[Debate] Should "swatting" be outlawed?

[igotrhythm]

After an incident where a player of Call of Duty called the SWAT team on someone who beat him in the game in a practice known as "swatting", I want to discuss the ethicality of this practice beyond mad cuz bad.

Obviously it's a waste of time and resources on the part of those that have been deployed, but is there any chance that this sort of griefing could be outlawed? I mean, bogus pizza deliveries were one thing, but this is serious business of the highest order. So serious that I actually spelled it out.

Washington State has already drafted a bill as of 2011 to make the practice illegal after someone tried to swat an XBL mod in Sammamish. The specific charge would be "harassing a 911 operator."

Now, do you think that legislators should work to make sure this is punishable by law, or do they have more important things to do?

[Mourningfall]

There's a cost to deploying emergency services, I think the people stupid enough to make these calls should be held accountable.
If you consider that "debatable" then I can only assume you (the taxpayer) would rather pay for their insolence first-hand.
This is actually illegal in a number of countries I'm surprised the US are only just now "working to make sure this is punishable by law"
~~It's already illegal in a few states; In California you can face fines of up to $1,000, six months in jail, or both and in Virginia you can face fines of up to $2,500.

In fact, in Virginia it's illegal to make false reports of emergencies or disasters by telephone to anyone - public or private - not just the 911 lines.

[Poison-]

Of course it should be. Don't play games with people's lives.

[25thhour]

This is kind of a stupid question... You are wasting resources and time... Of course it should be illegal and if done, the person should face repercussions.

[igotrhythm]

I was kinda sorta hoping some jackass would come in and be like "what about overcrowded prisons hurr durr"

[XelNya]

Originally Posted by igotrhythm

I was kinda sorta hoping some jackass would come in and be like "what about overcrowded prisons hurr durr"

This is a reasonable argument against though. While yes they're wasting time, they're also going to waste space and tax money. Which is pretty much the same issue. It's a realistic reason to be against it. While I agree it shouldn't be allowed I don't think a prison sentence is really going to do any good.

But then again rending it to community service is a laughable punishment. It's like applying forum bans to real life. So the question is less about "should there be laws against it" and more of "what sort of punishment fits the crime and isn't as harmful to the community as a crime is."

[Pseudo Enigma]

Wow just place a gigantic fine on who ever does it. ezpz. Isn't that what you get for wasting 911's time?

[Mollocephalus]

Sending someone in jail for such a low offense is really dumb. Paying a high enough fine seems the way to go.

[devonin]

Originally Posted by Mollocephalus

Sending someone in jail for such a low offense is really dumb. Paying a high enough fine seems the way to go.

And what if, while the SWAT team is deployed because some dude is mad he sucks at Call of Duty, someone taking hostages in a daycare murders a bunch of kids who might have been stopped if the SWAT team was available to move in, instead of surrounding some dude who still has his headset on and doesn't even know what's happening? Just a fine then?

[Mollocephalus]

That should be a case-to-case thing. Obviously, in this second example, the offense is worth a higher punishment because of its consequences.

[Wayward Vagabond]

What ever happened to critical thinking rules

[ScylaX]

Originally Posted by devonin

And what if, while the SWAT team is deployed because some dude is mad he sucks at Call of Duty, someone taking hostages in a daycare murders a bunch of kids who might have been stopped if the SWAT team was available to move in, instead of surrounding some dude who still has his headset on and doesn't even know what's happening? Just a fine then?

I don't think anybody can be held for account of specific circumstances they don't know anything about. Unless it's proven you did that totally on purpose, you're not responsible for it and you should not be judged as you were an accomplice of that crime. Under the circumstances, that kind of mindless initiative can be either totally harmless or severely deleterious. It's totally up to random factors ultimately and I think you have to be held responsible over certainties, not over speculations.

And that certainty is "there is a probability I'll prevent SWAT to intervene the most efficiently on something very serious", you're responsible for the heavy risk it brings, and that alone is an huge mistake you have to pay for.

[devonin]

Originally Posted by ScylaX

I don't think anybody can be held for account of specific circumstances they don't know anything about. Unless it's proven you did that totally on purpose, you're not responsible for it and you should not be judged as you were an accomplice of that crime.

We have a disagreement here. While I grant you that, for example, faking a call to the police that left the police unable to respond to a legitimate call that resulted in a murder would not leave you guilty of MURDER, you should definitely be punished more than just a fine. Your reckless endangerment indirectly led to somebody's death. Involuntary Manslaughter sounds about right in a case like that.

Tying up something as serious as a SWAT team for a false report done for nothing approaching a reasonable purpose is something that should, in my opinion, include jail time or at least something leaving them with a permanent criminal record.

[Izzy]

Why is it not already illegal everywhere to call in fake emergencies with bad intentions?

[ScylaX]

Originally Posted by devonin

We have a disagreement here. While I grant you that, for example, faking a call to the police that left the police unable to respond to a legitimate call that resulted in a murder would not leave you guilty of MURDER, you should definitely be punished more than just a fine. Your reckless endangerment indirectly led to somebody's death. Involuntary Manslaughter sounds about right in a case like that.

Tying up something as serious as a SWAT team for a false report done for nothing approaching a reasonable purpose is something that should, in my opinion, include jail time or at least something leaving them with a permanent criminal record.

Then I guess I agree. Doing uselessly risky things that are totally likely to put people's life in danger seems to be a good enough reason to charge more than a simple fine, regardless of how this happens. Your previous post was rather ambiguous on your conception of responsability so I just wanted to clear things up. I just don't want anybody to be charged in virtue of reasons that seem off to me, even though I'd be okay with the gravity of the penalty given.

[korny]

Just want to reiterate once again the difference between jail and prison here guys because prisons ARE overcrowded and should only house the most serious of offenders (rape, murder, armed robbery etc)

I think a fine should suffice unless the extremely unlikely scenario dev presented occurs which I think either time in county jail and/or probationary terms should apply.

The moral of this story is, that's what you get for getting into a game as shitty as call of duty. Your shitty taste or lack thereof cause such a disconnected sense of reality that you act like a complete ass and lose all credibility as a person of value.

[ScylaX]

I'm not a great fan of incarceration either. This is a very tricky matter, especially when you condider how repressive they actually are and how little they contribute to making you a better person. But just getting a fine for taking risks that can put lives on the line doesn't seem to sound right either, the only thing I want for somebody that commits that kind of thing is to make sure he'll never do it again and realize how grave his actions were.

[NeonSM]

The fact that this has been done enough times that it has been dubbed "swatting" is upsetting to me.

[DarkManticoreX2]

I don't really think this is a debate.

Not a single person in this thread has said Swatting shouldn't be outlawed. The only disagreements have come in reguards to the punishment for doing it.

[stargroup100]

Originally Posted by DarkManticoreX2

I don't really think this is a debate.

Not a single person in this thread has said Swatting shouldn't be outlawed. The only disagreements have come in reguards to the punishment for doing it.

Just as a personal opinion, I'm getting kind of tired of this.

Like in the creationism vs evolution debate thread, virtually nobody of rational mind that contributes to these discussions believes that creationism holds any merit whatsoever, and yet we were discussing about how different points in the debate are disputed, rather than the different implications and mechanisms behind the belief socially, psychologically, etc.

But that's just my opinion.