On Monday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was again the victim of a swatting call at her north Georgia home. This call, however, had a lethal difference: an officer was involved in a crash in rushing to the scene to join the bomb squad. A woman was killed. The incident will trigger a new Georgia law on swatting and raise questions over legal responsibility for such lethal consequences from such crimes.
Greene has been a victim of swatting at least nine times. On this occasion, the caller made a bomb threat.
The police department received the threat entitled “For Palestine” and ended with “VIVA, VIVA PALESTINA.”
The police department reported that:
“On Monday December 9, a Rome Police Department officer was traveling in a personal vehicle en route to take his place with the Bomb Squad on a call. This officer was involved in a traffic accident on Redmond Rd near Walmart, which has created significant travel delays around the Norfolk Southern Railroad Tracks.”
Georgia’s new swatting law just came into effect on July 1st. It raised the crime for a first offender from a misdemeanor to a felony. The law was drafted by legislators who were motivated by the continuing swatting threats made against Greene.
A massive swatting operation was the subject of two federal indictments recently of two foreign nationals. I was allegedly one of their victims.
In many ways, swatting is a crime that embodies our Age of Rage. It is a way to harass and potentially cause serious injury to people you dislike or detest. Whether targeting public figures in general or targeting victims over ideology, it is all rage that seeks to use the police as a vehicle for harassment.
For some, even stories on swatting become irresistible opportunities to vent against the victims or even to make bizarre attacks on conservative legal theory. As discussed earlier, the liberal gotcha site, Above the Law, covered my swatting with the usual ad hominem attacks while adding a truly unhinged spin. Senior Editor Joe Patrice (who has defended “predominantly liberal faculties” and not hiring conservative or libertarian law professors) insisted that swatting is somehow the fault of gun owners, Second Amendment advocates, and “edgy” police:
“Swatting is a byproduct of a nation awash in more and more powerful weapons and more and more edgy cops. And that makes these false police reports regrettably a manifestation of our age of failing to confront the disconnect between the text and history of the Second Amendment and the lazy ahistorical interpretation of this Supreme Court.”
Bomb threats like the one in Georgia have long been a favorite for disrupting schools and other targeting sites. With this tragic death, the question is whether the Georgia prosecutors will charge the culprit beyond the new felony.
Some swatters have been convicted in the past of making a false report resulting in death.
Now that swatting is a felony for first offenders, there is also the possibility of felony murder. Under the Georgia code, “A person commits the offense of murder when, in the commission of a felony, he or she causes the death of another human being irrespective of malice.”
In auto accidents of this type, prosecutors have generally not charged felony murder, particularly an accident with a third party. However, prosecutors could seek to ratchet up the charges in light of the loss of life. In the very least, the tragic cost of this crime would likely weigh heavily in any sentencing.
The law includes up to five years in prison for the first offense and up to fifteen years for a third offense. It also provides for restitution for any monetary losses by responding agencies.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Turley, you can characterize Above the Law as ” liberal gotcha site,” it’s not. It is more respected than you are. And, you can also try to chacterize Joe Patrice’s commentary about you as “unhinged”, but it really isn’t just because you disagree with it. He has pointed out several times that you have gotten your facts wrong–like the time you accused Joe Biden of accepting bribes when he wasn’t even in office.
Turley claims: “For some, even stories on swatting become irresistible opportunities to vent against the victims or even to make bizarre attacks on conservative legal theory.” Turley, the things you write are not “conservative legal theory”–it’s MAGA propaganda–something I routinely point out. True conservatives want nothing to do with Trump or MAGA, which is why they started the “Lincoln Project”.
It’s interesting that Greene is the target of so many swatting attacks–which you, Turley, claim are being done by “liberals”–but, do you have any proof? If anyone is “unhinged”, it’s Greene, with her batsh*t crazy comments about Jewish space lasers causing forest fires, chasing a school shooting survivor down the street in Washington, shouting at him, claimed Pelosi has a “Gazpacho Police” force that spies on Republicans, said that joining the military was “throwing your life away”, asked how kids could get monkeypox because it is an STD–which is isn’t–it is caused by skin-to-skin contact, said the July 4 Highland Park, IL parade shootings were staged to get Republicans to vote for gun control, said global warming is good for us, and called Jan 6, “a little riot”. She also displayed a photo of Hunter Biden’s genitals on the floor of the House, and violated House rules by wearing clothes containing campaign slogans. These are just a few samples of her unhinged conduct and statements–look at the broad range of people who could potentially be offended. She says so many insulting things about so many situations, that it’s impossible to figure out who all she might have offended, which would make her the target of swatting.
