In today’s Question of the Day, I asked to what depths the civilian disarmament industry could sink to deny Americans their Constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms. Here’s a cautionary tale from arstechnica.com about an incident that went down last Thursday: “It was around 5pm. [security blogger Brian] Krebs, 40, had just finished preparing his home for a small dinner party he had planned for later that evening. While vacuuming his home, his phone rang a few times, but he decided not to answer since he didn’t want to get held up. When he finished, he realized there was still some tape at the entrance of his house where Christmas lights had been. He thought it made sense to remove it before his guests arrived . . .
“As soon as I open the front door, I hear this guy yelling at me, behind a squad car, pointing a pistol at me saying: ‘Don’t move. Put your hands up,'” Krebs, who is a long-time friend and colleague, told me. “The first thing I said was: ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.'”
In all, there were at least a dozen officers with pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles pointed at him. They had police dogs circling his house and cruisers had sealed off a nearby street. Krebs, who was dressed in just gym shorts and a T-shirt, complied. Wisely.
“Two different guys were barking orders at me,” he continued. “I finally said: ‘Which way should I go?'” One officer told Krebs to lie on the ground, but before he could comply the other cop ordered Krebs to walk backwards. Eventually, “they put the cuffs on me and took me up the street. I was freezing the whole time.”
Krebs said an officer of the department told him that police received a 911 call that appeared to come from Krebs’ phone. The caller posed as Krebs and said he was hiding in a closet after Russian thieves had broken into his home and shot his wife. They were now stealing jewelry, the caller reported. Fairfax County Police officials didn’t respond to calls seeking comment for this article.
As well they might not. It’s bad enough when citizens fear crime. When they’re afraid of a police SWAT team converging on their home, well, they might start to question the whole SWAT team thing. In other words, it starts being police militarization when it starts being you.
More than that, this is the kind of danger I’ve warned against since New York’s [not-so] SAFE Act.
A gun control advocate decides that a gun nut (that’s you) is a bad, bad thing. The gun grabber calls the cops to report that they’ve seen you wielding an illegal “assault rifle.” They might do so breathlessly, accusing you of brandishing. Or take the above approach and make-up a “crime in progress.”
Do you think Officer Krupke is going to phone you to check out the story? Arrive on his own and politely knock on your door to make enquiries? Spend some time with a judge getting a warrant? Or do you think a SWAT team flash bang could be the first you hear of it?
I have no idea how to defend against SWATTING, save making friends with your local po-po. That way they know you’re not the bad guy. In theory. ‘Cause in practice, what? Not to mention the possibility that a federal SWAT or SRT team could be steaming into your digs.
I guess the only thing that needs saying here is that if you see ninjas swarming towards you, remember it could be a false alarm. How reassuring is that?