Just got SWATed.
— chasing the dopamine (@randileeharper) April 3, 2015
So, this happened:
Last night, around 10:20 PM, I received a knock at my front door. I live in a secured building, and it’s rare that I have visitors, so it wasn’t any huge surprise to me when I opened the front door and 6 officers from the Oakland Police were standing outside.
Randi Harper, who posted the above on her blog today, was the victim of an attempted SWATting late last night. That is, one of her online enemies contacted the police, pretending that they were in her apartment holding someone hostage, in hopes of literally sending a SWAT team to bust down her door. Luckily for her, she had herself contacted the police some months earlier and warned them that someone might do this.
Had she not warned the cops in advance, more than six police officers would have shown up. In all likelihood, a literal SWAT team would have shown up, guns drawn, at her door. Instead, her encounter with the police, while nerve-wracking, was peaceful. (I’ve bolded some of what follows.)
Leo, my golden retriever, followed me to the door, so I only opened the door partially and was blocking him with my body to keep him from rushing out to make friends. One of the officers asked me if I was OK. I told him I was fine, and I immediately followed that up by asking if a SWAT threat had been called in. They confirmed this, and I told them I had a police report filed documenting that people were threatening to call in fraudulent reports.
I told them my dog was friendly, and I asked if I could give them this report. They said yes, and they asked if they could come inside and make sure everything was OK. I agreed. Four of the police stayed outside, and two came in. I was asked if anyone else was here, if I was living alone, why someone would call in a false report, and other various pertinent questions by one of the officers while the other took a look around my apartment.
After they had asked all of their questions and were sure that no one was being held against their will, I was informed that someone had called the police “from an iPad” stating that there was a ransom situation at my address, and they wanted $10,000. When I had opened the door, all guns were holstered. I was told that had I not filed a report back in January documenting these threats, that would not have been the case.
What usually happens when someone gets SWATted? Well, take a look at the video below, which Harper posted on her blog, featuring actual footage of a number of gamers being SWATted while in the middle of streaming video events. That is, they were playing games online, others were watching them playing, and some of those watching decided it would be hilarious to send a SWAT team to visit them while they were playing.
So, yeah, that’s what whoever called the hoax in was hoping would happen to her.
For more details, some documentation, and advice on how to approach the police if you are worried that someone will try to do this to you, see her post.
We still don’t know who called in the fake report. Given that she’s been repeatedly targeted (and doxxed) by the not-so-good folks on the baphomet board on 8chan, a lot of people think that’s who it was.
Of course, there are many GamerGaters who think her story is a hoax, and complain that she hasn’t posted an official police incident report detailing what went down. According to Harper, the police told her she wouldn’t be able to get hold of one for at least two weeks.
I believe her. But I guess we’ll know for sure in a couple of weeks, huh?
In the meantime, Leo the dog is hunkering down in the bathtub.
Leo's had a rough night (knows when stuff is going down), so he's hiding in the bath tub- his safe spot- for a while. pic.twitter.com/Z3XUAE2byC
— chasing the dopamine (@randileeharper) April 3, 2015
And Leo’s owner is just glad she was wearing pants during the whole ordeal.
I am just glad that I got swatted while i was wearing pants. I expected this eventually. Statistical likelihood of me wearing pants was low.
— chasing the dopamine (@randileeharper) April 3, 2015
That puppy has the same look on it’s face that I do. I’m so glad to hear that things were as good as an incredibly ugly situation could be. Randi is super brave and super smart.
Also, hey Gamergaters – That dog could have been shot. Now can you consider the idea of being the bad guys?
I read her blog about this. My heart goes out to her, and I’m glad that she’s helping get the word out.
Have you guys heard about Zoe Quinn and a few other people putting together an anti-harassment network called Crash Override?
https://twitter.com/CrashOverrideNW
They help people who are being harassed, and give people tips on what to do if they are.
The human could have been shot.
.
(Never mind. That wouldn’t bother them.)
Not enough “W”s in my computer to go “Awwww” as much as I want over that pic of Leo.
The hoax call is disgusting of course; but that’s just axiomatic. There people do realise that they’re going to be responsible for a death one day. *Sigh* of course they do; what was I thinking?
Fuck those fucking fucks sideways.
Fucking inexcusable. You’re supposed to learn not to do things like this after your guardians catch you prank calling the pizza place at the age of 10. You learn that disrupting ONE pizza shop employee is pretty fucking inconsiderate. You never even THINK about needlessly dialing emergency services after this because you know that even if you never get caught by the law, the moral repercussions of taking help away from people who actually needed it will haunt you. And then to go and turn a waste of time and resources into a violent, invasive attack… that’s the moral compass of an adult who grew down instead of growing up.
By the way, advice for stream viewers who really, really need to see their actions impact the streamer on camera: send a Mariachi band or something. At the break. And pay for it yourself.
Hmm, hard to say if it happened or not.
It was actually quite corny when “gorilla alpha male” Mike Cernovich tried to pretend he was swatted. I just looked at Juice Bro’s twitter account and he’s quite entertaining to say the least. He’s just like Forney and tries to write “click bait.”
Paradoxical Intention, thanks, I’ve been meaning to put up a link to crashoverride for a while. Just added one to the sidebar.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up a second.
