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Swatting 19-Year-Old Arrested in Las Vegas

Posted by timothy on from the consequences-of-not-being-nice dept.

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."

6 of 327 comments (clear)

  1. Guy allegedly does something stupid by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He gets caught and will stand trial. Isn't this how the system is supposed to work? What's the problem here?

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Guy allegedly does something stupid by NoKaOi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      He gets caught and will stand trial. Isn't this how the system is supposed to work? What's the problem here?

      Exactly, they busted somebody who deserved to be prosecuted. The problem here that when we read a headline (before reading the details) about law enforcement busting somebody, our default reaction is no longer, "good, they busted the bad guy," but rather, "there goes law enforcement abusing their power again, they probably didn't have a warrant and the guy is probably innocent."

      That says something about the state of nation.

    2. Re:Guy allegedly does something stupid by Roger+Wilcox · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem is that SWAT is prevalent enough that punks like the guy in the article can even pull this kind of prank. SWAT came into prominence in the 1970s, with ~500 SWAT deployments per year. Today, there are more than 50,000 SWAT deployments each year (that's more that 150 deployments every day) and mostly, they are used to round up non-violent people engaging in consensual crimes. There is no justification for using paramilitary police action on non-violent petty crime. It is ridiculous: picture an 8-man armored squad busting in on a teenager smoking weed in his parent's basement. There have been dozens of tragic incidents in which innocents have lost their lives due to this excessive use of force. I don't have a solution to this. Politicians appear to consider the issue a career-danger to themselves to address; seemingly nobody is moving anywhere fast to rectify this trend. However, it has clearly become a problem.

    3. Re:Guy allegedly does something stupid by nedlohs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You asked for one. You've been given two. My lord you are fucktard.

  2. Swatting is much more serious than a "prank" by DutchUncle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  3. Re:Gibson Guitar SWAT raid ... by nedlohs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?