FBI Arrests Three More Men Who Hired 'SWAT' Perpetrator (nbcnews.com)

"Three men allegedly conspired with admitted 'swatter' Tyler Barriss to make hoax reports of bombs and murders to police departments, high schools and a convention center across the United States, according to three indictments unsealed today," reports America's Department of Justice.

An anonymous reader quotes NBC News: The three people charged -- Neal Patel, 23, of Des Plaines, Illinois; Tyler Stewart, 19, of Gulf Breeze, Florida; and Logan Patten, 19, of Greenwood, Missouri -- are not accused in the "swatting" call allegedly made by another man that preceded the police shooting of Andrew Finch, a 28, in Wichita on Dec. 28, 2017. But they are accused of asking the suspect in the fatal Kansas case, Tyler Barriss, through Twitter direct messages to make false reports of bombs or threats of shootings that would trigger a law enforcement response and the evacuation of buildings against other targets, including a high school and a Dallas video game tournament....

Patel allegedly conspired with Barriss to make false reports to police in Milford, Connecticut, in December of 2017, and to make a false bomb threat targeting a video game convention in Dallas, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. Stewart is accused of conspiring with Barriss to make two false bomb threats about a high school in Gurnee, Illinois, in early December of 2017, and Patten is charged with hiring Barriss to "swat" people in Indiana and Ohio, also in December of 2017, and of scheming with Barriss to "swat" a high school in Missouri, according to prosecutors.
After this week's arrests, the three men each face up to 15 years in federal prison. Patel allegedly also used "unauthorized" credit cards to pay Barriss -- and now faces two more bank fraud charges which each carry up to 30 years in federal prison.

The article also notes that the 25-year-old who actually made the calls -- and the call which led to a fatal shooting in Wichita -- "has agreed to serve a sentence of between 20 and 25 years in federal prison." And the two gamers involved in the dispute which led to that shooting have also been criminally charged.

Comments

Authorities untouchable

[Kohath]

Being in a position of authority and murdering someone: wrist slap.

Showing the people how dangerous and out of control the authorities are: 20 years in prison.

Re: Authorities untouchable

[c6gunner]

If you had the slightest bit of humanity in you, you might see the difference between someone fucking up while doing an insanely stresfull job, and someone intentionally creating a situation meant to cause harm. But you don't. You don't give a fuck about the people involved. It's all just politics to you.

Re: Authorities untouchable

[b0s0z0ku]

Many jobs are stressful. Most of them don't get the same free pass for killing/harming people as American cops and military do. Nope, not feeling sorry for the cop or empathy for him.

Re: Authorities untouchable

[Oligonicella]

Pray tell, the stress of police work dealing with homicidally violent people equates to which other stressful jobs.

Re: Authorities untouchable

[Kohath]

If you had the slightest bit of humanity in you, you might see the difference between someone fucking up while doing an insanely stresfull job, and someone intentionally creating a situation meant to cause harm.

Anyone else in the same "insanely stressful" situation fucking up in the same way would be facing a trial for killing a harmless guy standing on his porch. We have an absolute right to be safe from being murdered by government agents when we answer the door. If the job means risking murdering someone standing on his porch, then the entire occupation needs fundamental reform at the very least.

And if you guys want a show of humanity, then make it a policy to treat non-police with the same respect and humanity you'd like to experience yourself.

Being extremely defensive when you're clearly in the wrong doesn't help. Acting like accountability is an attack doesn't help.

Also, covering up for each other doesn't help. If you're not a criminal gang, stop behaving like a criminal gang.

You don't give a fuck about the people involved.

Do police give a fuck about non-police?

Re: Authorities untouchable

[Mashiki]

Many jobs are stressful. Most of them don't get the same free pass for killing/harming people as American cops and military do. Nope, not feeling sorry for the cop or empathy for him.

When was the last time you assisted in the arrest in domestic violence case, where one of the parties started attacking you with a knife? 'Cause that's shit happens more often then you think. Or ran into a burning building without respirator gear, or dove off a peer to rescue a kid drowning.

Sorry, the stress that you actively face as a cop is different then having a rack of servers going down. Sure you're more likely to be killed if you're working on a fishing boat, or as a logger. But you're not expected to put your life on the line to do your job, you can refuse. You don't get that option as a cop.

The US has it's own problems regarding policing, and it has more to do with it's organizational structure then anything else. If you really want to change how the police are, go be one and work from the bottom up. This isn't even getting into the various things that say the black communities(and their leaders) demanded from governments and police to deal with crime, drugs, and so on. That they now blame on the police.

Re: Authorities untouchable

[c6gunner]

Define "entirely avoidable".

Every police killing is entirely avoidable if we just convince cops to die instead of shooting first. Is that what you mean by "entirely avoidable"? Or do you have some other objective universal metric you're applying here?

Re:Uh, hello?

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Isn't putting someone in PRISON for 20 years just because they made a phone call pretty much the definition of censorship?

Congratulations, you win the Dumbest Comment Award on Slashdot today!

"Hey, I just wanted to rob a bank and those dirty cops denied me the right to express myself with a gun and a mask!"

Re:Uh, hello?

[hey!]

No.

Technically it is not censorship because censorship is the suppression of speech. Punishing someone because of the consequence of the speech is not suppression.

You could argue that it has a chilling effect on speech by others. However it is not *political* censorship. It is censorship in the sense that punishing defamation or criminal threats is "censorship".