This happens often?

the blame is solely on whoever made the false report to the cops

you can't expect police not to act on a 911 call, imagine if they ignore a call and something serious actually happens. better to be safe than sorry.

Nothing is instantaneous, and even if they did possess the technology (I'm going to assume they do, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), in such a high risk situation time is extremely precious and seconds matter.

I think what you're proposing is a lot easier said than done.

If someone calls 911, says in a serious voice "I am near a school, I just saw a shooter with what looked like automatic weapons, he went into X building," and then hangs up, do you think the person taking the call will say "Hm this could be a hoax, we should track this caller" before they dispatch a response?

this happened today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGnPUUQ1ZoA

pretty sure thats why he made this thread

.

so what if this happens to someone who is streaming a league match or something similar (as some tf2 players do)

Normal Esea rules i'd assume. 5 minute pause, get a backup or play 5v6

That's awful. Will getting swatted show up on your permanent criminal record? Because that would make life difficult for some people if they are job hunting in the future.

You stop playing the match? I don't think the swat team will care if you say "cmon guysh im playing a SUPER important video game right now. Arrest me after this is over pls"

I think the question was more about the response from the league, not the cops.

The only person at fault is the one who misuses the emergency response resources.

If someone calls 911 saying they are seeing smoke coming out of a house the firefighters shouldn't go "hurr durr well maybe they are just grilling inside." first.

It depends on the state. After a quick google search it appears they do and in most states for around seven years.

I actually watch this guy and his friends, and it sucks to see this happen to them too. What sucks is that this is in their office space so everyone else in the building who works there that has nothing to do with it had to be evacuated also, on a fucking weekday. I hope whoever did this happily jerking off on them self to their "successful" raid on the Creatures.

EDIT: This guy: https://twitter.com/ScrewPain is saying he's the one who did it, apparently him and his friends swatted some other people from the group's parents and are threatening others from the group. There's also a pastebin I'm seeing of this guy's name and address. If he's the one who did it, I hope he learns that this stuff isn't a fucking joke. Also his twitter profile has a pastebin of people's addresses and various accounts.

The internet is getting scarier and scarier.

i blame their parents

someone is going to get shot eventually, mistakes happen i hope people realize that.

Poor guy.

I seriously doubt any tf2 league admin would not reschedule a match if evidence of swatting was presented.

Imagine getting swatted except with prepaid pizza someone ordered. Except they make you tip or look like a jerk in front of hundreds of people.

I'm not sure I'd be thrilled if I was treated that way by police officers.

Not saying that safety isn't important, but was all of this necessary for safety?
Important question to ask, no doubt.

Everything they did was standard procedure. There were definitely moments when the officers grated on me too ("What are you laughing about?"), but when you have a call reporting a gunman in action, you won't worry so much about hurting people's feelings. I imagine we would have a different emotional response if we saw from the perspective of the officers (call comes in about reported gunfire, possible bomb, etc.) than from a streamer just playing some vidya games.

I have seen grandpa sex while looking for some ib school shit, I never trusted google since then

Here is a pretty interesting article I found awhile back on a guy who got swatted.

There is really no way to stop this from happening, the only thing people can do is try and prevent it. If police get a call that there is a hostage situation, armed gunman or bomb threat, they have to respond to it. Probably the best course of action is for people who are in danger of being 'swatted' to tell the police.

That person would need to tell the police of the situation and show them that there is a threat of them being swatted. Then some sort of deal could be worked out where the guy shows the police he isn't a threat and the police would call them or send an officer to check in if they do get an emergency call.

Not perfect but it really is the best way it can be done at this point.

This is fucking hilarious.

Am I the only one who gets more upset by the cops moving the camera? Isn't recording the police legal?

meh fuck the police. they are so rude.
I feel bad for the people who get swatted, but I do enjoy watching murican cops waste their time.

in terms of blame id go 70% person calling fake bomb threats
30% overeager pigs taking freedom in the name of homeland security and the war on terror.

Probably the best way to defend yourself against this is masking all your personal information and not showing where you are. It at least shortens the list of people who could have made the 911 call to people who actually know where you live, i.e. people you know in real life. It probably also helps not to use a webcam, because the people who get a kick out of this probably get more of a kick out of it because they can see it happening on the stream and record it.

As far as police brutality goes; it's kind of a fine line. If a guy is surrendering himself so obviously as was the case in the video, there is no need to step on his head once you have guns pointed at him and he's pinned to the ground and surrounded by multiple officers. On the other hand, those SWAT-officers probably have quite some adrenaline rushing through their veins because they are looking for someone who is armed and reportedly firing, so it is sort of understandable that they just instinctively try to dominate their targets for their and others' safety. You can clearly see that their aggression and adrenaline lower as they start realising that there is no threat. However, officers receive training to deal with these situations and they should know exactly how much force to use to be safe without discomforting potentially innocent civilians. I also can't imagine that they haven't encountered someone laughing when they get raided before, because a reaction of utter disbelief is probably quite common.

The "What are you laughing at?" is a typical tense response fuelled by adrenaline, it's more of a challenge than it is an actual request for information. It sounds like Kootra realised what was happening and why it was happening before they even got into the room... I would have chuckled too at such a display if I knew it was all because of some bored/spiteful kid on the Internet reporting a fake shooting incident.

It is, but my understanding was the streamer didn't want thousands of people see him getting arrested and so told the police to shut it down. Could be wrong though.

its definitely in your best interest to keep personal information secret but its just not that easy when you use your real name for tournaments or whatever the case may be. they will find you