If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the #Gamergate debate, it’s that people — on both sides — are being harassed. I’m not just referring to tweets and emails saying rotten things, but the leaking of personal information for everyone to see, also referred to as doxxing. Even before Gamergate, doxxing and swatting (filing a false report of a critical incident in which response units, including SWAT and bomb squads, are deployed) have been tactics used to harass people in the gaming community — mostly pro gamers.
Before Anita Sarkeesian and @KingofPol were getting doxxed/swatted, gamers like Kootra, Phantomlord and coL.n0thing were being swatted, with guns being drawn on them in those cases. It’s a very serious and dangerous matter for those that have been swatted, and those that might be in the future. Not only have we seen the doxxing of both sides of Gamergate, but we’ve also had death threats, the mailing of knives with suggestions to kill oneself, and false police reports being filed. Zoe Quinn, Mike Cernovich, Brianna Wu — they’ve all felt the effects of doxxing. There’s no apparent end in sight, and things might actually ramp up with promises of something “epic,” and continued harassment on Twitter.
I spoke to two people — someone that has two years of experience from being on SWAT, and a lawyer in the field of criminal law — both of which requested to remain anonymous, about the effects of swatting and false reports. I learned that these type of actions result in a dangerous scenario for all parties involved, and they take up a lot of resources.
The former SWAT member that I spoke to only experienced one instance of swatting, and it happened a few months ago. He shed some light on the resources it took up. In his scenario, the SWAT team didn’t get called out but it took up the entire county’s resources for an hour while they verified that the report was bs. He told me that “These calls cost thousands of dollars in manpower and resources. Even in a small area like mine, we had 30 deputies, 2 K-9 units and a helicopter deployed for an hour, leaving the county very vulnerable to real incidents.”
As for the dangers that a false report in an attempt of swatting can present, he said, “We have to prepare for the scenario to be real. We can’t assume it’s swatting, because if we don’t take it seriously and it’s a real call, people can die. To start, it means setting up a perimeter around the location with rifles and ‘locking down’ the place. This could lead to innocent people getting force potentially used on them.” He continued, “If the call comes in as something like an active shooter or a hostage situation, I have to prepare as if I may have to shoot someone depending on the circumstances.”
And then there’s the scenario of what might happen if the homeowner get up to investigate a noise he heard. “Not to mention the hazard if a homeowner heard a noise and would walk outside with a gun to investigate and see me laying there in the bushes with a rifle. Like I would have done at my own house. And possibly end up getting shot.” He added that “It’s easier to deal with actual bad guys. I really don’t want to end up shooting an innocent person because of bs. And if it sounds like swatting, that causes hesitation, which is also dangerous if it’s a real call.”
His advice to those that think they might get doxxed or swatted, “Contact local law enforcement and let them know. That way if it happens, we will have a phone number to contact them.”
My source in criminal law shed some light on the criminal penalties of filing a false police report.
“There’s the obvious criminal penalties of filing a false police report. The exact crime would vary from state to state. That’s the biggest criminal offense. There are probably various harassment charges as well, but those would be less significant than the false report. The rest of the risks are all civil — possible invasion of privacy, which is very subjective state-to-state. But there may also be significant financial damages. The ‘swatter’ may be liable to the city/state for the cost of the false response, which, if I recall correctly, is in excess of several hundred thousand dollars.”
I asked about the specific scenario where KingofPol was mailed a knife with a message to “Please kill yourself.” He responded, “The ‘knife mailing’ is a criminal harassment of some level, depending on state-by-state penal laws. There may also be some federal postal regulation that they would be guilty of… not of ‘mailing a knife’, but of ‘using the federal postal service in commission of a misdemeanor/felony’, depending on what the threat was charged as.”
His advice for victims in these scenarios: “One, always file the police report. Even if nothing comes from it, it provides the documentation to build a case. Two, if the identity of the perpetrator is known, contact an attorney. Most attorneys will give a free consultation and if they think you have a case, they often take it on contingency.” He added, “It’s the anonymity of the actions that make the matters hard to take individual action, hence the police involvement.”
