SWATTing for murder by cop
by digby
The family of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg was “swatted” Tuesday morning, prompting deputies to respond to their Parkland home.
A call came into the Coral Springs Police Department claiming a hostage situation at the home.
When a Broward Sheriff’s Office SWAT team arrived at the scene, they found no hostage situation and determined the call was a prank.
Hogg was not home at the time of the incident and is currently in Washington with his mother to accept the RFK Human Rights award.
Sometimes people get shot in these situations which is, I’m sure, what the caller was hoping would happen. Remember this one?
A feud between two Call of Duty players led to the death of a 28-year-old Kansas man, who was shot and killed by police after a fraudulent 911 call sent a SWAT team to the man’s private home. The news was first reported by local newspaper The Wichita Eagle, which cites numerous now-deleted tweets in which Call of Duty players take responsibility for participating in or observing the intended prank, which came after an argument about an online wagered match reportedly worth just $1.50. One player allegedly provided a fake address to someone with a history of calling in fake threats. That person, later identified and arrested by the LAPD, proceeded to embroil the innocent stranger in the feud, according to independent cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs.
The move, known as swatting, involves a disgruntled internet user calling in a fake threat of violence, typically a murder and hostage situation invented by the caller, and doing so anonymously by using software to mask their identity and location. That results in an excessive display of force from police, who have no other information to go on and typically respond to such calls with an extraordinary amount of aggression..
I don’t know that police have to shoot first and ask questions later. But everyone knows that in a lot of cases that’s exactly what they do. It’s entirely possible that’s what the caller was hoping would happen — murder by cop.
It’s a very, very dangerous situation. All it takes is one wrong move.
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