Lets talk about "Swatting" and loss of freedom in America

[ninjainspandex]

I'm not so surprised that SWAT are so militarized, I mean it's the USA, but seriously, why aren't the pranksters behind bars? This ISN'T funny, it's dangerous, it wastes tax payer money, and it wastes the valuable time of the police force.

How can they catch the pranksters? They use prepaid cellphones bought with cash most likely and then dispose of the phones after the call is made.

[ZeroAX]

How can they catch the pranksters? They use prepaid cellphones bought with cash most likely and then dispose of the phones after the call is made.

oh....we don't have those, use need to show and register with an ID to buy a phone number.

Funny you don't have that.

[Flake]

How do they get the address of these people to call it in?

It's a combination of several methods including getting the victims IP address, social engineering, and open source research.

I don't know if I would necessarily deem that our future doomed because of how dumb some of the current young generation are. I'm not advocating swatting (it's an atrocious waste of resources and it's really quite dangerous) but I'll play devil's advocate all the same here:

This is a generation that gives no shits and when they perceive (rightly or wrongly) that someone should be confronted, they make it happen. This mentality, applied to gamers and twitch users, is overkill and pointless. But looking at the problems we are staring in the eye right now: Corporate cronyism, political corruption, abuse of power, and a general lack of transparency at the highest levels - are we sure we want to condemn a generation for whom confronting others at all costs is a trait? In a weird way, once this young generation grows up and calms down, this attitude might be what the country needs.

[Jmustang1968]

You really spun something cowardly, petty, and vindictive to being a positive trait? There have always been elements of corruption and abuse of power in the government, and I think it was worse in years and generations past than now.

[Ack]

I think the bigger issue here is that you guys don't realize SWATting and the militarization of the American police force are separate issues entirely.

First, SWATting is not something solely done to guys playing video games on camera. It's also been used against celebrities, news reporters, religious organizations, and regular people and has been a tactic used by groups ranging from Internet pranksters to members of Anonymous. Think of it as an extension of the "order 100 pizzas to this address" gag. The police do their best to act on any credible threat they receive on their emergency system, and if someone calls in a bomb threat or something similar, then they respond with their heaviest equipment because they generally assume the threat to be real, because frankly if they don't and it is, people will most likely die and the police force will be blamed for the result.

Yes, this can lead to misunderstandings and violence when used as a prank, such as a case recently of a man who opened fire to protect his family when SWAT stormed his house. He shot an officer and then realized the intruders were police and immediately surrendered. He was arrested but found not guilty of committing a crime, having fired in defense of his family and property.

It is illegal to misuse the 911 emergency system in the US. There are ways to do it, and some people do. Those are the people who have committed a crime, and if they are traceable then they will likely end up in jail. But police don't always have the resources or the jurisdiction to be able to track such individuals.

As for the militarization of police and the steadily increasing use of SWAT teams as well as the evolution of the police force's mindset, that's a separate issue that has developed over time in reaction to previous events like the crack cocaine epidemic in our major cities in the late 1980s-early 1990s, the North Hollywood shootout in Feb. 1997, the Columbine Massacre in April 1999, the destruction of the World Trade Center in September 2001, and further exacerbated by the military discarding equipment as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Yeah. I think that the cops should disregard any bomb threat or act of violence or crime reported to them.

And the time they don't respond and it's an actual bomb threat and the police will catch massive hell for it.

And the time they bust in a house without warning and shoot a kid with a toy gun they will get even bigger hell.

This is referencing one horrible horrible mistake made by an overzealous police force. There is no excusing the problems involved there, but you seem to apply that instance into the broader population of police force. The police are not bad guys. Some may be bad guys and we have plenty of instances of those, but those are the exceptions, not the rule.

[Blu]

You really spun something cowardly, petty, and vindictive to being a positive trait? There have always been elements of corruption and abuse of power in the government, and I think it was worse in years and generations past than now.

I think it's probably been about the same, it's just more veiled in some ways, some less than others. The bombings of Cambodia weren't known publicly for several years after Nixon's presidency; drone killings are pretty well known today as they happen.

I don't think the private sector has done much to change its image through decisionmaking or transparency. Seems to be business as usual.

There's moments where "anonymous" tends to do things for positive social change, and then there's internet trolls that do downright nasty malicious things. It'd be too much of a generalization to say that their actions are misguided.

ZeroAX is right--cell phones without a contract and critical personal information should be prohibited. There needs to be a way to trace this and the teeth on such crimes should be hefty. The elusiveness of most internet trolls puzzles me, is it a thrill of not getting caught? Is this phenomenon this generation's prank phone calls, and do they not realize/care about the damage, loss of resources, and waste of time this is? Are they lonely? I don't fully understand.

[Flake]

You really spun something cowardly, petty, and vindictive to being a positive trait? There have always been elements of corruption and abuse of power in the government, and I think it was worse in years and generations past than now.

Nope. I said that this is negative behavior stemming from a mentality that may have a positive application down the line, once these children grow up and calm down.

[ninjainspandex]

Yeah. I think that the cops should disregard any bomb threat or act of violence or crime reported to them.

And the time they don't respond and it's an actual bomb threat and the police will catch massive hell for it.

And the time they bust in a house without warning and shoot a kid with a toy gun they will get even bigger hell.

This is referencing one horrible horrible mistake made by an overzealous police force. There is no excusing the problems involved there, but you seem to apply that instance into the broader population of police force. The police are not bad guys. Some may be bad guys and we have plenty of instances of those, but those are the exceptions, not the rule.

I think most law enforcement are good guys and think they are doing the right thing but there need to be changes in protocol of when SWAT forces are used, perhaps first establishing if there is a threat at all or if it is a prank. Especially no knock raids are extremely dangerous for all involved, I'm far more afraid of being shot by police than a potential bomb threat.

[MrPopo]

Wasn't that the logo of their official groupie organization?