Congresswoman Promotes New Anti-Swatting Bill

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Swatting isn't funny and something needs to be done about it. Having said that, am I the only person that thinks the SHAt name is a tad bit comical? :D

Clark’s new bill introduced earlier this month is called the Interstate Swatting Hoax Act, and would “close the loophole” that doesn’t cover “other emergency situations” under federal law. It is illegal to falsely report a bomb threat hoax or a terrorist attack. “Perpetrators of these hoaxes purposefully use our emergency responders to harm their victims,” said Clark in a press release announcing her new bill. “These false reports are dangerous and costly, and have resulted in serious injury to victims and law enforcement. It is time to update our laws to appropriately address this crime.”
 
Maybe if the police weren't so eager to gear up for urban warfare this wouldn't be such a big problem. Send 2 units to do a welfare check first. What's that called? Oh yeah, doing their job.
 
tikiman2012 said:
Maybe if the police weren't so eager to gear up for urban warfare this wouldn't be such a big problem. Send 2 units to do a welfare check first. What's that called? Oh yeah, doing their job.
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And then guys who are scared of authority figures would use that to lash out. So instead of complaining that the police show up with too much, they would flip out anytime something goes wrong because the police showed up with not enough. The problem isn't the police, it's men who have that anti-cop twerk in their brains because of the injustice of being pulled over for speeding by a "corrupt" officer who pulled them over for speeding when they were actually speeding.
 
I am not sure there needs to legislation for this. It is already illegal. If anything just bump up the fine a bit more.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
And then guys who are scared of authority figures would use that to lash out. So instead of complaining that the police show up with too much, they would flip out anytime something goes wrong because the police showed up with not enough. The problem isn't the police, it's men who have that anti-cop twerk in their brains because of the injustice of being pulled over for speeding by a "corrupt" officer who pulled them over for speeding when they were actually speeding.
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Yea, I would rather they show up armed and ready for a situation as they understand it to be a life threatening hostage situation. It might be reasonable to feel that they need better recon for each scenario but as I am not there in the heat of it, it is hard to judge fairly. I do agree with harsh punishment for swatting as this is not funny and not a joke in the least.
 
Another idiot politician who thinks more laws are necessary instead of enforcing the ones we already have. Too many idiots in government.
 
This doesn't make any sense. Swatting is already illegal. Its very illegal.

But when a 12 year old boy decides to swat some guy that is pissing him off, he's still a 12 year old boy. We don't hold 12 year olds to the standards of 18 year olds because we know that 12 year olds are children.

They are stupid, they are expected to be stupid, and we have low standards for stupid children for that reason. What are we going to do? Change the punishment so that we give 12 year olds lethal injection?

We didn't have this problem in the 80s and 90s, because our police forces weren't so militarized. What we need is a change in the police force mentality, so that they soften their initial response. If it was fine to do so in the 80s and 90s, its fine to do so now.

Maybe having thousands upon thousands of paramilitary units, even in little towns, bursting through the doors with rifles pointed at people's heads throwing flashbangs into cribs and shooting people's dogs isn't the best first response for a single anonymous tip.
 
Ducman69 said:
This doesn't make any sense. Swatting is already illegal. Its very illegal.

But when a 12 year old boy decides to swat some guy that is pissing him off, he's still a 12 year old boy. We don't hold 12 year olds to the standards of 18 year olds because we know that 12 year olds are children.

They are stupid, they are expected to be stupid, and we have low standards for stupid children for that reason. What are we going to do? Change the punishment so that we give 12 year olds lethal injection?

We didn't have this problem in the 80s and 90s, because our police forces weren't so militarized. What we need is a change in the police force mentality, so that they soften their initial response. If it was fine to do so in the 80s and 90s, its fine to do so now.

Maybe having thousands upon thousands of paramilitary units, even in little towns, bursting through the doors with rifles pointed at people's heads throwing flashbangs into cribs and shooting people's dogs isn't the best first response for a single anonymous tip.
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This.

We should also put some responsibility back on the police departments that choose to operate this way. If it's found that a full tactical roll out wasn't needed and a few units doing a welfare check would've taken care of the problem then it should come out of that departments budget with no restitution from the perpetrators to the police departments budget. Increase the fines & let the money go to the cities for other purposes in these situations. It kills 2 birds with one stone. Simple local law modification is all that's needed to put responsibility where it belongs, on the overreacting police departments & the perp that made the false call.
 