If anyone is “unhinged”, it’s Gigi.
@Gigi: Turley, you can characterize Above the Law as ” liberal gotcha site,” it’s not.
Gigi, you attempt to characterize yourself as a normal woman when you aren’t. You self-characterize yourself in those full frontal gaping crotch shots you posed for Hunter Biden to take. Throw a truck tarp over that thing, for Christ’s sake. Want to know the page numbers where you show your best side, Gigi?
Hunter Biden Laptop Online
https://bidenreport.com/#p=5
Given the explicit nature of the text and pictures of the Biden Laptop, this online version of
the laptop contents is for an adult readership only.
ISBN: 978-1-7371866-3-2
@2022 by ICU, LLC
Wow, did not know marco polo had that.
The russians sure put together AI a lot better than the USA. /sarc
Looks like literally thousands of felonies by the bidens
Gigi, as you want to talk about Cunning Stunts… you must be aware that the White House’s favorite hajji Muslim terrorists are once again launching cruise missiles against US Navy ships.
We know that Biden’s fellow foreign policy expert, Vice President DEI Hire just a few months ago said that no American military forces were in combat or on deployments where their lives were at risk.
So Gigi: as an expert on the Democrat Borg’s version of reality… who is the Commander In Chief while American soldiers and Marines are being attacked by you Democrats fellow Jew-haters, the genocidal Houti terrorists you claim have more claim on Israel than the Israelis?
Are both the Commander In Chief and his Defense chief Lloyd Austin both AWOL this time?
Are they both asleep?
Gigi: what’s the Democrat Borg’s version of what President Biden is actually doing in real time to deal with this foreign crisis, where your friend Iran’s little terrorist tentacles are currently attempting to murder American sailors while you post how Turley is so wrong?
The fundimental issue is NOT the degree of punishment – we do not need to turn everything into a capital offence.
The key reason SWATTING continues to be a problem is that we do not catch and prosecute SWATTERS under existing laws.
We have a ridiculous system. Where is the caller ID, where is the follow up on the calls the cops get that are fraudulent ? We have it seems a desired outcome – call the cops with a big fat lie and they never know who made fools of them.
This happens down to the tiny local level.
This is related to the new anonymous crime stop program whereby they promise the entire public any reporting is totally anonymous.
Well you big dumb goofy lunkheads, what did you expect ?
Once again, Caller ID .
Even the internet service providers can’t seem to use caller ID – apparently there is a hidden but known complete break in caller ID whereby the criminals have a spoof ID that cannot be broken, and this is not public knowledge. If not so how hard is it to go after the yahoos abusinbg the system – and I don’t mean the 2 internationals in the linked article. This crap happens locally ALL THE TIME, IN EVERY CITY AND TOWN IN THE USA.
Absolutely, however we would need a functional administration at the head of this miserably incompetent government to put such things into action. We won’t have that until after the inauguration.
Caller ID?!?
We can’t even figure out who is flying dozens of drones the size of a Volkswagen over New Jersey, and Philadelphia, military bases and Trumps New Jersey residence. A Coast Guard Commander stated to the Governor of NJ, that several nights ago, 12 large drones closely tracked one of their ships off New Jersey for many miles close astern. Now, anyone with any sense would have recognized that as a potential threat, but to react to such threat the CG would need permission of authority. Since the WH is for all intents and purposes, an empty shell, save for the few remaining amateur Gen Z’ers running the show, its the standing leftist policy of not defending one’s self, including our military that is SOP. Whether it is a hero on the subway, a rancher in Texas threatened by armed illegal aliens, or someone in a rowboat full of explosives who rows up to the side of the USS Cole while everyone on board just stands and watches, the policy is always the same. “Oh no, don’t defend yourself. Someone might be hurt.”
