Over the last few years, a new type of harassment has reared its ugly head. It’s aggressive. It’s evil. It can get people killed. And it’s at taxpayer expenese.
This new type of harassment? SWATting.
Now, if you’re not familiar with the term, the concept of swatting is when someone calls the police on someone else with accusations of danger that will get a swat team out on the premises of the person being swatted.
The idea is to, at the very least, harass and shake up the person being swatted. At the worst, it’s an attempt to set up a situation in which law enforcement may kill a person because of the misunderstanding.
In other words, it’s an attempt to commit murder by cop.
Now, apparently, swatting has gone beyond teenagers doing stupid things against individuals that they’re unhappy with. This time, they’re going after colleges. Mitchell Byars and Josephine Walker write,
An online group has claimed responsibility for the false shooting report at several colleges last week, including the University of Colorado.
Why it matters: Identifying the actors involved in swatting sprees has become increasingly difficult for law enforcement as the attacks frequently originate online, overseas or by using AI software — and it’s only going to get worse, multiple public safety officials told Axios.
The latest: An online group called Purgatory has claimed credit for the alerts issued at CU, Villanova University and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campuses in recent days, according to Wired Magazine.
– Axios was unable to independently verify the group’s claims. According to Wired, the group is known to offer an online “menu” of illegal services.
Now, you may be asking why this organization pulled this situation on universities, and the answer is that I don’t know.
It’s a horrible prank if that’s the intent. It’s evil if they are just trying to harass people.
And, unfortunately, people who are swatted sometimes report long-term stress effects after the incident.
This kind of nonsense needs to stop. People need to do better.
