The Left's 'Swatting' Campaign Will Not End Well

Swatting, which is making prank 911 calls to report a nonexistent imminent threat in order to prompt an emergency police response, especially from a SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactical) team has been a popular craze for at least a decade.

It’s also had dangerous consequences for both the person being swatted as well as for law enforcement, and it doesn’t end well for the person making the fake report when he can be identified.

Nonetheless the practice continues, and where in the past celebrities have been targeted, now the “pranksters” are turning their attention to well-known conservative figures.

In the latest such incident, the home of former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was swatted on Monday as he was in the middle of his Labor Day War Room podcast.

That was the fourth time he’d been swatted, and the second while he was on-the-air.

Bannon told the Post Millennial that the swatter called from a New York City phone number.

"The War Room seconds John Paul Jones: ‘We have not yet begun to fight,'" he added.

Bannon was swatted at his home earlier this week and swatted again while on-the-air hosting his show in July.

Conservative Trump supporter Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was swatted twice within as many days. The second incident happened in the early morning hours of August 25, when a caller claiming to be “Wayne Greene” said he was about to shoot his family and then himself.

“If anyone tried to stop me from shooting myself, I will shoot them,” the individual said, according to law enforcement.

Later that morning the Georgia Republican tweeted, “Swatted again last night.”

Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts was swatted six years ago.

"As I came out on my front porch, there were police on the lawn, cruisers cutting off the street, and some of the officers had long guns out," Clark told reporters.

Although she’s a Democrat, she was apparently targeted for introducing the Interstate Swatting Hoax Act in Congress, in order to make the practice a federal crime.

For a time it was considered “funny” to swat celebrities. Swatting victims have included actors Tom Cruise and Ashton Kutcher, music artists Miley Cyrus and Justin Timberlake, as well as TV personality Simon Cowell.

Swatting is against federal law and can bring in the FBI.

“The FBI looks at these crimes as a public safety issue,” said Kevin Kolbye, an assistant special agent in charge of the Dallas Division. “It’s only a matter of time before somebody gets seriously injured as a result of one of these incidents.”

And it can be deadly for both the victim and responding officers.

“The victims are scared and taken by surprise,” Kolbye said. Meanwhile, law enforcement personnel rush to the scene of a swatting incident on high alert and “believe they have a violent subject to apprehend or an innocent victim to rescue. It’s a dangerous situation any way you look at it.”

In late December 2017 Wichita, Kansas police responded to a caller claiming that he had shot his father in the head and was holding his mother and brother at gunpoint.

It was a hoax that turned tragic when the homeowner was fatally shot by a responding officer. The hoaxer, described as a California-based “serial swatter,” was caught, pled guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Another serial swatter, this one from Tennessee, targeted a 60-year-old man who died of a heart attack after his residence was surrounded by police. The swatter in that incident received a five-year prison sentence.

But it can be just as tragic for law enforcement who may get into accidents rushing to the scene of what they believe is a bomb threat or hostage situation.

And once they arrive on scene, an unsuspecting homeowner may fire upon officers under the belief that he’s under attack by a gang of home invaders.

It’s a dangerous game for everyone and it needs to stop, beginning with law enforcement thoroughly investigating each case, prosecutors pushing for convictions and recommending stiff sentences, and judges delivering them.

Then maybe phone pranks will once again be limited to asking tobacco vendors if they have Prince Albert in a can (let him out).