Yes, thanks for the additional info and outlines of the current conditions.
Should be a Federal statute under domestic terrorism….. with up to a death penalty, depending on outcome of the crime.
This is one of those how low can you go crimes. Just disgusting!
* Yes, upgrade to domestic terrorism.
Washington DC Bar Association and Clinton/Obama/DNC lawyer Marc Elias is very busy staying in the news today as one of that Democrat evil class of amoral (and often criminal) Washington DC legal clowns
‘Shady Dem Lawyer’ Is Very Upset by This Trump Nomination and for Good Cause
https://redstate.com/streiff/2024/12/10/shady-dem-lawyer-is-very-upset-by-this-trump-nomination-n2183013
BREAKING: Donald Trump has nominated a sycophant loyalist to head the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.This will put pressure on groups and election lawyers to fight for voting rights in court. DOJ will be on the side of vote suppressors and election deniers.
— Marc Elias
Shady Washington DC Dem lawyer behind Steele Dossier looking to overturn Pennsylvania Senate results
https://nypost.com/2024/11/09/us-news/dem-election-lawyer-behind-steele-dossier-looking-to-overturn-pennsylvania-senate-results/
A shady Democratic attorney who once loudly attacked President-elect Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 presidential results is now at the heart of a desperate legal effort to snatch Pennsylvania’s Senate race away from its rightful winner, Republican Dave McCormick.
Marc Elias, a longtime Democratic election attorney and unindicted dirty trickster who engineered the 2016 Russia dossier, is attempting to force the Pennsylvania Senate race into a recount, even though it was called for McCormick by the Associated Press on Thursday, with even the state’s most liberal news outlets echoing the call since.
I used to be quite good at wielding a flyswatter.
When it comes to Democrats committing felonies to use law enforcement to harm politicians they want destroyed, it is hard for anyone to exceed what the amoral and unethical criminal class of lawyers from the Washington DC Bar Association have done – and promise to do in future. Arguably, Washington DC Bar Association lawyers are the enemy of our country.
Marc Elias is one at the top of that class of criminal Democrat evil legal clowns. He failed with the DNC’s 2016 Trump Russia Dossier. But he was given a pass on the election campaign felonies he committed as well as for the fraudulent record keeping where he money laundered funds to illegally pay for that dossier, resulting in only a minor fine. Which left him free while his Bar Association allowed him to remain a lawyer in good standing to practice the 2020 election rigging by going into battleground states and have state election laws unconstitutionally changed. Marc Elias was successful in 2020, although he failed miserably again in 2024.
But like The Terminator, Marc Elias has announced “I’ll Be Back”.
There may be an ethics complaint registered by one of Elias’ fellow members of that Washington DC Bar Association like Professor Turley pending. But nothing like that appears on that Bar Association’s website and Professor Turley does not say. So far Marc Elias remains a lawyer in good standing of that Bar Association, now announcing to the world he intends to head the ‘Resistance’ to Trump in the next two elections.
After 2024 Losses, Unindicted Democrat Lawyer Marc Elias Vows to Fight Back Against Trump In ’26 And ’28
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/12/10/after_2024_losses_hardball_democrat_lawyer_marc_elias_vows_to_fight_back_in_26_and_28_1077147.html?mc_cid=e6cb1255e4&mc_eid=febb5a4d8f
In 2016, while working as Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer, Elias money laundered Clinton and DNC funds to hire D.C. opposition research shop Fusion GPS and British former spy Christopher Steele to feed the FBI false information about supposed connections between Trump and the Kremlin to generate an investigation of the Republican opponent so he could turn around and tell his media contacts that Trump was being investigated in the hopes of swinging the election in Clinton’s favor.
During the same month he hired Steele and a similar Putin spy, Elias hired the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to write a public report blaming Russia for hacking the Clinton campaign. In his since-debunked Trump Russia dossier, Steele went a step further, pinning the hacking on not just Russia but also the Trump campaign.
Also in 2016, Elias collaborated with Clinton campaign official Jake Sullivan (now President Biden’s national security adviser) on the Russian Alfa Bank political campaign hoax targeting Trump, resulting in another dead-end FBI probe.
