Advances in technology allow prank callers to mask their voice, phone number or IP address (also called “spoofing”), or make their false 911 calls sound more credible.

Advances in technology allow prank callers to mask their voice, phone number or IP address, or make their false 911 calls sound more credible.

Author Patrick Tomlinson and his wife, business owner Niki Robinson, have been “swatted” at their home in Milwaukee more than 40 times, often resulting in police pointing guns at their heads. Their tormentors have also called in false bomb threats to venues using their names in three states. Yet law enforcement hasn’t been able to stop the prank calls.

The couple’s terror comes as these incidents appear to be on the rise in the U.S., at least on college campuses. In less than a single week in April, universities including Clemson, Florida, Boston, Harvard, Cornell, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and Oklahoma, as well as Middlebury College, were targeted by swatters.

To combat the growing problem, the FBI has begun taking formal measures to get a comprehensive picture of the problem on a national level.

  • FfaerieOxide@kbin.social
    61·
    1 year ago

    High-risk warrants often involve dangerous crimes or situations like armed suspects, drug trafficking, or violent crime suspects where there’s a high probability of violence. But the system is imperfect, and mistakes can and do happen, sometimes with tragic consequences.

    This is begging the question of these “suspects” needing arrest at all. A person being armed—by itself—is not a crime. Using, possessing, selling, and manufacturing drugs should not be. How much of this “high probability of violence” directly stems from people with guns coming to kidnap them? (Yeah, I’m a prison abolitionist, too.)

    IACP conducted two studies—one on police use of force and another on SWAT activities—to provide accurate data and insights on these aspects of law enforcement, aiming to inform the field, public, and media about the true nature of these practices.

    I see nothing in the quote which addresses their role in society being crucial.

    I can tell we have some starkly different views on governance

    Yes, and I am willing to admit in addition to some of my thoughts needing polish, I hold certain views (I have not yet shared with you) which are flagrantly contradictory. I still am confident the end goal of the pursuit of justice will lead to a world that does not have slave patrols. I view a desire to preserve such a system of domination to be a moral failing.