“Matt” In Maryland Should Be Nervous
The cops are onto him.
Another Western Washington kid has been the victim of a “swatting” hoax through an online video game service. This time, a 13-year-old in Rainier was the target.
Lieutenant Greg Elwin, with the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, says they have reason to believe someone named “Matt” in Maryland was behind the false alarm.
The FBI in Dallas told me gamers are the typical SWATters. The people after me were atypical. As a Deputy Chief in the U.S. Attorney’s Office told me last December, when I met with her in person, what happened to me and Mike Stack sounded like “political terrorism.”
I wonder what she would say now that it has happened to Erick Erickson and Aaron Walker as well.
They seemed very competent and interested. If Eric Holder cared about solving the (increasingly numerous) incidents of SWATting, he might consider getting those folks involved.
Hi, “Matt”!
Patterico (feda6b) — 6/27/2012 @ 11:18 pmSorry, P, but U.S. Attorneys are too busy harassing Arizonans to engage in something as frivolous as SWATting of conservative bloggers.
JVW (f28a18) — 6/27/2012 @ 11:21 pm“Sorry, P, but U.S. Attorneys are too busy harassing Arizonans to engage in something as frivolous as SWATting of conservative bloggers.”
JVW – The rest of them are busy trying to stop the tidal wave of Republican voter suppression of minorities and the elderly.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 6/27/2012 @ 11:40 pmi’ll bet that No Such Agency could track the untrackable phone calls that are the heart of the whole “SWATing” idiocy.
of course, you’d have to have an administration that took its duty to protect the American people seriously first.
maybe we’ll see some action after January 20, 2013?
redc1c4 (403dff) — 6/28/2012 @ 12:27 amPatterico:
If I could interrupt the frivolity to ask a serious question…
It seems to me that the sort of crime that a law-enforcement agency would be most anxious to investigate would be — the crime of falsely sending officers of that agency out on a spurious (and potentially dangerous) murder call, thus depleting resources of that very LEA — and not incidentally, making that LEA look like fools.
Forget Obama; I can’t understand why the local cops aren’t utterly incensed by such depraved manipulation of themselves. How can they not be furious? And fast?
If somebody called me when I was out and told me my house was on fire, and when I raced home I discovered it was a “prank,” my impulse would be to get a couple of friends, find the jackass, and beat the living lulz out of him.
How can police officers just shrug and say, “what do you expect us to do about it?” Why doesn’t their own pride, not to mention the catcalls, force them to make that person Target Number One?
Dafydd
Dafydd [Variant Name Here] (632d00) — 6/28/2012 @ 12:56 amI agree with Dafydd, with the exception of the part about “getting a couple of friends…” Kimby and Roughuaser would twist that into something it’s not.
On the other hand, this contraption has more moving parts than a Rube Goldberg machine. Local guys might not have the time — though many would have the sophistication and technical skill.
ukuleledave (e546ca) — 6/28/2012 @ 4:56 am“How can police officers just shrug and say, “what do you expect us to do about it?” Why doesn’t their own pride, not to mention the catcalls, force them to make that person Target Number One?”
Because it is far easier to write traffic citations that generate revenue than to do any, you know, actual police work.
Darth Chocolate (49c15a) — 6/28/2012 @ 5:57 amMost cities and states have false alarm statutes and can investigate and prosecute. But, because the Feds have longer arms (and stronger laws), they are the ones who should.
If they fail to uphold the laws, then local governments should pick up the ball. The Feds don’t like being upstaged and a couple good cases and convictions might goose them along.
Corky Boyd (c2186d) — 6/28/2012 @ 6:47 amBurger King did it again!
DSanon (561676) — 6/28/2012 @ 4:54 pm