Have you heard of "Swatting"?

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ZeSpectre

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I don't know how I missed this one as a current activity that idiots and criminals are performing, but in case I'm not the only one "Swatting" seems to be an ongoing issue with copycats right now.

FBI: 'Swatting' Cases Across The Country May Be Copycats
See this link for full story.
At 9:18 p.m. on Aug. 3, the San Francisco Police Department received a call from a man reporting that his brother was being held hostage in his own home. After three hours of trying to reach the victims, SWAT teams burst into the house.

Once inside, they found a husband and wife in their mid-thirties with their two small children, spending a quiet evening at home.

"There was no merit to any kidnapping or actual hostage situation," said SFPD public information officer, Sgt. Michael Andraychak.

The SFPD had been the victim of "swatting": placing prank phone calls to police to lure them to mobilize SWAT teams to respond to fake hostage situations.
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Wow. After some of the comments I've seen on various "no knock warrant entry" threads I can just imagine how badly something like this might turn out.

For the life of me the only tactic I can come up with in this situation is a hope that the police don't just "storm the gates" and you'd have a chance to "surrender" so that things could be cleared up.
 
how long until the SWAT teams are being drawn into traps or diversions while actual crime happens elsewhere?
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How about how long before it happens to one of us that carry all the time, even when at home?

When I hear my front door getting kicked in, my first response is to get the kids to safety as I draw my weapon, or if there is no time...draw my weapon and face the invader. It is easy to imagine a scenario like this where the officers would put me down (they are a threat to me, I'm a threat to them). Now we're looking at his rifle rounds passing through me and possibly shooting my family. Bad, bad stuff...

In the heat of the moment, I'd never see that swat logo. I was inside of a convenience store once when a SWAT team came in and took a guy down. I "saw" the badge, helmet, vest and the logo...it registered in my visual memory or my mind pictured it that way after the incident and I saw the officers leaving. However, at the time of entry...all I saw at that moment was the end of a h&k whatchamacallit and a guy in all black coming in the door.
 
Funny, I recall when I installed alarms, there was a family in a bad part of town that told their mother the system I just installed wouldn't work. They said the duress code would go unheeded, that is the hostage code that disarms the system while calling out. So they tried it. In five minutes, they were all laid out in their front yard. I was called back to clear it up, and I thought that was pretty funny. Could have ended bad though.

They can and do show up armed and ready to go. Whether or not they will initiate a standoff or go with entry depends on who is calling the shots and the book they go by.

This is going to get interesting when the lawsuits start flying. My opinion is they shouldn't enter at all. They should stand off until they KNOW the threat, then enter when appropriate. Just showing up and doing a dynamic entry based on a phone call is plain stupid. But the police haven't always been tactical genious, and some are just tacticool.
 
How about how long before it happens to one of us that carry all the time, even when at home?

When I hear my front door getting kicked in, my first response is to get the kids to safety as I draw my weapon, or if there is no time...draw my weapon and face the invader.
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Makes one consider Tokarev for in-home carry, almost.
And a better entry choke-point.
And a hardened door.
And voting out all the worthless SWAT team over-using politicians.
 
Why would they go kicking in doors anyway? I thought the tactic of bursting into hideouts was very much discouraged these days. Our locals will just seal off the place.
 
Bursting unannounced into a house/building where hostages may be held is NOT the way my PD's SWAT guys do things. If a family is peacefully in their home, our SWAT guys have the methods and means to figure that out, covertly or overtly.
 
I wonder how long the affected police departments will be able to afford it.
They're going to end up barging into a sue-happy family or lawyer's home one of these days.
 
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Intel

What Rexster said. I would think a good SWAT team would pull a good recon with electric listening devices and optics before kicking down a door.
It's a scary and potentially bad situation waiting to happen with morons pulling this swatting stuff. I hope it's not an Intel exercise by some home grown jihadist.
 
I heard from a SWAT team leader in my area that the first tactic when facing a hostage situation is to open communications with the hostage taker. As usually when a person takes hostages they rip phones from the wall. This was resolved by throwing a hard wired phone through a window to try to talk with the perp.

