'SWATTING': SWAT teams used for revenge and fun

This most recent event occurred just yesterday:

SWATTING VICTIM: Gamer's video shows SWAT bursting into office while Littleton Police investigate report of shooting

An online gamer's video shows the moment armed officers burst into an office in Littleton Wednesday afternoon to investigate a report of an "active shooter." The report proved to be false, but the investigation caused nearby schools to enact security procedures and businesses to be evacuated.

Officers were searching the office buildings at West Mineral Avenue and Broadway after a report of an active shooter was phoned in but found no evidence of a shooting. They now suspect this was a false report and are searching for the person who used a landline phone to call in the hoax.

This really pisses me off.....and "SWATTING" isn't anything new.

More than five years ago, I posted this thread: SWATTERS: Scum of the earth!

Now that some time has passed and more people are waking up to how dangerous these raids are, maybe more people will appreciate what a truly vile practice this is.

VICE recently did this piece on the subject:



A perfect storm of the crazies using the crazies.

What is wrong with people????

Where is anything about revenge or for fun?

a reply to: Antipathy17

originally posted by: Antipathy17
Where is anything about revenge or for fun?

I guess you didn't take the time to read the material and watch the videos.

You know what they say about leading horses to water....

That's a very expensive "joke" for the community to pay for. This life is certainly full of crazies.

No offense, but these people need to have their asses swatted at the very least followed by a foot and smack in the mouth to boot.

I can't imagine how terrifying it would be to be caught up in something like that so unexpectedly. There needs to be more "detective" work done in these instances before they just break in like gang busters on innocent folks. They used to do that. You know...their job. They actually put effort into figuring out what needed to be done, the best way to do it, and the safest way to do it. That no longer seems to be the case.

I've long thought that some have been doing this out of revenge, for fun, and for practice and it appears that I may be correct in quite a few cases. One has to wonder about the added benefit of scaring the shiite out of the public in the process. Don't step out of line or risk us busting into your bedroom at 3 am, guns at the ready.

The acts of law enforcement lately are seriously appalling. I'm not a cop hater by any means, but something needs to be done about all of this.

What's wrong with people?

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.



How many times do people remember seeing the SWAT team called in just a decade ago? Now it's like they are on some kind of sick speed dial.

The whole SWAT concept needs a rethink.....
The officers involved in the assault teams need serious psychological evaluation and testing for deviates......
Its my contention they do it because they like the rush.......it must be a tremendous burst of ego and power trip to terrorize innocent people....for no reason.....

These were reportedly the Tweets from a person claiming responsibility:

-- Social media blame --

A Twitter user with the handle @ScrewPain appears to be taking the blame for the "swatting" call. His first message from Wednesday was sent at 11:02 a.m. and includes a link to The Creatures' account on video game streaming site Twitch.tv.

The next message at 11:04 a.m. says, "get owned @Kootra."

Police said their first 911 call about the active shooter was around 11:30 a.m.

Other messages from @ScrewPain say "#BlameComcast" and "#ISISGang." Some even include replies to other members of The Creatures.

In one message, addressed to our @DenverChannel account and the City of Littleton, says "your pd" and shows a picture of a marionette puppet.

One way to protest SWAT brutality might be to keep them suited up and chasing phantom shooters all over the country.....
An ideal protest because they are bound to blow away a few innocents by mistake...thus reducing their support base even further.....a sort of HAMAS ploy.....

a reply to: stirling

Did you catch the last part of the quote from my previous post?

In one message, addressed to our @DenverChannel account and the City of Littleton, says "your pd" and shows a picture of a marionette puppet.

I guess this is going to get much worse, before it gets better.

I really want to get my Phd and do a study on the psychological effects of police raids and searches.

It's one area I think people just don't understand unless they go through one.