Ducman69 said:
Um slight reality check -- children in the US have been tried as adults when the crime appears to justify it.

We didn't have this problem in the 80s and 90s, because our police forces weren't so militarized. What we need is a change in the police force mentality, so that they soften their initial response. If it was fine to do so in the 80s and 90s, its fine to do so now.
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Police have had SWAT units for a long time. I'm pretty sure you can look up like movies from the 80s and 90s and see SWAT police in them even which is pretty evident that they were around then. People just hadn't figured out it was a thing to prank/victimize others using them as the instrument of their stupidity. Don't fall into the "In my day it was better!" trap which happens to a lot of people as they get older and don't bother to think realistically think about how things actually were in the past because they either don't remember, remember incorrectly, or were too young to notice.
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CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Um slight reality check -- children in the US have been tried as adults when the crime appears to justify it.



Police have had SWAT units for a long time. I'm pretty sure you can look up like movies from the 80s and 90s and see SWAT police in them even which is pretty evident that they were around then.
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They've had them since 1967.
 
I think most people miss the point on this issue. Sure the police could tone it down a notch, but that still doesn't stop the call from being made in the first place. The biggest issue with this, and a bunch of other evil internet shenanigans, is the person committing the farce believes nobody will find them. They believe the inter-webs is their play thing and they won't get caught. So under the veil of "anonymity" they behave like the true asshats they are. They think themselves smart when they get a hold of some ip sniffing software and make the call on a "burner phone"... but they forget one of the prime rules of the internet: it never forgets. The police just run everything backwards, and follow the "E-trail" you leave behind. That said, it is still very possible to do something as retarded as "Swatting" without getting caught... but if you have the means to do so, chances are you have the knowledge to things much greater than calling a swat team on someone.

What needs to be done, is there needs to be an informational campaign that targets younger children and educate them about what the internet is and how it works, and that if you do stupid stuff on the web, it can and will effect your everyday live. Kind of like the "Say no to drugs" crap they spew in school, except make it much more relevant and informational and stress actual facts not stuff like "I smoked a joint one time and it gave me cancer on my genitals!"

But of course nothing will be done because crime these days is a lucrative commodity. The more of it there is, the more money we throw at police forces to "deter" it. I haven't looked up any statistics, but I would be willing to wager crimes that involve murder, theft, abduction, sexual abuse etc. generally go unsolved when compared to drug busts, prostitution, copyright infringement, tax evasion, traffic violations, or a high media profile crime. If that is the case, then I would have to say the reason it happens is because the latter crimes generally involve some form of confiscation of high value goods, or "evidence" as they usually call it. The case file is open and closed in a week and the department gets to keep all the shiny stuff. Where as a murder, you get stuck with a dead body, lots of questions with little to no answers and a long road of investigative paper work ahead.

Im done ranting now. TLDR: Anti-swatting bill huge waste of time and money and won't work. Educate kids that big brother is always watching... and swatting someone will get you escorted away by a swat team, and then leave the parent's with the bill.
 
Just what we need: Congress making new laws to supplant ones that already exist. Are these idiots trying to imply that calling in a bomb threat or making a false report of a crime weren't already illegal to begin with?

I think Congress should be forced to sit through watching "The Purge" sometime, maybe it'll stoke a fire under their dead asses to do real work instead of wasting time and money on this kind of redundant bullshit.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
The problem isn't the police, it's men who have that anti-cop twerk in their brains because of the injustice of being pulled over for speeding by a "corrupt" officer who pulled them over for speeding when they were actually speeding.
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Lol. Twerk? :p If you think that's the only you're quite naive.
 
tikiman2012 said:
Maybe if the police weren't so eager to gear up for urban warfare this wouldn't be such a big problem. Send 2 units to do a welfare check first. What's that called? Oh yeah, doing their job.
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Because in the event of a real threat, the perpetrators will give the police time to respond accordingly before executing innocent citizens...

I get where you're coming from, but it doesn't make your statement any less amusing. I wan't to assume you are 25 years old or less, but I know enough to not assume those types of things.
 
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