Although I don't know that I would prefer to have a window destroyed or a door kicked in to find out that there are no hostages in my house.
 
I don't think there's much point in discussing the tactics of the SWAT team, much less the policies that guide their usage.

There may be a discussion on whether we as citizens, and especially armed citizens, can prepare for such an event?
 
SWAT means Special Weapons And Tactics. I see no special tactics in blindly kicking in the door and charging in. I know its not REAL, but I used to play SWAT videogame. It focused on covertly gathering info before entering a potentially dangerous situation. When building entry was demanded, it never included charging in. That was a good way to get yourself killed. It was written with LEOs, so I imagine it wasnt too far off from reality.

I do belive the criminal minds out there have figured out calling 911 and reporting a crime across town from where they planned on committing a crime. But I dont believe its epidemic.
 
There may be a discussion on whether we as citizens, and especially armed citizens, can prepare for such an event?
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If you are building a house you can take it into account -- hardened door to slow them down and a choke point in case you have to defend yourself against an invasion. (imagine a narrow staircase and you're at the top with a Garand or better)

It's kind of tough though if your already have a home. (although a couple of big dogs can buy you a little time)
 
Blindly kicking in door is
STRONGLY DISCOURAGED
where is the Hostage,
how many BG's are in the house, where are they?

They require a spoofed phone, and more than a few places will demand either to call the person back or for them to meet an officer before launching a swat attack

What was being done was IP cloning of a persons Internet Phone, then placing a call, claiming that the person was INSIDE the house, with the family being held hostage.

That takes a bit of Know how.

EDIT:
NO
Armed response to SWAT
Is a GOOD way to die,
I trained in CQB, ---- you, with a gun --- immediately go into *TARGET* - usually followed by 'BANG BANG BANG'
SWAT, they KEEP COMING
shoot one, and you just get MORE, even more determined to *get* you....
I have played Op-For for SWAT, you can shoot them, but they ALWAYS get their guy, if you get some, more just keep coming, it's part of the training.

Hence if you want to live, put the gun down and pick up the phone...
 
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Next step in "hardening" a dwelling

We have motion-detection, sound-detection, and good lighting outside the house with 48v-battery monitor and cameras on three corners. All the outside doors are (retail-items) steel with ⅛" stainless panels on outside lower half. The hinges are double-staked and my experiment shows them staying put even after 4-rounds of entry-loads each. But in warmer months we have the doors and windows open, with screens in place. How does one "harden" a screened window or door? On another note, this quote & comment: Quote:

"Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." YOUR fear seems fatal. Mine is life-preserving.
It was drilled into our minds, to feel fear, and let it become adrenalin. Soon, one need not have "fear" to get the Adrenalin Rush. Turn the rush into anger at "the enemy": enemy is not human; no need to preserve none-human contenders. Anger both calls up the adrenalin, AND sustains it. It becomes instinctive. The cause of survival is all that matters. "Fight" is always the correct response. "Only YOU will not remain standing."
 
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"Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." YOUR fear seems fatal. Mine is life-preserving.
It was drilled into our minds, to feel fear, and let it become adrenalin. Soon, one need not have "fear" to get the Adrenalin Rush. Turn the rush into anger at "the enemy": enemy is not human; no need to preserve none-human contenders. Anger both calls up the adrenalin, AND sustains it. It becomes instinctive. The cause of survival is all that matters. "Fight" is always the correct response. "Only YOU will not remain standing."
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Too wordy.
__________________
"You can't be afraid of fear. It comes. Surf it." —Jeff Bridges
 
Daorhgih
It's a Quote from Frank Herberts DUNE, and in a way, it's meaning isn't very far from what you said, basically that one should acknowledge their fear, and instead of letting the fear control thier reactions, rather see it, understand it, and have (Human) thinking ACTIONS, not reactions.
 
What ever happened to just knocking on the door?
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supposedly....it gives the criminals time to cover up any evidence.

i think thats a load of crap.....

if someone has time to get rid of all the damning evidence in that short amount of time.....chances are its not worth the time, money, and effort to call in a swat team.
 
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