So this is what the Kimberlin stuff was about the other day:
In the last radio interview Andrew Breitbart ever gave, on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, Breitbart talked about a new ruthless tactic used by thugs against political opponents:
[O]ne of the things they’ve done to people who have worked with me in the past, including an L.A. prosecutor, is to “SWAT.” That means that they’re spoofing phones, pretending to be somebody else’s phone, calling 911, and saying “I killed somebody” and then the person’s home is met with the guns drawn, the SWAT and the helicopters, in a horrifying act. It’s happened twice: once in New Jersey, once in Los Angeles, with an L.A. County . . . prosecutor who [is] associated with me.”
I am that L.A. County prosecutor. And in this post, you’ll hear the hoax call that sent police to my house, pointing loaded guns at me.
THE NIGHT I COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED BECAUSE OF MY BLOGGING
At 12:35 a.m. on July 1, 2011, sheriff’s deputies pounded on my front door and rang my doorbell. They shouted for me to open the door and come out with my hands up.
When I opened the door, deputies pointed guns at me and ordered me to put my hands in the air. I had a cell phone in my hand. Fortunately, they did not mistake it for a gun.
They ordered me to turn around and put my hands behind my back. They handcuffed me. They shouted questions at me: IS THERE ANYONE ELSE IN THE HOUSE? and WHERE ARE THEY? and ARE THEY ALIVE?
I told them: Yes, my wife and my children are in the house. They’re upstairs in their bedrooms, sleeping. Of course they’re alive.
Deputies led me down the street to a patrol car parked about 2-3 houses away. At least one neighbor was watching out of her window as I was placed, handcuffed, in the back of the patrol car. I saw numerous patrol cars on my quiet street. There was a police helicopter flying overhead, shining a spotlight down on us as I walked towards the patrol car. Several neighbors later told us the helicopter woke them up. I saw a fire engine and an ambulance. A neighbor later told me they had a HazMat vehicle out on the street as well.
Meanwhile, police rushed into my home. They woke up my wife, led her downstairs and to the front porch, frisked her, and asked her where the children were. Then police ordered her to stand on the front porch with her hands against the wall while they entered my children’s bedrooms to make sure they were alive.
The call that sent deputies to my home was a hoax. Someone had pretended to be me. They called the police to say I had shot my wife. The sheriff’s deputies who arrived at my front door believed they were about to confront an armed man who had just shot his wife. I don’t blame the police for any of their actions. But I blame the person who made the call.
Because I could have been killed.
The post goes on for a while, listing a bunch of suspicions and some verified dickish behaviors by a couple people, but I don’t see a concrete case to determine who actually “swatted” Patterico. Regardless, even though I’ve had some differences with him, trying to get someone killed in this manner is just insane. Although I guess it was bound to happen, when you have out of control and reckless paramilitary units all over the country who shoot first and think later just itching to see action. Even worse, even when they screw up, they aren’t punished.
I did sort of snicker when Patterico mentioned that his opponents are very interested in outing the Ace of Spades, because, well, just ask TBOGG.
Regardless, whoever is responsible for this swatting of people are very sick and evil people, and they need to see the inside of a jail cell for quite some time.
Steve M. has a very smart take on this, and you can’t overlook this is all just an attempt to smear liberalism. Still, that swatting stuff is just insane.
Amanda in the South Bay
I’ll admit its disturbing, but other than Breitbart’s name, this entire post was confusing and very inside baseball.
Steeplejack
Was there any verification that his phone number was actually “impersonated”?
Danny
Sounds like something Anonymous would find “lulzy”, just a thought.
jibeaux
Why does an LA Prosecutor assume that someone spoofing his phone, if that happened, was pursuing an internet vendetta because of his blogging? Rather than, I don’t know, a criminal he prosecuted?
Xenos
The Speedway Bomber is alleged to be behind this. Because this individual got a grant from Barbra Streisand and the Tides Foundation (for what, who knows, why does it matter) this shows THE LEFT is a bunch of terrorists.
just so you know.
The irony of Michelle Malkin shrieking about this is, if not amusing (because the underlying situation is genuinely scary and disturbing), well, a bit ironic.
