Patterico's Pontifications

4/16/2013

Conservative Pundit Argues With “Team Kimberlin” Member Bill Schmalfeldt, Is SWATted

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:13 pm



Yesterday Erik Rush, a conservative pundit who appears on Fox News, got into a Twitter argument with a man named Bill Schmalfeldt — a prominent and vocal supporter of convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin. Kimberlin’s story became national news last May after it was reported that several of Kimberlin’s critics have been SWATted, including your humble blogger.

One more thing: it seems Erik Rush was SWATted yesterday.

Here’s the background. Last night, Rush made some comments about Muslims and the Boston Marathon bombings, and was immediately called out by Bill Schmalfeldt. Although Rush deleted one of the tweets, the exchange was captured in a screencap:

Schmalfeldt credited himself as being “the first person” to respond to Rush. One of Schmalfeldt’s fellow travelers credited Schmalfeldt as the person who called out Rush, and told Schmalfeldt that she had gotten his screencaps in an email from People from the American Way. Another Twitter user told Schmalfeldt that his tweet had appeared on Turkish TV, to which Schmalfeldt replied: “Man. I’m famous!”

Today, we learned that Rush was SWATted:

Conservative pundit and author Erik Rush has become the latest victim of “swatting,” a growing trend in which individuals place fake 911 calls drawing police response to a celebrity’s home. Rush, who resides in Fort Collins, Colo., appears to have been targeted following a series of controversial tweets regarding the Boston Marathon explosions.

According to Coloradoan.com, an individual claiming to be Rush called Fort Collins police Monday at about 5 p.m., reporting that two men wielding AK-47 rifles were firing rounds inside his home. But with no additional calls reporting the gunshots and because the call came to 911 through a third-party relay service, police dispatchers were suspicious. Rush was contacted by police via his home phone and confirmed that the call was fake.

Speaking with reporters outside his home following the incident, Rush said he had “said something sarcastically” on Twitter regarding early media reports that a Saudi man was connected to the Boston Marathon terrorist attack that day. “Yes, they’re evil. Kill them all,” he wrote, which quickly prompted a firestorm of responses.

As you can see, the person to whom Rush made that comment was Bill Schmalfeldt, writing as @Bloodonthemike on Twitter.

Bill Schmalfeldt is a self-declared member of what he calls “Team Kimberlin.” Writing as “Liberal Grouch” at the Kimberlin-related web site Breitbart Unmasked, Schmalfeldt devised a line of merchandise bearing a “Team Kimberlin” logo. Here is Schmalfeldt wearing a “Team Kimberlin” cap:


Above: Bill Schmalfeldt wears “Team Kimberlin” cap

Who is Brett Kimberlin? He is a man who was convicted in 1981 of setting off several bombs, one of which blew off the leg of a man named Carl DeLong. The graphic picture of a man whose leg was blown off yesterday in the Boston bombings reminds one of DeLong, who took his own life after his body was similarly maimed by one of Brett Kimberlin’s bombs. DeLong’s widow sued Kimberlin for DeLong’s wrongful death and won a judgment of over a million dollars, but Kimberlin never paid. Today, he is a left-wing political activist, and Bill Schmalfeldt has declared Kimberlin his “friend.”

Kimberlin and his supporters — including Neal Rauhauser and Bill Schmalfeldt — have badly harassed Kimberlin’s critics. After I wrote about Kimberlin’s past in October 2010, Kimberlin and his supporters launched a harassment campaign against me and other critics of Kimberlin’s, including: harassment of wives and family members; publication of home addresses and pictures of people’s homes; frivolous workplace complaints; the filing or threatening of frivolous lawsuits; frivolous applications for restraining orders; outing people’s identities; whisper campaigns; frivolous claims and reports to law enforcement of criminal wrongdoing; frivolous State Bar complaints or threats to file State Bar complaints; publication of a photo of a nude man that was falsely claimed to be a photo of the victim; defamation; daily abusive name-calling; and other harassment.

For example, Schmalfeldt told Kimberlin critic Lee Stranahan: “How about we find out where you are staying and rape YOU?” Schmalfeldt also published Stranahan’s home address and made a frivolous Child Protective Services complaint against Stranahan. Schmalfeldt has openly said that he conducts his harassment (he calls it “investigations”) on behalf of Brett Kimberlin:

In events that may or may not be related to this pattern of harassment, the following critics of Brett Kimberlin were SWATted in 2011 and 2012:

  • Patrick Frey, July 1, 2011 (that’s me)
  • Erick Erickson, May 27, 2012
  • Aaron Walker, June 25, 2012 (my former guest blogger)

More about this here and here.

But that’s not all. Kimberlin’s aforementioned associate Rauhauser wrote posts in July 2011 blaming me and Mike Stack for the alleged hacking of Weiner. Rauhauser’s hatred of Stack and myself has shown up in several lengthy conspiratorial documents authored by Rauhauser. Mike Stack was SWATted on June 23, 2011.

That’s five people who have now been SWATted who were either critics of Brett Kimberlin, or did something to upset an associate or friend of his.

None of this is an accusation of any sort. I don’t know who is responsible for the SWATting of Erik Rush, or any other SWATtings, with certainty. However, I think the investigators on Rush’s case should be aware of the above facts. I will be sending him a link to this post, and will be happy to speak to him or his investigators further at any time.

Boston Bombings: Open Thread

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:11 am



As I write this, there is a press conference happening. Deval Patrick says there were no unexploded devices, and the number of injured exceeds 150. Other than that, the press conference is uninformative.

The boy who was killed was waiting to hug his dad at the finish line.

That raid on a Revere apartment I mentioned last night apparently related to the Saudi national who had been detained. However:

Also, what we had heard about ball bearings yesterday was (like many other reports) apparently wrong:

The best (and hardest) thing to do is just not jump to conclusions, about anything.

Obama Will Not Send Member of His Administration to Margaret Thatcher’s Funeral

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:50 am



Daily Mail:

Friends and allies of Baroness Thatcher expressed ‘surprise and disappointment’ last night as it emerged President Obama is not planning to send any serving member of his administration to her funeral.

Whitehall sources have revealed that the US delegation at tomorrow’s service in St Paul’s Cathedral will be led by two Reagan era secretaries of state: James Baker and George Shultz.

The article reports that the decision was made before yesterday’s bombings in Boston.


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