It's a personal violation of your body - much like rape. It's terrorizing, degrading and dehumanizing.

a reply to: loam

This isn't all that uncommon in the Twitch community. If you aren't in the clique or piss off the wrong kid they will make your life hell. There's a lot of money changing hands on Twitch. Some streamers make six figures a year. Between Twitch, YouTube, and competitive tournaments there's a big pile of money to be made. Where there is money you will find people willing to to anything to get a bigger slice of the pie. Only a coward would hide behind a computer screen and send a bunch of pigs to attack their "enemy".

maybe this will be a catalyst to bring about good change, perhaps having more raids on innocent people who wouldnt have expected to go through one ever, will make it more evident and in the light just how abusive and excessive the force used in raids really is, especially if it continues happening to people who are actively live streaming the occurrence like this one, it certainly isnt going to do favors to the Public Relations of LEO's

www.youtube.com...



notice how the first thing the cop does when he finds out he's being recorded is to block the camera then demand instruction on how to stop the camera's stream. gee i wonder why it was so important to him that he not be recorded doing his job as a public servant? remember that the moment this cop is spending his time trying to stop the recording the building is still being searched for an active shooter, there are still potentially peoples lives in danger but whats more important then that? THAT HE STOPS THE CAMERA RECORDING HIM PERFORMING HIS PUBLIC DUTIES!!! after he's sure he will not be held to the light of transparency and accountability THEN the cop will (maybe hopefully who knows without the camera) resume aiding the officers in searching the building for the potential active shooter.

notice the one cop degrading the victim when he was cracking a smile 1:25 "what about this is funny to you?!" like how dare that kid have a nervous reaction causing him to smile! that kid was trying to go about his normal day when these cops bust in and humiliate him and manhandle him and shout at him, how dare he not take this seriously, he better take it seriously so as to be sure the experience rest on his psyche as hard as it can, for shame if he tries to take it lightly so as to avoid it bogging down his mental state for god knows how long after its all over....

Throughout the 90's and before, even back before the Internet when "going online" meant connecting to a BBS or one of the "online services" like Compuserve, AOL, GEnie, Prodigy, etc — the prevailing wisdom was do not give out your personal information to anyone.

These days now that the mainstream of society has gone online and social networking is ubiquitous, people seemingly can't WAIT to tell everyone in the world all about them themselves. This has made getting "doxed" incredibly easy. Swatting is bad, but it's not the only thing that somebody can do with your information. In the old days, you might get harassing phone calls and things like magazines subscriptions you didn't order and possibly worse, carded items shipped to your door (and all the law enforcement involvement that could entail).

These days you're exposing yourself to those risks as well as threats with extremely serious real world consequences from swatting to cyberstalking turned real-life stalking and more. The more information a person can find about you, the worse it is. Swatting is perhaps the worst as in a very worse case scenario, it could result in somebody being shot or killed but it's far from the only way the system can be abused utilizing an anonymous phone call. Consider that most states have laws that compel child protective services to investigate any and all allegations of abuse including those delivered over anonymous hotlines. That's another biggie but the attacks are basically limited only by the information the attacker has, the imagination of the attacker and how far the attacker is willing to go.

Keep your social networking accounts private, be smart about what information you make available in your social networking accounts and do not post information that can be used by a potential attacker to either launch a real world attack on you or that provides enough of a toe-hold to obtain the information necessary to do so. We live in an error of massive privacy-invading public databases and information that persists online indefinitely.

Thanks for posting this.
I saw this on Break and didn't know how to link it.
And two I couldn't make out what was being said.

I agree this was very expensive and dangerous hoax to play as one said here.
And to another poster thanks for linking the twitter account it came from.

I expect fans to SWAT back at the hoaxer in the future if cops have not shut down and arrest the perp already.
Considering the game being played.
What were the cops thinking while listening on the other side of the door.
With the gamer saying....shoot..throw explosive...
Get the idea?

originally posted by: Bigburgh

I expect fans to SWAT back at the hoaxer in the future if cops have not shut down and arrest the perp already.
Considering the game being played.
What were the cops thinking while listening on the other side of the door.
With the gamer saying....shoot..throw explosive...
Get the idea?

did you watch the video? he was not saying any such thing just before they entered. he realized something was going on. he was commenting about them clearing rooms in a low voice.

originally posted by: generik

originally posted by: Bigburgh

I expect fans to SWAT back at the hoaxer in the future if cops have not shut down and arrest the perp already.
Considering the game being played.
What were the cops thinking while listening on the other side of the door.
With the gamer saying....shoot..throw explosive...
Get the idea?

did you watch the video? he was not saying any such thing just before they entered. he realized something was going on. he was commenting about them clearing rooms in a low voice.

Yes I watched it.
But he was not saying much for the first couple mins.
Meaning though that SWAT was waiting and listening long before the entry. Before kootra started taping.

I love it, they moved the camera and shut down the stream AFTER the fact
Sorry piggies, your bacon is caught sizzling