Comments on: Democrat Proposes (Barely) Increased Penalties for SWATting in California

By: Phillep Harding

Phillep Harding — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 20:23:15 +0000

SWATing is not a prank. It should be called “attempted murder”.

By: Estragon

Estragon — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 04:51:39 +0000

Agree with Steven and Dustin above: better to improve detection, penalties are meaningless if no suspect is caught.

I suspect the FBI can do it with their Patriot Act and other anti-terror powers. Why they are not is the real question.

But I am against “mandatory sentences” and “zero tolerance” in all cases. If you have a problem with judicial discretion, appoint more discrete judges.

By: JVW

JVW — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 05:59:45 +0000

Ted Lieu is my state senator (regrettably). He is one of those liberal Democrats who aspires to climb the political ladder and he thinks that getting his name on a lot of bills that get signed into law is the way to build a record he can run for statewide office on. It doesn’t really seem to matter much to him whether or not the bill is very effective as long as he can claim credit for sponsoring it. Better yet, he loves to pander to specific interest groups so this one is probably his valentine to the Hollywood crowd who has recently started to be regularly SWATted.

By: Sammy Finkelman

Sammy Finkelman — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 00:44:23 +0000

9. The original post disappeared. I don’t know how I wound up in this thread.

By: askeptic

askeptic — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 23:52:30 +0000

We should.
There should be very limited immunity for LE when they seriously bend the rules that the rest of us are supposed to observe under the threat of criminal prosecution (making a false report seems to be still a crime).

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 23:48:48 +0000

Are we going to increase the penalties for a few cops who make (or cause to be made) fake 911 calls so they can make an illegal “exigent” entry into a home where a warrant is otherwise required?

By: tek

tek — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:42:49 +0000

Because it is likely that someone will either die or be seriously hurt from this, it’s time for everyone to stop calling this a prank.

By: Pious Agnostic

Pious Agnostic — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:12:25 +0000

Send them to jail for a jillion years, but catch them first.

By: askeptic

askeptic — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:15:31 +0000

#1 & 3- Sammy, do you even look where you’re posting before you do?

Isn’t it interesting that nothing happened until they could attach the names of a couple high-profile celebs to the problem?

#7- first there has to be an honest effort to discover the ID of the “swatter”. We don’t seem to have that element yet.

By: f1guyus

f1guyus — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:49:24 +0000

I’d toss in pimps, drug dealers, and child molesters but that might be racist.