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Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

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Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it’s real you don’t need to be anonymous.

Fear of retribution/not wanting to get involved is a real thing. Also are you proposing that 911 operators confirm people's real identities before accepting their call and dispatching someone?

No, but at least have the calling number presented to the 911 operator, with various options categorised as more or less trustworthy. And 911 calls should bypass any 'calling number protection'.

Someone else pointed out that the whole phone system is a dog's breakfast, which also needs to be fixed for various easy-scam-exploitation reasons as well. The only reason not to do it is that the corps that run the networks don't want to have to pay to make their shit fit for society's purpose rather than their own.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 2nd Amendment doesn't give you the right to brandish at cops (or anyone else, outside of limited situations like self defense)

GP merely said “armed”, not “brandishing”.

Armed during a police encounter. I agree we need more information on the stats, primarily what was the catalyst for the interaction? I would suspect though that most of these stats are based on interactions driven by criminal behavior. This isn't counter to BRUEN and current interpretations of 2a rights.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That requires not only people wrapping their mind around the fact that death is likely when the cops kick in a door but also the state overtly codifying that reality. It'll happen when pigs fly.

[flagged]

Sometimes they even drop bombs from them -- on to residential blocks with families no less.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#134
post #107

It should really not be possible for a single anonymous phone call to dispatch a heavily armed response team to break down someone's door. Aside from that, people who do so are despicable. 20 years is a light sentence. Taking money to put people in situations that could easily become deadly.

To be ever so slightly sympathetic to American cops, unlike just about anywhere else in the developed world, it is plausible that the person behind the door is armed with anything up to an automatic rifle, and any random person they stop may be carrying a concealed firearm. Given that, if I was busting down doors in the US, I’d want to be armed to the teeth, equipped with the best body armour money can buy, and would…

Simple solution: only allow weapons that existed during the creation of the Second Amendment.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#136

I'd be interested to know if any actual SWAT operations happened from these calls. I know that it does happen sometimes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Wichita_swatting?wprov=sf...

I should have been more clear about the question. I am wondering how many of the calls made by THIS GUY resulted in actual swat deployments, how many got someone shot or killed, etc. That gives a scale of the severity of the crime. Like if you fatally shoot someone, that is murder. If you shoot them and they survive, or if you shoot and miss, that's attempted murder and you tend to get a lighter sentence than if you kill the person. It's not an extraneous detail.

The guy in the article obviously belongs in jail. The question is how far up the scale he went in terms of actual damage and injury caused. It's just like if I read an article about Joe pleading guilty to shooting Fred, and facing 20 years in jail, but the article doesn't say whether Fred survived the shooting. I'm not out to make a big moral judgment either way, and I have no stake in it, but it's a natural question for a reader to ask.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#137
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If one were to believe there are actors in our society bad enough to justify a service existing then one would also have to believe there are actors bad enough to abuse that service with a view to kill anyone. It’s paradoxical that such a thing exists.

Or you just believe (correctly, so far) there are far more instances that warrant it than there are people abusing it

A service where four counts of this offence can be committed before any action is taken?

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#138
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a mischaracterization of what actually happens in the us. Using sensationalism doesn't help, instead let's focus on the actual numbers and be constructive on how to decrease them. In 2023 it's estimated police killed around 1,248 people. Notice I said killed vs Murdered as words matter. Out of that only 104 were unarmed. Now without looking at each case or example here, you can still account for the mass majo…

Going in details on how they were armed would be interesting. How many people with a limp "armed" with a cane... Pretty sure they managed to sneak this one ( https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/john-fauver-harford-c... ) in the armed category Also dogs are not any more armed in the US than in Europe, yet American cops shoot a lot more dogs. They do so because they are antisocial and know they'll face no consequenc…

Looks like they changed the URL https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/john-fauver-harford-c...

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#139
post #93
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Around 1000 people per year, which I absolutely agree is terrible - but at the same time, the population is over 300,000,000 so it stretches the meaning of the word to call it ‘regular’. https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-de...

That’s more than two people per day. But sure, let’s nitpick the definition of “regular” because that’s absolutely the important issue, here.

Agreeing on facts is always important, because if not, nothing else matters in a discussion.

We should never criticize people for actually bringing real numbers into a conversation to clarify things. I didn't know that statistic, and I suspect many "disagreements" are things where if the actual numbers and facts were known to all, they would actually agree.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#140
post #19

Not sure why swatting isn’t treated like attempted murder

Well he is facing 20 years

That's more than a decade less than what Chelsea Manning or John Kiriakou was sentenced to. It's absurd that the punishment is much harsher for unspecified theoretical harm caused by whistleblowing than the very real harm caused by literal murder attempts.
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