Not sure why swatting isn’t treated like attempted murder
Well he is facing 20 years
Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges
61–70 of 419 posts
Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges
#62the linked article is very light on details, here is a better one:
https://www.wired.com/story/alan-filion-torswats-guilty-plea...
Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges
#63Okay so like, genuinely not trying to do a "back in my day" fuckin thing here, but also: what the fuck is wrong with kids? Back when I was coming up, pranking at it's absolute worst was like, filling a dudes shoes with yogurt in the locker room, or like, putting plastic bugs in people's desks n shit. Why the fuck are teenagers trying to get each other murdered by cops!?
It’s not all kids, it’s one particularly sociopathic kid and the fact that he suffered no accountability until now.
Regarding "no accountability", it seems 'wrong' that the response to the calls must be immediate, but it seems to have taken at least a little while to identify where the calls were made from / who made the calls. They started some time in 2022.
That level of asynchrony is not how the system should work.
(Admittedly "should" does a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence).
Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
9/11 policy panic, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan producing surplus equipment, 400 million privately owned firearms in the US, US history of police standoffs, DoD investment in military PR including Navy Seals worship, and much more have ALL contributed to the Swatting phenomenon. I don’t think we could have intentionally created an incentive structure for swatting more if we had tried. And it’s going to continue b…
There's also the super weird (to people outside the US) insistence that the only possible response to gun violence (by gangsters, school kids, or cops) is "thoughts and prayers".
Constitutional amendments are basically impossible in the US. A congress member shot at a congressional event won't even vote change the second amendment (Scalise).
Even conservatives know the only hope is stacking the supreme court.
Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges
#65I'm unwisely and unadvisedly wading into this half-cocked. Swatting wouldn't even be a thing if - Anonymous calls should be treated with high levels of suspicion as to their legitimacy - First response training that's even moderately appropriate - Situational awareness beyond what one's been informed by third parties - Empathy for all humans - Any kind of notion of that a scenario may not actually be as described by…
It's a US cultural thing to either avoid blaming the police for anything, or make excuses for them. Brutal police behavior is seen as either acceptable, or what even desirable . I've seen reddit posts where a protester slightly taunts the police and gets pepper sprayed in the face, and all the commenters were gleefully saying things like "fuck around and find out", without even thinking that maybe there wasn't enough…
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Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges
#66Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges
#67I'm unwisely and unadvisedly wading into this half-cocked. Swatting wouldn't even be a thing if - Anonymous calls should be treated with high levels of suspicion as to their legitimacy - First response training that's even moderately appropriate - Situational awareness beyond what one's been informed by third parties - Empathy for all humans - Any kind of notion of that a scenario may not actually be as described by…
No, because if every call isn’t treated like a real emergency, in the off chance that one of them actually is an emergency then everyone would be crucified by the media and lawyers. Look at all the school shootings as an example, or even the Trump assassination attempt.
If it’s real you don’t need to be anonymous.
Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges
#68Okay so like, genuinely not trying to do a "back in my day" fuckin thing here, but also: what the fuck is wrong with kids? Back when I was coming up, pranking at it's absolute worst was like, filling a dudes shoes with yogurt in the locker room, or like, putting plastic bugs in people's desks n shit. Why the fuck are teenagers trying to get each other murdered by cops!?
Fair question, but I would also like to ask "What the f** is wrong with cops?". Receiving an anonymous call claiming some not-particularly-plausible threat at a particular location probably DOES deserve a police investigation. I see no reason why it impels police to drag people from their house in chains, threaten to shoot them, or actually shoot them. If police responses were reasonable and proportionate to the plau…
Yeah, as much as swatting is shitty behavior, I think kids behaving egregiously is a lot more understandable than adults whose job is ostensibly the protection of everyone.
Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges
#69I'm unwisely and unadvisedly wading into this half-cocked. Swatting wouldn't even be a thing if - Anonymous calls should be treated with high levels of suspicion as to their legitimacy - First response training that's even moderately appropriate - Situational awareness beyond what one's been informed by third parties - Empathy for all humans - Any kind of notion of that a scenario may not actually be as described by…
It's a US cultural thing to either avoid blaming the police for anything, or make excuses for them. Brutal police behavior is seen as either acceptable, or what even desirable . I've seen reddit posts where a protester slightly taunts the police and gets pepper sprayed in the face, and all the commenters were gleefully saying things like "fuck around and find out", without even thinking that maybe there wasn't enough…
I'm pretty sure there are a number of people in the US who don't support the police in any way at all. There was a whole song a few years ago called Fuck the police, I'm pretty sure.
It's like sweeping categorizations of an entire country are usually not accurate or something.
Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a US cultural thing to either avoid blaming the police for anything, or make excuses for them. Brutal police behavior is seen as either acceptable, or what even desirable . I've seen reddit posts where a protester slightly taunts the police and gets pepper sprayed in the face, and all the commenters were gleefully saying things like "fuck around and find out", without even thinking that maybe there wasn't enough…
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Disagree - community moderated quality floats to the top under such systems, exposing the better posts to more eyes and downregulating low-quality shitposting.
It can certainly lead to echo-chamber mentality, but without it we'd see more low-effort, low quality posts drowning out discourse.