Today, CNN featured a story centering around CNN contributor and RedState managing editor Erick Erickson, the latest victimin a series of
FBI SWAT in Atlanta gaining entry into a building during a training exercise. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
incidents in which an imposter mimics the phone number of a target, then calls the police and confesses to a violent crime. Such confessions often result in law enforcement personnel, many times special weapons and tactics teams (SWAT teams), responding to calls with full force, risking the life and health of the target. This tactic has been called SWATting by the FBI.
The CNN story featured the 911 phone call that led to Erickson’s SWATting on May 27, 2012. It can be heard below.
On the heels of that SWATting, Breitbart News contributor Lee Stranahan decided to conduct a podcast late that same evening to discuss the incident; the podcast extended into the very early morning hours of May 28, 2012. Stranahan had invited guest Patrick Frey, a deputy district attorney at Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office who also blogs under the pseudonym Patterico, to offer insight into his own experience as a victim of SWATting. Frey was the target of a similar incident in June 2011, an account that Frey has detailed extensively at his own blog in recent weeks. Frey has also alleged a much broader, prolonged campaign of lawfare and harassment against a group of political writers.
What followed on the May 28 podcast was shocking.
Partway into the program, at about 49:28 on the podcast, which can be heard by clicking here, a caller with an unidentified phone number greeted the Stranahan and Frey, and then claimed to be the SWATter from Frey’s June 2011 incident. Here is the transcript:
CALLER: It’s me. Hey Pat, you remember me, buddy? It’s me that SWATted you, buddy. How about I punk you one more time for old times’ sake, huh? (laughter) You still there, buddy?
STRANAHAN: Yeah, we’re here. Now why are you saying…now give us some proof that you’re the person who SWATted Pat. (silence) And, they’ve gone.
Read more CNN Plays 911 Call in Erickson SWATting Case.
Related articles
- ‘SWAT-ing’ prank hits conservative bloggers (foxnews.com)
- GOP lawmakers ask Holder to probe harassment of conservative bloggers (foxnews.com)
- Bloggers protest bizarre court ruling in Walker case, SWATting (hotair.com)
- Going dark to urge congressional action: Who will protect the freedom to blog? (michellemalkin.com)
