Good. Throw the book at him. And if it turns out that he's involved in other cases in other states, hopefully they throw the book at him too. A loaded gun is not something to joke with, and the other threats he made are serious too.
Swatter Arrested, Could Face Five Years in Prison
- Thread starter StewShearerOld
- Start date
Good riddance. Hope they throw the book at him. Yes, he's young. Yes his life is probably ruined. You know what? I still have no sympathy for the little shit. Make an example out of him and every other self-centered little bastard they catch for this sort of thing and maybe others who think SWATing is funny will rethink their bullshit attitudes. Not so much fun being an ass when you're not protected by what you thought was internet anonymity after all, is it?
Normally I would agree, rehabilitation is almost always better for society in the long run than punitive "revenge" style justice is but this is something else (assuming he is found guilty of course). Firstly he had the other crimes, harassment and intimidation but the Swatting incidents are far worse.Barbas said:
Each one of those put lives at risk, firstly the Swat teams were out dealing with his bullshit and they might have been needed somewhere else in a real situation were the lives of the public and other officers might have been in danger. Then you have the risks of any forced entry like that, things can go badly wrong and members of the Swat team and the the victims could have gotten badly injured or killed. Not to mention the terror and property damage the victims had to suffer because of it, having armed men break into your house and hold everyone at gunpoint is terrifying even if they are a lawful entity like the police and people can be left feeling anxious and unsafe in their homes for years to come.
He is allegedly responsible for several Swatting incidents, as the first one to face trial for this if he is convicted they should make an example of him. This behaviour needs to be shut down fast, unlucky for him to get caught when he did but it should reduce the number of incidents and less lives will be at risk plus fewer young men will be going to jail at all as more will see what a bad idea Swatting is (I have no illusions about all of it stopping obviously).
I know, and I agree that he should face punishment for what he did. He was selfish and stupid and if he didn't end up causing someone's death then he's been damn lucky. Better if he hadn't done the crime, obviously, but the idea of a 19 year old going to prison is still a sad one to me. I suppose the issue to me isn't the punishment itself but the prison system.J Tyran said:
Okay good job on getting this guy arrested but 5 years? That's it? THAT'S IT?!?!?
For multiple instances of a crime that puts its victims in extreme danger, multiple cases of identity theft, repeated hacking and fraud, and that only gets you FIVE YEARS?!?!?
What the hell?
For multiple instances of a crime that puts its victims in extreme danger, multiple cases of identity theft, repeated hacking and fraud, and that only gets you FIVE YEARS?!?!?
What the hell?
I got two years at his age, not the American prison system obviously but I managed to turn my life around after (if anything it was the main catalyst for it). He wasn't just stupid though, getting drunk and getting into a fight that goes to far is stupid (a couple of examples of the other young men I met). Showing off to your friends in your car and killing one of them in a crash is stupid. This was repeatedly reckless criminal behaviour with possibly lethal consequences, I would be more forgiving if he had done it once and then thought about it after but if the allegations are true he did it several times along with a bunch of other nasty behaviour.Barbas said:
I'm not unsympathetic to those that get arrested, especially looking at the state of the American 'justice' system, even if they are scum of the earth people. But, at the end of the day, he not only swatted someone (which to be fair, provided no one got hurt I can't get on my soap box about, its an abhorrent act but not worth anywhere near 5 years) but he also coerced two people.Barbas said:
It should also be noted that looking at the methods he used to coerce them they were most likely teenagers his age or younger. So yeah, fuck him, I wouldn't give him the American prison system mind you, fuck that sideways but I wouldn't shed a tear if he got the shit kicked out of him.
Also, who the fuck contacts the police department from your home computer? You go to a Starbucks man with a cheap word processor of a computer. Bunch of god damn amateurs.
I would suspect that it will turn into maybe two years of actual prison time with a few extra on parole.Zefar said:
Five years seems light, honestly. Identity theft on top of intentionally creating a potentially deadly situation for the lols. I am frankly astounded that swatting hasn't resulted in a death yet. Telling cops they are going in to an active shooter situation isn't going to take much to get them to shoot first.
Looks more like DiCrapio to me.Rastien said:
...I know what I said.
OT: Yeah, wasting the time of the SWAT Team and scaring the shit out of other gamers in the process should be a felony. You're basically sending your law enforcement off on a false alarm on purpose, diverting them from any time where they could actually be NEEDED. Put the son of a ***** away. If I ever have an emergency, I don't want the guys to be unavailable.
Barbas said:
This could spark a pretty interesting topic. Forgiving criminals, with respect of their history and their future job aspects.
In this case, this string of lawbreaking was done out of complete malicious hatred. Criminals (usually) don't choose to be criminals, they are forced into it by poverty (, or feeling that they are impoverished). These crimes itself are pretty bad, I think alot of people have no idea how dangerous it is to 'swat' someone. Threatening and/or attempting to go hack someones bank account and screw them over financially is also pretty up there too. An eye for an eye...
Should have guessed there would be some neck beard comments. Words cannot describe how much I hate these people.
