Merry Christmas, if you’re into that sort of thing!

“Swatting” is most definitely not a prank, and the perpetrator of the instant case should face charges of, at minimum, voluntary manslaughter, if not depraved indifference second-degree murder.

I suppose it’s good that the swatting suspect is talking. That means they’re probably screwed.

WWTH:

A+ use of an Arrested Development reference. I never get sick of those. Especially if it’s a Lucille reference!

I’ve no idea who that is, and I’ve never watched that show.

Moggie,

Haha. I guess you accidentally quoted it then. There’s even a gif of it!

Everybody should see Arrested Development, BTW. It’s the best show.

Evopsych, as discussed and practiced by various named fools and sleazebags covered here (Mammoth passem ad nauseum), has made Scientific American, under the completely not at all clickbaity title “Do Women Want to be Oppressed?”

As is invariably the case, the answer to any headline containing a question mark is No, as the author skillfully points out.

It has neither “Babylon” nor “5” in its name …

Never got into it, I’m afraid. Saw a few episodes on Channel 4, I think first series, but it didn’t grab me hard enough to make the weekly commitment to watching it. 🙁
I know, could have taped it, but 6 kids at home back then with their various needs, minimal hours in the day … it wasn’t really a viable option. By the time the kids had left home, we’d already ditched the telly for good.

@Shadowplay

Gamers are in the news again. Someone’s dead because of their stupidity.

I see that Fox News has a lovely title for their article on this… “Police blame prankster for Wichita shooting”. Yep, setting armed and minimally accountable paramilitary units on people is a prank, these days. Lol, etc.

From a less awful news source, I see

Officers surrounded the home bracing for a hostage situation, when the man identified as Finch went to the door police told him to put his hands up, and an officer fired after the man moved his hand toward the area of his waistband, Wichita Deputy Police Chief Troy Livingston said.

That’s all it takes to receive an extra-judicial execution, not moving in a precisely determined way when a bunch of people with guns and body armor show up at your house and start yelling at you.

The guy arrested for the swatting has a history. On that occasion, in 2015, he was calling in fake bomb threats.

Black Mirror season 4 dropped, first episode, USS Callister, guaranteed to cause some tantrums from MRAs and the like. No further spoilers at this time.

RE: Swatting

Not so long ago, a 20 year old man was convicted of swatting. All the time he did was a year, if I remember correctly. No one died, except the victim’s poor pet dog?. The SWAT team shot the poor thing.

Sometimes I wonder if the assholes who perpetrate Swatting, think they’re in the middle of a videogame. Or, maybe I’m giving them too much credit, and they fully realize their so-called prank’s possible deadly consequences.

It might be in poor taste to mention this in the aftermath of someone’s pointless death, but SWAT teams are very expensive. It would be wonderful if the perps got stuck with the bill.

We got about 5 inches of snow early this morning. At first, the spouse and I didn’t think the snowblower was going to start. I was really, really, psyched to have to shovel a hilly 75 yard driveway by hand?. Thankfully, it finally started.

Dormousing_it, here’s an Ars Technica article with some details about the alleged swatter. Some points from that:

* He claims to have been a victim of swatting himself, and that this is why he decided to start doing it himself. Personally, if I got swatted, my reaction would be “holy shit, this should never happen to anyone”, but his conclusion was different.

* He claims to do it for money.

* He wasn’t even a party to the dispute which triggered it. One of the guys who had the argument contacted him to ask for revenge.

* The way he’s shooting his mouth off seems odd for someone in such deep shit. If it weren’t for the arrest, I would be wondering whether he’s just a fantasist who had nothing to do with the case.

It might be in poor taste to mention this in the aftermath of someone’s pointless death, but SWAT teams are very expensive. It would be wonderful if the perps got stuck with the bill.

That sounds like the precarious top of a very slippery slope.

@Moggie:

Thanks for the article. This incident is even worse than I thought.

I see what you’re saying about my idea of having the culprits pay for the SWAT team. You’re right…its ramifications hadn’t occurred to me.

When I was 13 years old and my sister 11, we had our own phones in our bedrooms, and our own unique phone number. *
Well, we began making prank calls at all hours of the day and night. In particular, to a certain small business. We left hassling voicemails on their answering machine, among other things.

The inevitable occurred. The business owners called the police, and the calls were traced. I’ll never forget the police cruiser pulling into our driveway. I knew EXACTLY why they were there.

To make a long story short, when the business owners found out how young we were, they decided not to press charges.

Back to the murderous Swatter…he’s 25 years old, fer chrissakes!

*Yes, I know, we were over privileged little brats.

JoeB,

That was such a great episode. I had to wonder if the writers were reading Mammoth because the villain was so familiar.

I’ll not say much more to avoid spoilers if there’s anyone still planning on watching. Let’s just say I highly recommend. It touches in a lot of both on and off topic conversations we have here.

Also, It was really scary while avoiding typical horror tropes.

The guy arrested for the swatting has a history. On that occasion, in 2015, he was calling in fake bomb threats.

Further to Moggie’s links on the swatting arsehole – not only did he get arrested for calling in bomb threats, he got convicted and sentenced for it – supposedly 2 years 8 months, but since he was sentenced in 2016 and it’s only 2017, I’m guessing he didn’t do much of the time.

Pissed at him. Pissed at the legal system. Pissed at the cops too. I mean, come on, it’s hostage 101 – anyone who comes to the door in a claimed hostage situation is always one of the damned victims! Hostage takers do not expose themselves in the early stages!