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Swatting 19-Year-Old Arrested in Las Vegas
Ars Technica reports that a Las Vegas teenager is in custody for multiple instances of swatting:
Brandon Wilson, who goes by the online handle "Famed God," was arrested Thursday in Nevada and faces an extradition hearing to determine whether he should be sent to face hacking and other charges. Illinois prosecutors said there was evidence on his computers about the July 10 swatting incident, in which he allegedly reported a murder to Naperville's emergency 911 line. The SWAT team responded, but the call was a hoax. The Chicago-Sun Times said that, in addition to the Naperville incident, the suspect's computers held evidence "of similar incidents across the country."
Err. That's good, right ? Police arresting bad people ?
Not sure why this is news.
He gets caught and will stand trial. Isn't this how the system is supposed to work? What's the problem here?
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Filing a false police report is criminal in and of itself, even if it doesn't result in an expensive, resource-wasting, and potentially injurious or deadly response from the police.
Do it once, maybe you get away with it. Keep doing it, and you can [i]expect[/i] to get caught.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
The linked article uses the words "prank" and "prankster" multiple times. This is not ordering someone else a pizza; this is ordering someone else a large group of hair-trigger people carrying deadly weapons and expecting violence. People like this should be restrained or executed, not so much for what they have done, as for being the sort of people who would do it.
Agreed. Some things you don't fuck with. Like pulling the fire alarm for kicks or calling the cops on innocent people.
I disagree. If the SWAT team are so badly trained, they shouldn't be there in the first place. They are responsible for all their actions, and if they're relying on a civilian stranger's report, they should assume it's as likely to be bullshit as true.
That doesn't mean the "prankster" wasn't committing a very serious crime, ofc. But not attempted murder. The state must always be held fully responsible for its actions, no matter how good or bad the information on which it acts.
Don't care about the hacking, but he should be tortured for swatting.
is the question of why its so easy to get a large group of hair-triggered people carrying deadly weapons to violently storm someones house over nothing more than a single anonymous phone call.
Really? Thats all it takes??? some teenager with a cellphone & your address?
I think we need to do something about that.
This is nothing short of attempted murder. He may have intended it as a prank, but putting a dozen adrenaline-fueled heavily armed cops in the house of someone who might not be expecting an armed intrusion, and who might be prepared for one, is throwing gas on a fire. People could die if any tiny little thing goes wrong.
Nope, this is pure cowardly violence. Stuff this idiot in a cell for 20-25 years. Let some non-violent offenders out if you don't have room.
John
Ars Technica reports that a Las Vegas teenager is in custody for multiple instances of swatting.
... but to me a nineteen year old is not a "teenager."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...
Swatting is most likely a felony in many states. If it causes death then the offender can be charged with murder under the rule.
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It answers your "Can you give an example of swat being used to apprehend a non-violent person?" question.
Why ask for AN example if you are just going to dismiss it as irrelevant. Do you have multiple personalities or something? Or just like moving goal posts?
Maybe cops should learn some restraint in their use of force?
Hm. That's one possible outcome of swatting. If there are a few high profile innocent deaths as a result, policy may be changed to approach more cautiously. But they'd have to be really high profile, and we (and the media) would have to really rub their noses in it. I don't see it happening.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
So now we know why the US has the most people in prison compared to any other country.
To me the problem is that some kid can call in a SWAT team. And if this is the case, why would the SWAT team be that dangerous? Are they send in to be a killing team?
If a dozen adrenaline-fueled heavily armed cops are a danger in killing innocent people, then they are badly trained.
If these teams is like trowing gas on a fire, then they should not have been send in the first place.
I understand that people in the US do not see it that way, but for me as a European, what I see police doing in the US would be police brutality and/or abuse of power/intimidation almost all of the time in Belgium.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Your police is partially to blame as well.
I live in Germany go try and SWAT me, good luck.
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