Posted on 12/29/2023 2:47:35 AM PST by Libloather
Three Republican lawmakers have been the target of "swatting" at their homes since Christmas Day, with a legal expert calling the act "criminal harassment."
"Swatting" is a crime that has become prominent in recent years, gaining more steam in the social media age when people's addresses are easily accessible.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital that swatting is a crime that could be "charged as a form of criminal threats."
"Swatting constitutes a false police report that can be criminally charged," Turley said. "Virginia recently passed a new law making swatting specifically a criminal misdemeanor. It can also be charged as a form of criminal threats."
"This is a crime that flourishes because there is insufficient deterrent," Turley continued. "The anonymity and rare prosecutions combine to fuel this form of criminal harassment."
"There is no mystery to how to address these crimes. There must be greater detection and penalties to achieve deterrence," he added.
The crime targets an individual by calling in a false police report for a violent crime — such as a murder, a hostage situation or other crimes that would require a greater law enforcement response — to the home of the target.
The goal of the false police report is to elicit a SWAT team response by the police to the target's home.
Consequently, swatting draws police resources away from real crimes while the state becomes the unwitting arm to terrorize a person at their own home.
Now, national leaders are being targeted by swatters who have sent the police to their homes.
Since Christmas, three Republican lawmakers — Sen. Rick Scott of Florida and Reps. Brandon Williams of New York and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — have been victims of swatting at their homes.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Not ‘harrassment’...attempted murder. The progressives are playing word games...again.
The same people who do this will be the same people to egregiously abuse red flag laws.
And a form of terrorism.
It’s not as if lawmakers haven’t known about this, it’s just that it hasn’t affected them until recently.
In 2017 there was a horribly sad case in Wichita, KS where a man was killed by the police who had been sent to his address by a swatter who was mad at a third party over a video game outcome in which he lost $1.50. The victim’s only crime was living in a house the instigator had been evicted from the previous year.
Subsequently, two different pieces of legislation have been introduced in Congress to try get a handle on this type of action, one died in a subcommittee and the other has just been laying in the subcommittee since 2019.
See: 2017 Wichita swatting/Legal Response - Wikipedia
Only used against Republicans…enough said!
This should be a major felony not a misdemeanor.
Democrat terrorism
Swatting is simply an over reaction from our over militarized police. These idiots can’t wait to arrive guns drawn etc.
This.
I would have done that if B.J. was with one of his girlfriends.
Tell the cops there was drug dealing going on. They show up with guns drawn.
His actual vacation home is the white house. He visits it once in awhile.
Hah.......good one.
Eventually, some company will innovate “SWAT insurance”, in which anonymous calls to the police about *them* will be flagged, delaying any police response.
The company will do any number of things in just a few minutes, including contacting those being SWATTED, looking at a live video taken inside their home, listening for any “duress passwords”, attempting to track down the anonymous caller, etc.
It is a formative idea, so it would be up to some entrepreneurs to flesh it out into a service.
And it only works if there is legislation to make such acts as SWATTING felony crimes.
Marjorie Taylor Greene was swatted on Christmas Day.
Imagine that.
It’s attempted murder. The perp assumes the innocent party will confront the police and be killed.
This crime needs to have a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison with no parole. Period.
Swatting is nothing less than attempted murder, and the perps should be hunted down, tried, convicted and left to rot in jail for many years.
It is done to Republicans only, because if it were done to a Democrat, the FBI would try to catch the perps.
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