Are you seriously trying to imply that Randi, who has been doxxed, harassed and threatened repeatedly, would seriously make this shit up? When there’s already so much evidence of her being harassed all over the internet?
Why would she? She’s already been harassed. Why make up more? To make a point about how awful GamerGate is? Because the rest of the harassment already does that.
Even if she was somehow lying about this, why would you doubt that Gators, who have a history of doxxing and harassing anyone who doesn’t agree with them, would do something like this?
I feel like implying that she’s somehow lying about all of this is extremely out of line. She even asked for a copy of the report (and she’ll most likely get one too as soon as she can).
Well, I do feel it’s likely that it really did happen. You’re right that really is no reason for her to lie about this/make it up.
I guess I just originally thought of that moron Cernovich and his swatting fiasco.
Leo is adorable.
Mitchel, not so much. Remember folks, this is the guy who said Sluthate wasn’t so bad.
“She even asked for a copy of the report (and she’ll most likely get one too as soon as she can).”
Of course then the GG lot will say she reported the hostage thing herself.
I wish I had enough money to pay white hats to find out who these chucklefucks are and see them prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Also take away their ability to ever own a cell phone, computer, or even have primitive internet access. That might actually get these GG asshats to think about the consequences of their actions.
I forgot one more thing. They can NEVER play a game again. Not even Candy Crush, or maybe only Candy Crush. I am flexible about that detail.
I’m hoping and praying that this sort of bs behavior doesn’t crash headlong into a pit of racism and get some random PoC killed. I’m dreading the day this happens.
I hope the jerks that pulled this “prank” are caught and heavily fined/jailed/whatever. Not only are they terribly harassing someone, but also wasting emergency services. Don’t people that abuse 911 services suffer more consequences?
Kestrel, I’m ok with just Candy Crush.
Lady Mondegreen, yeah kinda my point. They pretty obviously don’t care about people. But hurt a puppeh and the darker interwebs go apeshit.
How many fucking times do these women need to be harassed, stalked, doxxed, DDoS’d, sent rape and death threats, sent bomb and mass shooting threats, revenge porn’d, have their families harassed and threatened, have their workplaces spammed by requests to fire them, mailed dead animals, however you’d describe Brianna’s stalker-turned-troll fiasco and now SWATted before these fingers-in-ears “Both sides! Both sides!” dipshits finally believe that there may be something to this?
WRT this being a potential hoax, the Redditers will be all over this. KiA where they’ve “proven” that she’s never been doxxed or harassed by anyone but herself using social puppets. They’ll regale you with “evidence” that she’s the biggest harassor on Twitter.
They’re so full of excrement. This whole GamerGate thing is making me seriously look at quitting tech.
Bunch of wankers.
Hey, Mitchel? Turns out Cracked posted an interview with Brianna and a few other harassed women yesterday. Go read it and tell me if they’re just making it all up.
(Bonus for non-assholes: Includes a feminist named Katie! I needed that smile after Mitchel’s turd. Just, y’know, don’t read the comments.)
Okay, um, shouldn’t the SWAT be logging who the hell called in these tips so they can bust any false reports like the regular police and firepeople do? And be put in jail because I’m pretty sure false reports are a crime? This SEEMS like this would be something prudent to do so at least the police can make examples of people who think they can waste state money like that, let alone fucking ruin people’s lives and livestreams.
The fuck.
… Unrelatedly, it’s really bizarre to think that the site that’s most vocally on our side is Cracked. Fucking Cracked, a site that only a few years ago was so embarrassingly women-amirite dudebro-centric it might as well have been CollegeHumour’s text version. I don’t know what kicked off the change, but it’s gone from being something I was ashamed for looking at on occasion to something I read every day and actively link to on feminist blogs.
And that’s pretty damn cool. =)
@ Mitchell
I believe her; and, in the unlikely event you’re interested why; I’ll tell you.
OK, first up I have no idea who this woman is. However I am certain she exists and also that she is, as described, someone who is involved in dealing with GG harassment. Why? Well, because I’ve found the postings on this site to be reliable. It’s an easily verifiable claim, and would ruin David’s credibility if shown to be untrue. So on these ans similar grounds I find that fact established.
Now, from previous evidence as to how GG operates, I find it proven that they indulge in harassment of their critics.
Having established that this woman is a GG critic I find it not only possible, but indeed highly likely to the point of certainty that she would be a target for such harassment.
As to the method, “Swatting”, I know this happens and the GG lot fit the profile of the sort of people who engage in this sort of thing.
So the whole scenario is not only plausible but highly likely.
As to whether it occurred in this particular instance, it is often said that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. This however is not an extraordinary claim. it is in fact a claim that an event we have already established is highly likely to occur has in fact occurred. The burden of evidence therefore to convince me that she is telling the truth is very low.
Bearing in mind that most complaints of criminal behaviour, which this is, are true I put the level of evidence on a par with that I would require for someone claiming that they had been caught in the rain. I wouldn’t insist on them showing me their wet clothing, I would be content to take their word for it.
It’s the same in this case. If she says it happened, unless and until compelling evidence is forthcoming that it didn’t, it happened.
I believe her account.
Like I said though, after thinking about it more, I now believe it too. I had just instantly thought of that one Cernovich had,,,supposedly anyways,