11mo ago

17-year-old alleged ‘serial swatter’ charged after police say he made threats throughout the country

edition.cnn.com 17-year-old alleged ‘serial swatter’ charged after police say he made threats throughout the country | CNN

A teenager “serial swatter” from California is believed to be responsible for hundreds of swatting incidents and bomb threats throughout the US according to a pretrial detention motion. Now he has been extradited to Florida to face charges for a swatting incident at a mosque, according to the Semino...

85 comments

We have two big problems here, one that this person would make the phone calls, but you will never 100% fix human nature.
The biggest problem is that police will send a SWAT team after nothing but an anonymous phone call.
- This is the part that gets me. It keeps happening and they think that it’s just fine.
  
  They just love any excuse to pull out the toys.
  When I was in high school I thought I was going to be a cop. Mostly because I was an unoriginal idiot and a friend wanted to be a cop. Went so far as to go through the explorers program where you hang out with cops and they show you stuff. You go on ride alongs. Spend a lot of time with cops.
  As it happens about half the guys teaching this program were swat.
  They were drooling for any excuse to suit up and kick down doors.
  This was 20 years ago, at the time they'd tell you that 90% of officers never use their firearm on duty.
  It colors their perception of any situation. Affects their decision making.
  Could this be a prank? Maybe. But could I put on the armor and kick in a door? I mean they did call in a threat....
  
  They like it. It’s fun.
- I mean the main reason they do that is they have to take it seriously. If they decided to ignore anonymous tips, then how many actual situations would they fail to prevent and handle.
  Swatting is just taking advantage of the fact that they have no choice but to take it seriously.
  That being said, if it's a place that gets swatted regularly or a place that's likely to be swatted due to various reasons they should have precautions in place with people they can trust in order to double check before acting, or at least be prepared to go in with their guns still holstered.
  
  The problem isn't that the police respond, it's how they respond. The fact that the police themselves are so dangerous to the presumptive victim on whose behalf they're responding -- as tacitly acknowledged by "swatting" being treated as a serious crime going beyond mere misuse of police resources -- is the much bigger problem here. Frankly, going after swatters is at least 50% a misdirection tactic: an attempt to shift the blame away from the reckless police.
  
  Patrick Tomlinson was swatted over 40 times in 2023 alone. It took WAY too many times before the police would simply knock on his door and ask him if everything was okay. You'd think after the 4th or 5th time they might figure it out.
  https://www.wisn.com/article/milwaukee-science-fiction-writer-victim-of-swatting/40912738
  https://www.insideedition.com/milwaukee-sci-fi-author-patrick-tomlinson-victim-of-yearslong-swatting-campaign-of-terror-82365
  
  They don't need to send SWAT teams. They just do it for kicks.
  
  Until they figure out what is happening, if anything at all, the SWAT teams certainly stand the chance to do more harm than good. How about some recon first? Deaths are happening, and if nothing else innocent and completely bewildered people wind up with police guns pointed at their heads. Most of the time it's cleared up but the victims are left with "Oh sorry folks, someone called and said there was a hostage here."
  
  I don't know what they could do with a mosque. I think it is a very valid assumption that someone could be in there with a gun and a very valid assumption it could be an asshole "pranking".
  Be nice to see some harsh criminal penalties for people who SWAT and maybe some more advanced tech like cameras in the building they can plug into and see.
- I think the third big problem is that the police will send a swat team after just an anonymous phone call.
- I'd also like to add that putting this kids face in the news is going to inspire copycats
  
  why? I don't think this picture of his fat head makes him look cool
- Do they actually send a SWAT team? I just assumed that was the term but they actually just trigger a high priority multi officer response based on what they say.
  
  Have you seen how cops arm themselves? That is just as much force as a swat team.
  
  Search for Swatting incidents and see how many people have been terrorized or killed on the basis of nothing but an anonymous phone call.
  
  If you make the stakes high enough in the 911 call, absolutely. You don't want cops to waste time checking things out if a real hostage situation is playing out of whatever.

Can he please be charged with attempted murder for each person who was swatted?
- But wouldnt that mean that the police would have to consider themselves to be murderers..
  
  Yes but unironically. They will pull the trigger and murder an innocent person then blame the person who called 911.
  
  they'd probably be proud of it
  
  I guess when they're in a country where mass shootings happen frequently, they respond as if they're going to get shot at. Not that it justifies their actions all the time. Not even close. But the guy was sending reports knowing that the chances of someone getting harmed were high, that's pretty much pushes him into terrorism territory tbh.

Filion also targeted high schools, historically Black colleges, mosques, FBI offices and FBI agents, and made threats to bomb military bases and the Pentagon, the state attorney’s office said in a court filing.
Gee, I wonder where that list of targets came from.

Have him fuck off to prison for the rest of his life because this sack of shit was trying to kill multiple people.
Throw the whole library at this fuck.
- I mean yeah but is no one gonna mention that you have to live in a weird shithole where the special forces run your door in to shoot whoever because some weirdo can dial a phone number?
  
  We, Americans, don't mention it because we know. Also, that is addressed in another part of the comments, I know the structure of the comments makes that hard to know.
  What are we going to do about the police? Not a thing.
  
  This would happen in most western countries.
  You telling me they don't respond with force to threats of terrorist attacks or bombs?
- Punishment should fit the crime, it needs to be proportional for a lot of different reasons.

Hope this little shit gets a good chunk of prison time. Fuck racist assholes like him just trying to get innocent people killed for no reason.

It seems like this swatting thing could be used on anyone including CEO’s and politicians 🤔
- Wouldn't work. They get a different justice system.
  
  It has been happening to politicians already. Niki Haley had it happen to her family this past week. Now it's in the news and is a big deal.
  My question is why do the police just randomly trust every call they get? I feel like there could be more safeguards in place on that side.

                     
- Yeah, the web is dead.
  Thanks, bootcrap and recrapt.

Interesting use of non breaking spaces, I wonder why...
17-year-old alleged ‘serial swatter’
charged
after police
say...
- An   will be visible in your comment if you define it as code.
  As for the post, it should be edited to remove any visible ones.
  
  Punishment rarely stops crime. We need to be proactive.

Guess the CNN really likes their broken non-breaking spaces...

I'm not normally as fan of the electric chair, but....
- Nope, still barbaric. And for children? Even worse.
- Well, then your opinion is fickle... As someone normally opposed to the electric chair, I continue to be opposed to it in this instance.
- It's a fair punishment for pedophiles.

85 comments