Yeah, neck beards don't really look good on anyone. But why would you say "that's what I expected him to look like"? Why would you go for the lowest common denominator and say something that idiotic when you have something bigger to discuss?
You've already got the fact that he's an asshole. We've got that about him. Why comment instead on what he looks like? I just don't get why some folks insist on being dickheads about something when there are far more important things to talk about.
Yeah, neck beards don't really look good on anyone. But why would you say "that's what I expected him to look like"? Why would you go for the lowest common denominator and say something that idiotic when you have something bigger to discuss?
You've already got the fact that he's an asshole. We've got that about him. Why comment instead on what he looks like? I just don't get why some folks insist on being dickheads about something when there are far more important things to talk about.
Just like murder. Murdering Murders has built us a world of all man kind embracing each other with absolutely no knives involved!J Tyran said:
OT: I think that sentence is too harsh. Fine him for sure but locking a young man into prison where he can sit on his ass do nothing for 5 years isn't going to improve his life or that of his loved ones who are going to likely support him. But then again that is my problem with the american prison system (which lets never forget is itself hyper racist).
Oh Good!
Yes, I'm aware it's tragic and sad that a young guy who might have actually contributed to society is probably screwed, but on the other hand...
Swatting is essentially rolling a dice to see if someone dies. Considering how gun-happy and bloodthirsty the US police force is these days, anyone who gets swatted is at a pretty high risk of being gunned down in their own home. It's practically attempted murder.
Plus, considering how he supposedly blackmailed people as well, sending a message to everyone else doing it by sending him to jail is a good thing. That and maybe he can be reformed. Hopefully.
As sad as it is that it's a young guy, I'm not sad that he as a person is going to jail.
Hopefully, the cops catch a few more of these guys and the swatting thing just stops, as these jackholes realize that it's a serious crime and shit will get VERY fucking serious for them if they get caught.
Yes, I'm aware it's tragic and sad that a young guy who might have actually contributed to society is probably screwed, but on the other hand...
Swatting is essentially rolling a dice to see if someone dies. Considering how gun-happy and bloodthirsty the US police force is these days, anyone who gets swatted is at a pretty high risk of being gunned down in their own home. It's practically attempted murder.
Plus, considering how he supposedly blackmailed people as well, sending a message to everyone else doing it by sending him to jail is a good thing. That and maybe he can be reformed. Hopefully.
As sad as it is that it's a young guy, I'm not sad that he as a person is going to jail.
Hopefully, the cops catch a few more of these guys and the swatting thing just stops, as these jackholes realize that it's a serious crime and shit will get VERY fucking serious for them if they get caught.
Can't say I have much sympathy for him. When you're putting some innocent person or people at risk for your own amusement, then I'd say you deserve what you get, pretty much.
To be honest with the way kids and young adults behave nowadays I find myself with increasingly little sympathy. If you do an adult sized crime, you deserve adult sized crime. Especially when the motive is malicious and tied to things like deliberate intimidation.Carrots_macduff said:
See, a bit of shoplifting (stealth, not mugging), some vandalism, maybe pulling a fire alarm, that's all stuff I think you can go easy with kids on and scare them straight. I mean I don't think some kid deserves 5 years if he eggs a house on Halloween and is too slow running away for example. On the other hand when your dealing with someone who falsely deploys a SWAT team, directly risking lives, and engages in identity theft and electronic intimidation... that's an entirely different case. As are cases like those girls who tried to kill another girl to appease Slender Man, sure it's a fictional character, and yes I think more time needed to be involved in finding who convinced them of this, but at the end of the day while a fictional character they still made a conscious effort to murder someone in the name of a malevolent supernatural entity. Sure, maybe some elements of this were childish, but it was still a conscious, pre-meditated, act of pure evil. Ask yourself what they wanted to do if they actually DID make friends with Slendy... I mean seriously, I might have actually tried to get them on planning mass murder, sure it would never work, but the intent was there, sort of like someone who thinks he builds a nuke (and fails) and tries to set it off, he was never really a threat, but that doesn't mean he wasn't trying to kill a crazy amount of people.
What's more at 19 this isn't a kid... and frankly I think five years is too little given the number of crimes, the motive should be a major aggravating factor as well. If this was all over something as petty as video games he represents a threat to society on a major level since who knows what he would do with a real motive. See, if your motivated by a lot of money, love, position, or similar things that's at least understandable, a person gave into temptation of a sort that would affect a lot of people. It's still wrong, but it's not like people run into those kinds of opportunities (real ones) every day, and I can see how someone can have that part of a moral compass repaired. On the other hand when your going after people for video games on their own (not money that just happens to be connect to them) I can't see the person ever having had a moral compass to be repaired. There is a big difference between getting mad, and maybe even wanting some kind of extreme revenge over something like a game, and actually premeditating and putting such a plan into motion electronically. Most people calm down. While it doesn't apply to cases like this, that's why "heat of the moment" is a defense in a lot of other crimes, or more appropriately a mitigating factor, not an actual defense.