this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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Police were dispatched toward Smith's residence but were called off when they learned it was a false alarm and that everyone inside the home was safe.

Special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the prosecution of former President Donald Trump in two federal cases, was the target of an attempted swatting at his Maryland residence on Christmas Day.

According to two law enforcement sources, someone called 911 and said that Smith had shot his wife at the address where Smith lives.

Montgomery County Police dispatched units toward the home but were called off when the Deputy U.S. Marshals protecting Smith and his family told police that it was a false alarm and that everyone inside the home was safe.

No arrests have been made in connection with the incident.

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[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 171 points 1 year ago (18 children)

No arrests have been made in connection with the incident.

This shit needs to change. This has been a problem for too many years now.

[–] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 79 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For real. Maybe people will take it seriously now that we've gone from the swatting live steamers to swatting representatives and elected officials.

[–] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 91 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This incidence of swatting is literally terrorism.

[–] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 53 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I get that, but we tend to not take terrorism very seriously when it's domestic terrorism.

[–] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 42 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When it's right wing domestic terrorism

[–] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 20 points 1 year ago

Yep. When it’s lefties chaining themselves to a fence to protest nuclear weapons we beat them half to death before giving them life in prison.

[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 46 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yeah. When I first heard about swatting you heard about arrests. Now it seems like the cops don't give a shit.

When I was in school you'd get a bomb threat in the county once a year or so but they always caught them. How are police so inept now?

[–] TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip 37 points 1 year ago (21 children)

Because our phone regulations are absolute shit now and thus it’s much easier to hide this shit with everything now.

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

When I was in school you’d get a bomb threat in the county once a year or so but they always caught them.

I'm actually surprised about that. Maybe you went to school at a different time from me? I graduated in 1995. A couple of times a year, some kid (probably) would call in a bomb threat so they could get out of a test or whatever and they never got caught. We had a pay phone right outside the school, which didn't help.

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[–] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can’t have swatting problems if you don’t have swat teams.

Seriously, there should be a major push for police departments to de-emphasize swat and stop executing no-knock warrants.

[–] fiercekitten@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is the real solution.

[–] Moira_Mayhem@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

No, it's not a solution, it's a goal.

A solution would be planned systems of oversight and accountability that achieves the goal.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They’ll get whoever did this. The feds don’t take getting messed with lightly

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[–] TreeGhost@lemm.ee 67 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Its crazy to me that people think its the telephone companies that need more regulations here and not the police. SWAT teams shouldn't be going in guns blazing on anonymous calls and any injury or death should be solely their responsibility. By all means try to prosecute the people calling in the first case for misuse of emergency services, if you can identify them, but we all know who pulled the fucking trigger. Police can't both get to decide that they get to selectively enforce the law and then take no responsibility when the injure or kill innocent people.

[–] superduperenigma@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago

Police can't both get to decide that they get to selectively enforce the law and then take no responsibility when the injure or kill innocent people.

~~Supreme~~ Extreme Court: That's where your wrong, bucko.

[–] JustZ@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Telecoms do need more regulation. They can't trace these spoofed calls. There will be no arrests.

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You'd be surprised. Someone swatted my neighbor, and they actually made an arrest. I don't know if they will have enough evidence to convict, but it was good to see. It was traumatizing for my neighbor. She's an 80 year old woman who lives with her son. I would assume the guy who did it did so from a spoofed number, but they still managed to track someone down.

I have no idea why they were even targeted, and neither did they. My money was on someone trying to swat a different neighbor who I always hear loudly talking shit while gaming. He's always yelling loud enough that I can hear it next door. My thought is they were after him and they just screwed up the address and hit the house next door.

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[–] TragicNotCute@lemmy.world 60 points 1 year ago

The scary thing is the only reason he was safe and didn’t get swatted is because he already had armed guards protecting him.

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 49 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Die Hard has John McClane making an anonymous report of terrorists, which is then responded to by a single cop who drives by to see if there's anything going on.

When did that change?

[–] ook_the_librarian@lemmy.world 37 points 1 year ago (2 children)

When police started buying military surplus and find it's not exciting if it sits in an armory. Here's a blog post that links a good Last Week Tonight from 2014 about it.

[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

When all you have is an armored vehicle, high-powered rifles, and body armor, every problem looks like a brown-skinned terrorist.

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[–] yeather@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Sabata11792@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago

We had 1 rule.

[–] Moira_Mayhem@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

in the 90s when the War on Drugs gave every fuckdamn podunk cop corral the funding for assault weapons, body armor, and tanks.

Also Die Hard was an entertainment movie, not a documentary.

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[–] BeautifulMind@lemmy.world 46 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's wild to me that when the phone companies need to bill for a phone call they know exactly who to bill for it, but when it's something like this everyone is helpless because you can't track these things

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, like did someone use the Captain Crunch whistle to make this call from a payphone?

[–] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 year ago

Love how esoteric this joke is. The only people who get this are nerds old enough to remember or people who watched that one Tom Scott video about phreaking.

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[–] fosforus@sopuli.xyz 30 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

How the fuck can swatting work on such a high profile person? Should we all be swatting Trump himself 24/7?

"Hello 911, there's a black man disguised as a bloated ex-president breaking in to my home! He's heavily armed and he's speaking arabic!"

[–] mriormro@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] fosforus@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Came too close to working if you ask me, but ok.

[–] ghostdoggtv@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

I've changed my mind about the death penalty. What is swatting if not an attempt to have someone executed by the state?

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