Writer and activist Ijeoma Oluo reasonably panicked when she got a call from a 911 dispatcher in Washington reporting a double murder at her home, she told NBC News. Her 17-year-old son was home alone. “I was terrified they were going to come in guns blazing,” Oluo told NBC. “I was bawling.” The call, both fortunately and unfortunately, turned out to be based on a false report in what is becoming a trend of weaponizing SWAT teams to target activists, writers, technology executives, and social media stars, multiple news outlets reported. See, it’s hardly a secret that many law enforcement workers have a long and time-honored tradition of unfairly targeting people of color with police brutality, made-up charges, deadly shootings, and the like.
It seems there is a special kind of internet troll who is actually betting on police responding violently in any incident involving a person of color. Placing that bet or calling 911 to inflict harm is known as swatting, and it is life-threatening, Oluo told NBC News. “To send cops to the home of a black person—expecting dead bodies and guns—is really risking someone’s life,” she said back in December. Her case, however, is hardly the only one to make headlines.
Police in San Francisco and New York responded to multiple swatting calls about alleged hostages being forcibly held in November at properties owned by senior Facebook executive, Adam Mosseri, according to The New York Times. How-to forums on the dark web have attracted thousands of people, with some asking "who should we do next," the newspaper reported. And in one incident of the deadly practice with roots in web-based gaming, a farce of an emergency call led to the shooting death of Kansas resident Andrew Finch last year.
Seattle police chief Carmen Best told The New York Times swatting is so well-known, particularly in tech communities, that Seattle police established a registry of people who know they are at risk for the fake emergency calls. “The registry is a voluntary thing we created, and it is a small but effective step for people who know they are at risk of being targeted,” Best told the newspaper.
Seattle police officials are working with other law enforcement agencies to pass on best practices and challenging legislators to deem the practice of swatting a federal crime. “Swatting is not a new thing. It’s been around for a long time, and it weaponizes our 911 system,” Best told the Times. “It’s a lot more than a hoax or a prank.”