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“Conservative bloggers are on heightened alert following a string of so-called ‘SWAT-ing’ incidents and are taking precautionary measures to ensure they don’t fall victim to the potentially dangerous prank as the political blogosphere prepares for a heated election season,” Fox reports. While conservative commentators aren’t the only ones being SWATted (as above), redstate.com blogger Erik Erickson and electronic columnist Patrick Frey were recent victims of bogus 911 calls. There appears to be method in this madness . . .
At the end of last month, theblaze.com fingered a potential mastermind behind Mr. Frey’s SWATting: Brett Kimberlin. Seems Mr. Kimberlin has been “terrorizing” commentators on both sides of the political divide. Fox (and others) don’t see SWATting in non-partisan terms . . .
The growing trend, which some say could one day prove deadly, had conservatives on edge at the annual RightOnline conference of right-wing bloggers and activists in Las Vegas this weekend.
I reckon right-leaning bloggers should be more afraid of STDs that SWATs. I could be wrong. One their members, Ali Akbar, reckons conservatives are in the crosshairs . .
Akbar told FoxNews.com that he believes he is a target after he claims his mother’s home address in Texas was posted on various Internet sites to “incite someone crazy on the fringe left to do something absolutely awful to one of us for what we’re talking about.”
Akbar and others are urging troops of conservative bloggers to protect themselves by contacting their local law enforcement before they post about a “controversial” topic.
“Notify law enforcement,” he said. “It’s uncomfortable to talk to your local police about this, but it’s absolutely important because getting SWAT-ted is not a joking matter. They come to your house with their guns drawn. They’ll kick in your door.”
Contact the police before you post? That may not be the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard, but it’s certainly one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard.
In fact, one wonders if an anti-blogger will call the cops pretending to be the blogger notifying the cops that they’re about to post something controversial. What would we call that? Straight-jacketing?
Still, SWATting is a serious, seriously scary, cowardly crime. As many of TTAG’s commentators have pointed out, it’s only a matter of time before a “no-knock” SWAT team encounters armed resistance. All then all hell will break loose.