Since the dawn of humanity, people have harassed others for a variety of reasons. Some people engage in the harassment of others simply for their own and others’ entertainment.
One type of criminal harassment that’s becoming quite popular in today’s world is known as “swatting,” which entails having someone’s house, business, or other property raided by members of law enforcement. Swatting is named after modern law enforcement agencies’ SWAT, or special weapons and tactics, teams.
People are able to have others’ homes raided in such a fashion by alleging that the soon-to-be victims of swatting are engaging in criminal activity such as threatening to kill themselves, harm others, or similar acts that law enforcement agencies are incentivized to attend to as soon as they possibly can.
Most victims of swatting are those who livestream themselves online, usually in the form of playing video games. One of the most commonly streamed video games on the World Wide Web right now is Fortnite, particularly Fortnite: Battle Royale, an online multiplayer game in which as many as 100 players per lobby collect resources and attempt to eliminate other players until just one remains, who is crowned the winner.
Fortnite is also one of the most common video games in the world of e-sports. Just two weeks ago, at the end of July 2019, the Fortnite World Cup, which was held in New York City, paid out a whopping three million dollars to its winner, 16-year-old Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf.
This weekend, on Saturday, July 10, 2019, Bugha Giersdorf found himself as the victim of a swatting attempt than involved a team of SWAT officers decked out in tactical gear taking him under arrest at gunpoint. The raid was carried out on one of Giersdorf’s livestreams on Twitch, one of the most popular live-streaming platforms.
As of now, it isn’t clear who is responsible for contacting law enforcement and alleged that Giersdorf was engaging in whatever serious criminal activity that he was accused of.
Swatting is taken very seriously by modern law enforcement agencies and courts of law. Tyler Raj Barriss, a California man who was directly responsible for swatting Andrew Finch, who died after a raid was carried out on his home by a local SWAT team, was recently sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
Dil Bole Oberoi
