Last month Rep. Sandy Adams of Florida sent a letter to Attorney
General Eric Holder asking him to look into the SWAT-ting of
conservative bloggers. Eighty-six other members of Congress co-signed
the letter (all of them Republicans) but so far there has been no
response from the DOJ.
Rep. Adams is a former law enforcement officer who spent 17 years as a deputy sheriff in Orange County, Florida.
Last week we spoke with Rep. Adams by phone and she explained some of the
reasons this is a such a high priority issue for her. “I have been to
numerous 911 calls” she explained, adding “I’ve been there when someone
has been shot.” Because of her personal experience as a cop on the
beat, the idea of sending police to a home based on a false murder
report, i.e. SWAT-ting, is something she finds especially dangerous.
As Rep. Adams explained in her letter to the DOJ, SWAT-ting endangers the
community in three specific ways. First, police who’ve been called to a
murder scene are in a hurry to get there. They believe a life is on the
line which means they are going to be racing to the scene, lights on,
sirens blazing. While this is entirely appropriate, it is always dangerous. Police may be forced to bypass
red lights, exceed speed limits and other activity that can lead to
accidents involving officers and other vehicles or bystanders. Neither the officers nor the public should be put at risk for a hoax.
Secondly and most obviously, SWAT-ting calls represent a real risk to
the unsuspecting target of the calls. When police are called to the scene of a
“murder” by someone they believe is armed with a gun, they are going to
be prepared to defend themselves. Fortunately, no one has been hurt in
the SWAT-ting calls thus far, but the danger that a sudden move could be misinterpreted and lead to a shooting is real.
Finally, officers diverted to respond to a fake 911 call are not
available to respond to a real one. This means that someone else may not
be getting the life saving attention they need because resources were
busy or delayed by a hoax.
There’s also the political issue. The recent spate of SWAT-ting calls
have all been aimed at conservative bloggers in a clear attempt to
chill public discourse. “People are being targeted for using their first
amendment rights,” Rep. Adams explained, “People should be able in our
country, people with differences of opinion, to speak freely. That’s
what makes this country so great. It should not be happening to anyone.”
However, because the people behind the calls are using Voice Over
Internet Protocol (VOIP), it’s not as easy to identify who is behind
them as it would be with land lines or even cell phones. We asked Rep.
Adams if state police have the technological savvy to track down the
source of these calls. She noted that all states have the ability to
seek assistance from the federal government, especially when there is
reason to believe the illegal behavior took place across state lines.
So that’s where this investigation stands. Attacks on the free
speech of conservatives could be quickly resolved with federal help,
but so far that help is not forthcoming. It probably doesn’t help the situation that
Rep. Adams and the other signatories to the letter voted to hold the
Attorney General in contempt last week. It seems clear that politics motivated the
SWAT-ting calls and, at least for the moment, politics may interfere with holding the perpetrators accountable.
Source: Breitbart Feed