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 188 points 10 months 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 86 points 10 months 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 102 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This incidence of swatting is literally terrorism.

[–] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 56 points 10 months 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 47 points 10 months ago (1 children)

When it's right wing domestic terrorism

[–] dylanmorgan 21 points 10 months 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 50 points 10 months ago (4 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 39 points 10 months ago (22 children)

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

[–] cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works 29 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is the real answer. Arrest the spoofers. Anyone can vpn and spoof a phone call. It's why I don't answer my phone anymore

[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

I don't answer my phone either. I have a special Ring tone for the family, that's it. At work I got moved to a new location and asked me if I needed my phone. I said no and haven't used the office phone since. I email companies and setup in person meetings or teams meetings. There's no need for a phone at work if one can just do teams.

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months 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 30 points 10 months 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 10 months ago (1 children)

This is the real solution.

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[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months 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 72 points 10 months 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 36 points 10 months 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 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

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

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[–] TragicNotCute@lemmy.world 66 points 10 months 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 52 points 10 months 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 41 points 10 months 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 10 months 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 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] Sabata11792@kbin.social 15 points 10 months ago

We had 1 rule.

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[–] BeautifulMind@lemmy.world 48 points 10 months ago (3 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 18 points 10 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] lingh0e@sh.itjust.works 7 points 10 months ago

Blueboxed it.

[–] Schmoo 6 points 10 months 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.

[–] prole@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago

Anyone else used to read 2600 magazine?

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[–] fosforus@sopuli.xyz 32 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 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!"

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[–] ghostdoggtv@lemmy.world 26 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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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