to indicate that there's a real emergency, then sure. If it means instead to suppose that any of the provided information is true tout court, then no, this is a recipe for ongoing disaster. It's important to have a rapid, anonymous reporting system. It's also important to have auxiliary systems in place to verify information that comes in through this system.
  - dmix 7y ago
    Plus a calm rational authoritative person on the ground who isn't in Captain America hero mode but instead expects verifiable and multi-sourced evidence that the situation requires escalation to extreme force. Rather than relying on his lackeys to observe for very lax rules of engagement based on some hyper-pessimistic risk models.

the8472 7y ago

It is ultimately still the cops' judgement to kick down doors and shoot at anything that moves. The swatter just provides low-credibility information that sets them into motion.

AcerbicZero 7y ago
I agree, and have added an edit to reiterate that.