Swatting: When A Prank Goes Awry and Dead Means Dead

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Police in Wichita, Kan., are pictured at the scene of an officer-involved shooting believed prompted by a “swatting” prank, Dec. 28, 2017. (Wichita Eagle via Associated Press)

by Glenn R. Geist

Swatting: the word may no longer mean what you think it does since the real world went online and left us all behind in sunlight and fresh air.

To on-line gamers in basement rooms, swatting is the practice of disrupting competitors by calling the local police and reporting a bomb threat, a murder in progress and similar “pranks.”

Sure, many of us have pulled off one prank or another in our youths, but some of these “gamers” have departed from the world of consequences, the world of no reset buttons where dead means dead.

I read in the Washington Post that Wichita, Kansas police got a call Thursday evening about a shooting and a hostage situation.  Arriving at the scene, a man exited to talk to them was shot dead by an officer who thought he was reaching for a gun. There were no hostages. There had been no shooting.

The call may have originated with an online gamer in Los Angeles anxious to win a game or to punish a former winner or something equally as important.

I will refrain from commenting on yet another mistaken police shooting. It would not have happened without the instigation of some human vermin, as detached from reality as much as if he had been straight-jacketed in a padded cell in some 19th century Bedlam. As detached from reality as a growing number of people are, their lives contained in a bubble, hermetically sealed and unconcerned with anything outside of it.

The internet has dark corners and hidden rooms, and for all its utility it’s a dangerous place with all the deranged and delusional people who live their lives in it. It wasn’t just a prank phone call ordering a pizza or asking if someone had Prince Albert in a can.

It wasn’t some fake news about Hillary Clinton, it was a senseless murder and a waste of innocent lives and the ruin of a family – and the perpetrator is as guilty as though he had pulled the trigger.

About Post Author

Glenn Geist

Glenn Geist lives in South Florida and wastes most of his time boating, writing, complaining and talking on the radio
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jess
6 years ago

I am actually surprised it took this long for someone to be killed because of SWATTING. It happens so often here it is unreal. All because of a 2 dollar bet if things I have read are to be believed and the guy that was shot did not play video games. Just tragic on every single level there is. good news is they found the phone calling culprit and apparently he is being questioned about his role in it.

Reply to  jess
6 years ago

I had never heard of this silly practice until I saw Glenn’s post.

jess
Reply to  Professor Mike
6 years ago

Here in CA we have a useless watered down bill against this, after so many incidents of it from 2015 I think it was put into place. it is a misdemeanor here but some want it jumped up to felony if a person gets hurt in the process of a prank SWAT call. From all I have seen in the “police blotter” part of our local little weekly rag it happens frequently.

Timmy Mahoney
Reply to  jess
6 years ago

Those police blotters can be fun to read. At one team they could be amusing. People do some silly shit.

jess
Reply to  Timmy Mahoney
6 years ago

Aren’t they though. I think one of the funniest I saw from my little fancy frou frou area was the guy going up and down the street yelling HO Ho Ho in a Santa suit a few years ago ON XMAS EVE and yes, police responded to that bit of nonsense because some neighbor called it in. Dude called the police, who came out after being called, because he went on his balcony and the door closed behind him due to a kindly neighbor alerting the authorities. Police report man sitting down talking to himself in a local park, found out when they approached he was talking on his cell phone. Nope, not making any of them up. My favorites have to be the ones where police go out after people call and say someone was at my door and they kept ringing the bell and it scared me. When the police get there, they find out a package was delivered and the delivery person was just giving them a heads up. They are a source of total enjoyment for me when I read them to see who in my area are the stupidest people alive. First world issues.

Glenn R. Geist
Reply to  jess
6 years ago

Jeez, and I’m embarrassed to admit I live in a gated community. Some of these people need to live in a padded community.

jess
Reply to  Glenn R. Geist
6 years ago

Why be embarrassed, I’m the same and I never get embarrassed about where I live. Oh they get better than that Glenn. I live in an area where the average home price is 4 million, Atherton CA, and the stuff that goes on here would keep comedians in material for years. Someone calls police to complain two young men in business suits keep coming to their door and they have a blue van, must be nefarious. Nope it’s the Mormons doing their thing. Call placed to police about man lying down in the park, we think he might be writing something, come and do something about it. My recycle bins have been knocked over says one caller, find the culprit. Caller calls and says there is a hawk in the tree making a lot of noise and I think it may be hungry, police come out to see hawk enjoying a meal of whatever small furry thing they have found to eat. These are all old ones I just looked up for grunts and giggles. It is crazy the amount of stupid stuff that happens in the land of the paranoid here. Woman seen walking, call the police. I’ve been spoken to by police after a call in, for running in a sports bra when it is warm. I have yet to make the blotter though. #GOALS

Reply to  jess
6 years ago

Excepting the hawk story, I have responded to all of these type calls when I was a young police officer. We would all laugh about them at roll call the next day.

jess
Reply to  Professor Mike
6 years ago

Yabut did the woman you pulled over for running in a sports bra show you her tits? No, just the one that pulled me over okay then. AYUP, the funny story behind that is, I am running doing my thing and the police officer shouts at me to stop running, stay where I am, to tell me he has had a complaint call of a young woman running in a bra every day showing her girls off. I tell him, no officer I am just running nothing else but if you need to ticket me for showing off my tits, here you go and proceeded to lift up my sports bra. He thanked me and sent me on my way. Passing for white, privilege in action.

Reply to  Glenn R. Geist
6 years ago

Ha! That’s the truth. I’ve met a few of them in my day.

Glenn R. Geist
6 years ago

Maybe there is a loss of honorable or ethical behaviour – I don’t know. Maybe it’s also that that underground world gives the feeling of virtual freedom where things have no consequences and nobody knows who you are. It’s sort of a haven for marginal and pathological personalities.

Bill Formby
6 years ago

Good points Glenn. It does highlight a couple of points though that seem to be rippling through people today. One is that a “win at any cost” type attitude seems to prevail at most everything. The idea that ethics and honor might play a role in how one lives his or her life seems to be continually falling be the wayside. I have no statistical evidence to support that it is more prevalent now than before trump and the Republicans of this generation came into power but it certainly seems that way. The simple fact that there seems to be an implicit permission to disregard rules, tradition, or doing the right thing abounds now. To some, including me, it is somewhat of a culture shock to rapidly go from the 8 years of Obama where there seemed to be more concern about the rights of people and trying to be on the right side of things to a point where there are alternate facts where truth means nothing, tradition means nothing, caring about others mean nothing. In other words a complete 180 degrees from the traditional American culture. Scary does not even come close to what I feel is happening.

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