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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

#141

Post by jdietrich »

monetus wrote: post #111
jdietrich wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an apples-to-oranges comparison for all sorts of reasons, but England and Wales has a population of about 60 million and averages about 3 fatal police shootings per year. From that perspective, 'regular' sounds like something of an understatement. Swatting just isn't a thing here - our armed officers are trained completely differently and held to much stricter standards regarding the use of force. American polic…

Can I ask you about the political power of police? Is there an equivalent to our police union? My mayor is downright afraid of them.

Extremely limited. Police officers are not legally permitted to join a conventional trade union, because of the risk to public safety that would be posed by industrial action. Rank-and-file officers are represented by the Police Federation, which has many of the functions of a trade union but none of the legal recognition.

More broadly, the British police are a service, not a force. A British officer would never refer to a member of the public as a "civilian", because our police are civilians in uniform. They have powers granted to them by Parliament, but their right to use those powers comes from the consent of the public that they serve. It's a radically different attitude that colours every interaction between police and the public.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Federation_of_England_a...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles

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

#142

Post by dang »

thousand_nights wrote: post #62

the linked article is very light on details, here is a better one: https://www.wired.com/story/alan-filion-torswats-guilty-plea...

Thanks! We've changed to that from https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/18/teenage_serial_swatte... above.

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

#143

Post by jakelazaroff »

ganoushoreilly wrote: post #132
jakelazaroff wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

“Armed during a police encounter” — right, so what? Is there, like, an asterisk on the Second Amendment that says “unless it’s during a police encounter, then they get to summarily execute you, sorry”?

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

#144

Post by jakelazaroff »

harshreality wrote: post #126
jakelazaroff wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 majority of police interactions ending in a death, the civilian was armed at a minimum. Does the Second Amendment not exist? Which other constitutional rights do you think we should use to j…

"Armed" is a proxy for criminals being criminals, and almost always reaching for, displaying, or using the weapon in some antisocial way prior to being shot dead. Legal gun owners not committing obvious crimes are only rarely accosted by police, and shootings are exceedingly rare, and they usually make the news and result in legal action. They also usually involve the victim doing something that's not advisable, even…

No, “armed” isn’t a proxy for anything. It means they were found to be carrying a gun. It doesn’t matter whether they were committing a crime or doing something inadvisable — the point is that if merely being armed justifies your extrajudicial murder by police, then the Second Amendment doesn’t actually exist.

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

#145

Post by rendall »

Loughla wrote: post #72
bigiain wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't be a problem, if the "heavily armed response team" was properly held to account when they killed innocent people. Cops kill people on the basis of ludicrous anonymous phone call because they know they'll get away with it when it turns out to be false. And they like it that way. There needs to be a few very public cases of entire SWAT teams getting 20 year sentences. ACAB

While the acab is kind of rough, I'm absolutely with you on police accountability. If there was open and honest accountability, I don't think people would have as many problems with the police. The issue is that police operate in extremely high pressure novel situations all the time. Training only goes so far. After that, you're investigating mistakes versus violent intent. I'm not sure that's easy to do, and I'm cer…

> The issue is that police operate in extremely high pressure novel situations all the time.

In the US, police officer does not even rise to top 10 most dangerous jobs. Groundskeeper is a more dangerous job than being a cop.

The lack of training and toxic culture of policing is far more dangerous to cops than criminals are. The average US citizen simply does not, and should not, trust the average cop.

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

#146

Post by leoqa »

nomilk wrote: post #85
saghm wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a pretty light sentence for 375 murder attempts and threats.

Not to mention the opportunity cost: victims of real violent/urgent situations who couldn't access timely protection, as well as the cost to society of perpetrators who marginally escaped while law enforcement were occupied tending to fake call outs.

He could face local charges in those jurisdictions? Does double jeopardy prevent each county seeking their own sentence?

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

#147

Post by llamaimperative »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #131
llamaimperative wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What specific effect would you expect “categorize as less trustworthy” have?

Agreed on telephone infra in general

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

#148

Post by account42 »

soraminazuki wrote: post #140
drexlspivey wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Perhaps, but 20 years is a significan portion of someone's life.

The courts wanting to make an example of those that have embarrassed the government is a different issue entirely.

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

#149

Post by lenerdenator »

tptacek wrote: post #94

From the Information he pled to: ALAN W. FILION, a/k/a "Nazgul Swattings," a/k/a "Torswats V3," a/k/a "Third Reich of Kiwiswats," a/k/a "The Table Swats," a/k/a "Angmar," and a/k/a "Torswats" Seems like a fun guy. It looks like most of this story was covered a year ago: https://www.wired.com/story/alan-filion-torswats-swatting-ar...

Are you meaning to tell me that people who make references to the Nazis a part of their identity might not be the most well-adjusted people around?

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

#150

Post by pluc »

saghm wrote: post #66
drexlspivey wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well he is facing 20 years

That's a pretty light sentence for 375 murder attempts and threats.

It's only attempted murder because American SWAT is trigger happy, equipped literally like an army and shoots before asking questions or establishing context, that's hardly his fault.
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