An anonymous — and fraudulent — hostage-situation emergency call to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office resulted in a Coral Springs Fire rescue team racing to the family home of Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg.
A local TV station reported that “Hogg was not home at the time of the incident and is currently in Washington, DC with his mother to accept the RFK Human Rights award.”
SWATting is the dangerous “prank” of calling in fake crime reports in order to get heavily armed police to show up at the victim’s house. The resulting situation is potentially deadly.
The condemnation for today’s SWATting attempt on Hogg and his family has been swift and universal — and that’s just the condemnation coming from the Right.
In fact, I think all 50 states and the federal government should pass laws defining SWATting as attempted murder, with penalties to match.
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) June 5, 2018
https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1004018173631516672
SHAMEFUL! Hoax SWAT called to home of David Hogg, reports that hostages taken FALSE https://t.co/U7VN5B7z45 via @twitchyteam
— The 🐰 FOO (@PolitiBunny) June 5, 2018
This is just plain evil. https://t.co/Z8Q2uPccZm
— ¡El Sooopèrr! ن c137 (@SooperMexican) June 5, 2018
Political disagreements shouldn’t lead to so-called pranks where the victim and other innocent bystanders can wind up injured or dead.
I disagree with Hogg on virtually every issue he’s spoken up about, but he is playing by the rules of American politics to make his point. What happened this morning is, as others on the Right have pointed out today, attempted murder and has zero place in civil society.
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