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Another threat to election officialsAt least four swatting incidents have been aimed at the homes of senior officials who oversee or work to secure elections since December. Separately, a Department of Justice taskforce launched in 2021 has reviewed more than 2,000 allegations of hostility, harassment, abuse, or threats to election officials and staffers, a department spokesperson said. Swatting was featured in a tabletop exercise for election officials in New Jersey last month, a spokesperson for the secretary of state told CNN. Such incidents have prompted The Elections Group, a consulting group led by former election officials, to begin sharing resources on swatting with election workers and incorporating the topic into trainings. A wave of election officials have departed their roles since November 2020, when false claims of a stolen election proliferated.

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☆ Opinion: Swatting by Trump’s followers is putting public officials in danger. It has to stop
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Adam Kinzinger | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

“I will tell you that the last thing you want is to see multiple law enforcement officials with guns drawn pointing at my parents and thinking that something happened,” the former South Carolina governor told NBC. It’s been in the headlines recently because of a spate of incidents involving public officials. When prominent public officials are victims of swatting, one can’t always prove a cause-and-effect relationship between inflammatory rhetoric posted online or delivered during a speech and a caller’s reckless false emergency call to 911. We need tougher laws to protect public servants, and some states are increasing penalties for perpetrators of swatting. Swatting increases the likeliness of inadvertent harm to the public by the very people whose job it is to protect us.

Persons: Adam Kinzinger, Kinzinger, Tina ”, Tina ’, Nikki Haley, Haley, swatting, Andrew Finch, Finch, ”, It’s, GOP Florida Sen, Rick Scott, Scott, Anthony Gonzalez, Donald Trump ., Trump, Judge Arthur Engoron, “ TRUMP, Engoron, Jack Smith, Tanya Chutkan, Shenna Bellows, Joe Biden, David, Brennan, I’m, I’d, General Merrick Garland, Katherine Schweit, Nikki Haley’s Organizations: CNN, Republican, House Foreign Affairs, Air National Guard, Adam Kinzinger CNN, Police, Congress, Press, South, NBC, FBI, GOP Florida, swatting, Rep, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Washington Post, New, Trump, Maricopa County Board, Brennan Center for Justice, University of Chicago, Justice Department, The Washington Post, Post Locations: Illinois, Washington, DC, South Carolina, Wichita , Kansas, Anthony Gonzalez of, Ohio, Virginia, toning, New York, Trump, Maine, Arizona, Maricopa, Nevada, The

Their tormentors have also called in false bomb threats to venues using their names in three states. To combat the growing problem, the FBI has begun taking formal measures to get a comprehensive picture of the problem on a national level. Chief Scott Schubert with the bureau's Criminal Justice Information Services headquarters in Clarksburg, West Virginia, told NBC News that the agency formed a national online database in May to facilitate information sharing between hundreds of police departments and law enforcement agencies across the country pertaining to swatting incidents. No central agency has tracked swatting incidents or suspects in the U.S., so official statistics are not available. The couple was mostly recently swatted at their home on Tuesday, bringing the total of swatting incidents to 43.

Persons: Patrick Tomlinson, Niki Robinson, hasn't, Scott Schubert, Schubert, Lauren R, Shapiro, Mark Herring, Niki Robinson.NBC, —, Andrew Finch —, Finch, Swatting, he'd, Norm Macdonald, Tomlinson, It's, impersonators, Swatters, Patti Labelle, Robinson Organizations: Las Vegas, Tribune, Service, Getty, Clemson, Harvard, Cornell, Rutgers, Middlebury College, swatters, FBI, bureau's, Information Services, NBC News, NBC, Google, John Jay College of Criminal, Defamation League, Twitter, Daily, YouTube, Police, Irish, Milwaukee Brewers, Riverside Theater Locations: Milwaukee, U.S, Clemson , Florida, Boston, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, Clarksburg , West Virginia, Texas, China, Taiwan, Tennessee, Wichita, Wisconsin, Marquette

☆ Inside the Big World of Small Objects
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Emma Orlow | Evan Jenkins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

CHICAGO — Moments before 10 a.m., a security guard thanked the crowd for being cooperative. Instead, it was the Chicago International Miniatures Show. Despite the gathering touting itself as “the World’s No. 1 Dollhouse Miniatures Show,” there aren’t many actual dollhouses. Attendees instead sift through thousands of tiny objects that fill these tiny homes: miniature sponges, chocolate fondue fountains, rocking chairs, barbecue sets, Tupperware containers or fly swatters.

☆ Steve Bannon 'swatted' again. The right-wing commentator was live-broadcasting his 'War Room' podcast when the police raided his home.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Steve Bannon's podcast studio in Washington, DC, was raided live on air by police. Bannon said that this is not the first time he has been raided as a result of a "swatting" call. Listeners of Bannon's "War Room" podcast on Thursday heard a scuffle in the background before the host switched to an ad break. Speaking on his podcast, Bannon said that this is not the first time he has been raided due to a false call. A major study, in February, by the Brookings Institute reviewing the top US political podcasts found that conservative-leaning shows are vastly more likely to include misinformation — with Steve Bannon's "War Room" coming way ahead.

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