This swatting incident hits the news in the aftermath of the cold blooded, deliberately planned murder of a health insurance CEO.
A murder where many culls around the country happily celebrated that murder and portrayed it as justified. He worked for a health insurance company? It was justice – not murder. Just like Marjorie Taylor Green being swatted is another form of their justice.
I doubt there will be many instances of any of the architects of Obamacare or it’s continuing massive incompetence being either ‘swatted’ or singled out for cold blooded murder.
Dear Mr. Turley, I do hope you are correct in that this kind of harassment will lead to a new law regarding “swatting”.
Internet anonymity will eventually go away because of abuses like this.
The “Do you have Prince Albert in a can” call was a prank with the intention of joking with the caller; this new use of communication devices is motivated by evil intentions and harm towards the victim. Therein lies the difference between the culture of the pre-70s and now. We have had manufactured by our media/education industries several generations of malevolent individuals who know no bounds as to their perceived rage and have been empowered to do as they wish -regardless of the here-to-for restrictions of society. This incident with MTG is just another step of escalation that we saw in riots in Watts and just days ago with the murder of the CEO of United Healthcare. How do you fix broken minds and characters? That is the biggest problem facing our nation at this time as these misguided malcontents will inherit the reigns of power in our future.
The other joke of that era was “Friend, do you have bills to pay. Please return it as Bill’s head is getting cold.”
My guess is that the perps here will be young, white and members of the alphabet community.
That’s my guess, too, Floyd.
Isn’t some of this on the police? After 9 times, or several dozen in a lot of cases don’t you see a pattern? Maybe just maybe you don’t treat the 12th time you get a call like you never rolled the swat team on this address before? Send someone out and report if there is a real problem?
Like maybe responding to a malcontent call about a rabid squirrel at an animal rescue farm with ten car loads of automatic weapon armed team combatants.
Our family business provides awards and such for the US Army and there is always a flurry of purchases at a certain point of the fiscal year – the use it or lose it – policy and I can see these LEO organizations trying to justify all the equipment they have purchased and wanting that flow of cash to be justified. Let’s just face it – the entire system of bloated bureaucracy extends from the white house all the way down to local dog catcher which is reason #1 to end almost all federal agencies except for Treasury, Defense, and International Affairs. The human mind cannot keep track of such a vast array of departments etc. Keep it as local as possible where you and your neighbor can see what your local politicians and appointees are doing.
They know of this conundrum and use it. They know that at some point with that procedure there will be a genuine incident and then the police will be on trial – a win-win for the progs – so they see no reason to stop, no matter the results. These are indoctrinated anarchists and with a devotion to destroy our nation with the same fervor as any islamic jihadist glowing with the fevered promise of 100 virgins.
Fair point.
Something to consider (firefighter here): One thing that is watched when a facility/business has a string of early morning false fire alarms is eventually a firebug burning the place down. Five or ten or fifteen false alarms to a business will often slow the response of the units. This is especially so in volunteer fire departments around the country, where you are relying on a group of everyday citizens to get up at 2am, respond to a fire call, before heading back to bed. Rolling one guy out to check it out is exactly what the fire bug wants, as a fire doubles in intensity every 90 seconds or so.
Knowing that you could get the PD to slow/reduce their response is something an individual with actual intent would be interested in.
The police have to be right every time. What would you say if the police had not rushed to the scene and Greene’s mailbox had exploded, killing her or someone in her family?
Seems straight forward to me. Death occurred in the commission of a felony. I like the charge with prison time, Large fine and work for at least in a year in a ER in one of the local hospitals. Now who are these people? Well they continue to blame us for them losing elections with their toxic programs, their Marxist chic, the utter irresponsibility, and their victim blaming. Seems we need a real FBI that can go after these left wing nut jobs. The victims that the vast majority of these swatting are right of the aisle or center. I don’t think I would be remiss in thinking these are left wing domestic terrorists.
Just like the guy arrested yesterday for the shooting of the United Health CEO . He was even kind enough to have his manifesto with him I understand. A fine product of the Ivy Marxist-Palestinian League.
The left and some right groups have been trying to instigate a race war for years but I think the African American communities and more and more of white communities are steering clear of that scenario.
