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Then swap with "excessive police response" if you want. The term "swatting" is derived from the acronym SWAT because originally, that was the goal, to get poli

by bena 5y ago

Then swap with "excessive police response" if you want. The term "swatting" is derived from the acronym SWAT because originally, that was the goal, to get police to respond to targets with SWAT teams/tactics/gear. The point remains, filling the street with police in response to an anonymous tip should not be the police's first response. A single car should suffice.

tptacek 5y ago
The police received a distress call about an armed assailant. There isn't anything disproportionate about sending multiple cars to respond to an event like that. Moreover, the victim of this attack was in fact armed, which certainly had something to do with how seriously the police took the event. The simple fact is that the person who made this fake distress call intended to cause mayhem, predictably succeeded, and that mayhem killed someone. People who call in fake SWAT calls are culpable for homicide.
- bena 5y ago
  No one is trying to excuse them from blame. We're discussing how to make this tactic less effective. Because there is something disproportionate about sending multiple cars to respond to some guy just sitting in his house who didn't want to give up a twitter handle. Also, I see nothing in the article about Herring being armed in general and especially nothing about him being armed during the encounter. The fact of the matter is that the police had no clue as to the truth of the situation and responded based on nothing but a random phone call. That does have to stop.
  - tptacek 5y ago
    They're not responding to some guy just sitting in his house who didn't want to give up his Twitter handle, obviously.
    - bena 5y ago
      Did you read the article? Mark Herring was the man who was swatted and died. He was swatted because he did not want to give up the @tennessee twitter handle. He was not armed and was even attempting to comply with police.

by bena 5y ago

tptacek 5y ago

The police received a distress call about an armed assailant. There isn't anything disproportionate about sending multiple cars to respond to an event like that. Moreover, the victim of this attack was in fact armed, which certainly had something to do with how seriously the police took the event. The simple fact is that the person who made this fake distress call intended to cause mayhem, predictably succeeded, and that mayhem killed someone. People who call in fake SWAT calls are culpable for homicide.

bena 5y ago
No one is trying to excuse them from blame. We're discussing how to make this tactic less effective. Because there is something disproportionate about sending multiple cars to respond to some guy just sitting in his house who didn't want to give up a twitter handle. Also, I see nothing in the article about Herring being armed in general and especially nothing about him being armed during the encounter. The fact of the matter is that the police had no clue as to the truth of the situation and responded based on nothing but a random phone call. That does have to stop.
- tptacek 5y ago
  They're not responding to some guy just sitting in his house who didn't want to give up his Twitter handle, obviously.
  - bena 5y ago
    Did you read the article? Mark Herring was the man who was swatted and died. He was swatted because he did not want to give up the @tennessee twitter handle. He was not armed and was even attempting to comply with police.