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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

#181

Post by wavemode »

leoqa wrote: post #146
nomilk wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Yes, they can't charge him again for the same physical act.

His federal guilty plea appears to admit to 375 swatting calls. So I don't think the state or local courts can subsequently charge him for any of those calls - they would need to find evidence of some separate calls.

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

#182

Post by Ajedi32 »

mcherm wrote: post #25
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #9

Okay 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, it seems like they take the seriousness of the threat into account when determining the response, but not the plausibility of the threat.

If there's a 1% chance that the house contains a deranged gunman threatening to shoot his family and then himself, that probably shouldn't be met with the same response as a 30% chance of the same... There are probably a lot of situations where it's a tough call though.

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

#183

Post by Ajedi32 »

stavros wrote: post #54
luckylion wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the reasonable and proportionate response? "Swatting" isn't really a thing in Germany, but we've always had other disproportionate responses to single phone calls. One call (or even an email) that threatens to blow up the air port, or some particular air plane, and it's shut down for hours until they've looked in all the places you could hide a serious bomb (presumably, I have no idea what their "okay, I gues…

What happens in Germany when someone plausibly describes a situation that indicates someone is in extreme danger? Over here (in Greece), police officers will knock on your door, say they had a report and need to check, and then walk in and look around. I've heard of reports of domestic violence, child molestation, things like that, and it's always the same. They rush to the place, knock on the door, look around, and…

What if in the call they claim the suspect is armed and threatening to start shooting hostages if the police show up? Do they still just knock on the door?

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

#184

Post by coldpie »

leoqa wrote: post #153
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

How many police officers do you know? Have you been on a ride along or attempted to understand their job? Swatting victimizes the police as well, they’re responding to a potential hostage situation and do not have the benefit of hindsight. I guarantee these officers are horrified that the man was innocent and frustrated that they were put in this situation. I encourage everyone who is adamantly “ACAB” to go on a ride…

> I guarantee these officers are horrified that the man was innocent and frustrated that they were put in this situation.

How many cops do you know? They might say they're horrified to the media, but that's not how they operate when no one's watching. There's a reason these SWATting events keep happening: cops enjoy them just as much as the SWATters do. They get to bust out their fun military surplus toys and do their SEAL Team 6 cosplay. If they wanted to stop these SWATting events, they would have found a solution by now.

Check out these highlights (lowlights?) from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department:

https://racketmn.com/human-rights-report-mpd-needs-major-ove...

These are not people known for nuance or remorse.

Link to the full investigation report:

https://mn.gov/mdhr/assets/Investigation%20into%20the%20City...

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

#185

Post by stavros »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #183
stavros wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens in Germany when someone plausibly describes a situation that indicates someone is in extreme danger? Over here (in Greece), police officers will knock on your door, say they had a report and need to check, and then walk in and look around. I've heard of reports of domestic violence, child molestation, things like that, and it's always the same. They rush to the place, knock on the door, look around, and…

What if in the call they claim the suspect is armed and threatening to start shooting hostages if the police show up? Do they still just knock on the door?

What if in the call they claim the suspect has a nuclear bomb and is threatening to blow up the city? It's kind of a similar scenario, given that I can't remember either of these ever happening. People here don't tend to have guns.

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

#186

Post by pb7 »

hereforcomments wrote: post #96

In Europe this would have been a completely different story. It's highly unlikely (compared to the US) that a SWAT team equivalent would kill anyone. The guy could have got away with 5-7 years max. I know it's a museum, but I prefer to live here.

[flagged]

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

#187

Post by grraaaaahhh »

alsetmusic wrote: post #162

> In January 2024, an individual affiliated with the Torswats Telegram account and claiming to be a friend of Filion suggested that he was part of a group aiming to incite racial violence and that he sought money to “buy weapons and commit a mass shooting.” The allegation aligns with a written tip, placed to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center in April 2023 and obtained by WIRED, alleging that the person behind…

>I wonder if this was supposed to be Nine Angels. Copy editing on the web is so sloppy that I'm going to assume so because it makes more sense (to me).

I'm going to assume that wired got it right and it's the neo-nazis that misspelled it; it's much funnier that way.

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

#188

Post by 1986 »

lupusreal wrote: post #159
GuestFAUniverse wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Ban mechanical printing presses too then.

The printing press predates the 1st Amendment

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

#189

Post by Ajedi32 »

stavros wrote: post #185
Ajedi32 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if in the call they claim the suspect is armed and threatening to start shooting hostages if the police show up? Do they still just knock on the door?

What if in the call they claim the suspect has a nuclear bomb and is threatening to blow up the city? It's kind of a similar scenario, given that I can't remember either of these ever happening. People here don't tend to have guns.

People in the US "don't tend to" take hostages and threaten to shoot them either. "Don't tend to" isn't the same as "it never happens".

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

#190

Post by bcdtttt »

leoqa wrote: post #153
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

How many police officers do you know? Have you been on a ride along or attempted to understand their job? Swatting victimizes the police as well, they’re responding to a potential hostage situation and do not have the benefit of hindsight. I guarantee these officers are horrified that the man was innocent and frustrated that they were put in this situation. I encourage everyone who is adamantly “ACAB” to go on a ride…

Do you know why ACAB? Is not because they are rude, it's not cause they mean. It's because they participate in a societal role that requires them to do bastardly things.

They have to enforce unjust laws and unjust outcomes, and statistically do so more heavily across minority populations.

The institution requires them to be bastards, ACAB is a statement about the institution of police and the people who elect to join that institution.

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