Now it’s direct attacks by the left, more and more. These kind of tactics lead to right wing groups that then just snatch and disappear people such as in our Southern Neighbors. If the authorities don’t jump on these people and remove them, then people will start acting on their own.
Cry Havoc and Let Slip The Dogs of War (on the Left, of course).
(A fine product of the Ivy Marxist-Palestinian League.) A perfect description of one of our nation’s biggest problems, just behind illegal immigrants and the biden crime family.
As noted in another post the big deal is actually catching and prosecuting.
We have a tendency to take offenses we do not like especially when we are bad at enforcing them and just keep escalating the punishment.
Should we make SWATTING a capital offense ?
No I do not see Felony murder applying when law enforcement traveling to a crime scene has an accident and dies.
Felony murder is supposed to apply when Killing – not accidental death is the foreseable outcome of a crime.
It applies to the drivers of getaway cars for armed robbers. It applies for crimes committed with deadly weapons are part of the commission of the crime even if they are not intended to be used, or if the specific person being charged did not have a deadly weapon but other criminal participants did.
It does not and should not apply to accidental deaths that occur as a result of police response to a crime.
For the most part we do NOT need more laws. We do NOT need tougher sentences.
We need to catch the people who comit crimes.
And we need to punish them as the law dictates.
And we need to do so consistently and with the most certainty we can achieve.
On the whole we need LESS laws, and LESS crimes.
We just need to be better at enforcing the ones we have.
Hate to be obvious, but if a community wishes to change the objectionable behavior of some of its members, it *must* adopt significant consequences to those behaviors. Otherwise the community will just have to learn to live with bad behavior.
The significance of the consequence is less important than the CERTAINTY of a consequence.
The Left Wing DEMS/Radicals continue to use Swatting in the hopes the intended person is harmed, the Radicals are crazy and need to suffer the maximum penalties, long term jail sentence and yes pay a huge fine and any damages or loss of life penalties. They will not stop until the authorities catch them and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. Majorie Taylor Greene and other Republicans have been the targets there must be something the police/FBI? can do to crack down.
Prayers to those involved in this horrific event. It is clearly time that States and maybe in the case of using electronic devices to commit these criminal acts that Federal Wire Fraud statutes be used to enhance the consequences. Until the consequences to the perpetrators outweighs the benefit of their acts, this will continue as a tactic of the enraged.
According to local news, the officer was injured and a local woman was killed in the accident.
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/woman-killed-wreck-with-officer-responding-bomb-threat-marjorie-taylor-greenes-home/RHORJGPUEJADBJ2PVUL3H3LMTA/
Kitchen timer?
So Joe Patrice thinks the Second Amendment is the cause of crazed leftists making calls of fake bomb threats or persons at risk. Makes sense.
I’m beginning to agree with the left that there are large groups of people who should not be allowed firearms. Maybe we need a law stating that Democrats should not have access to firearms simply because the fact that they are a leftist is de facto evidence of an extreme mental illness.
The weapon of the left is infowarfare, not guns. Come up with a secure internet, based on Trusted Actor Architecture (like drivers licensing), where use of connected devices is a widely enjoyed privilege that can be suspended or revoked for those bad actors who abuse it.
That sounds great, that is, if we can trust the blind objectivity of whoever is in charge of licensing. As Palantir CEO Karp stated, we have a legitimation crisis because your average citizen no longer trusts any institution – both public or private – at this point; the prog/left has so despoiled our institutions that they are useless at this point. Would you put your life in the hands of the DOJ or FBI at this point?
No it does not sound great. It sounds exactly like 1984.
‘Come up with a secure internet, based on Trusted Actor Architecture (like drivers licensing), where use of connected devices is a widely enjoyed privilege that can be suspended or revoked’
Rhetorical question (at least I hope): You have a deep faith that an administration headed by an Obama, Clinton, Biden, Harris wouldn’t take advantage of that to deny that privilege, just as they did having Facebook and Twitter deny dissenting voices use of those platforms?
Please NO!!!!!!
Whatever power you give government WILL with certainty be wielded AGAINST citizens. And likely by the LEFT.
Do you really want a chinese like social credit system ?