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 Seminole County State Attorney’s Office.
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.
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.