Villago Delenda Est
Look, assholes. I hate to sound like a kid on a playground, but you went here first. For example, the vile Malkin harpy and her countertop checking.
I am glad Breitbart is dead. Very glad.
kc
I’m confused. Who did what to whom?
Villago Delenda Est
@jibeaux:
It’s projection. It’s what these fascist assholes DO.
shortstop
So could your wife and/or kids.
Weird you didn’t mention that.
jibeaux
@Villago Delenda Est: I mean, I’m not really going to spend a lot of time educating myself on right-wing hobbyhorses and trying to figure out who’s suspected of what, so for all I know they’ve identified a suspect with those motivations, but if that’s just your assumption it’s a pretty weird one for a big-city prosecutor.
Violet
Whoever did this should be put away for a long time. That kind of shit can get people killed.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
Just like the Brietbart crowd. Ask ACORN what its like to have your life destroyed because the media likes to shoot first and ask questions later.
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet:
I agree. We’ll start with all of Breitbart’s elves.
I’ll also point out that I wouldn’t put it past Breitbart himself to do this to another wingtard blogger for the sake of creating outrage at imaginary leftist opponents. This is just the sort of thing that ethical black holes like Breitbart would do.
Just Some Fuckhead
lolz
Police states will be police states, after all.
cervantes
Who TF is Brett Kimberlin? I tried googling the name and all I get is a lot of wingnut blogs yelling and screaming about some dude whose deeds and purpose are unexplained. Apparently he had a wikipedia entry which has been expunged. Evidently we’re just supposed to know? I’ve never heard of him.
Joey Maloney
This has been going on for a few years, ever since some inheritors of the phone phreaking tradition figured out that you could use VOIP to spoof 911 systems. It started out in good fun, but then some figured out there was money to be made off vengeful people. One of the first was a blind teenager from Boston. He’s now serving 11 years in Federal prison.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Does everyone on the left have to be outraged and apologize for this as well? I just want to know the protocol for this.
Mark S.
I didn’t read the whole thing (it’s longer than War and Peace), so could someone tell me why the police couldn’t trace who made the 911 call?
FlipYrWhig
So what’s the connection to his blogging? It’s not like LA isn’t full of deranged people getting roped into the legal system. There are any number of fictional works that take as a premise the guy who got sent up the river wreaking havoc on the guy that he holds responsible. There’s a vital dot not connected, at least in this excerpt.
Butterfly 8
The man is a prosecutor. I assume he’s pissed off some people over the course of his career, some of whom have nothing to do with Brietbart, liberals, or blogs.
I want this power I’m supposed to have of generating hurricanes and turning the country to a Marxist state. And the black helicopters, I want one of those too. And the ability to rig any election I want, and the ability to take away Christmas, man, I want to take away Christmas. And free birth control in the water supply!
Xenos
@cervantes: I suspect he is the next Bill Ayers.
Do you know that Obama has never denounced and repudiated the Speedway Bomber? Never! Although he has had literally hundreds of chances to do so! Whatadamncommie!
shortstop
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Heh.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
If you aren’t OUTRAGED by this, you aren’t of the left. Please sign my change.org petition.
Corner Stone
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
I guess it depends on who published the story. Wait. Shit.
Yes, it looks like we are and do.
shortstop
@FlipYrWhig: Yes, but since criminals are all leftists and all leftists make excuses for criminals, he’s on safe ground here, no?
Mark S.
@Joey Maloney:
Oh, okay.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Mark S.:
They spent the phone trace budget on drones.
Corner Stone
@Mark S.:
Computer hackers, proxies, skype and bears, oh my!
some guy
tl; dnr
Villago Delenda Est
@FlipYrWhig:
Well, for example, look at the plot of the movie version of The Fugitive.
The entire thing was a setup to preserve filthy lucre.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Ah, so.
—
This explains the emphatic turn which right wing bloggers recently made towards supporting civil liberties, donating to the ACLU, de-escalating the War on Drugs, rolling back the militarization of our police departments, encouraging citizens to see each other’s common humanity rather than looking under every bed for potential terrorists, etc., etc. Because in a climate of Fear and Loathing of The Other and hair-trigger militarized police response, it doesn’t take much to get somebody killed.
__
I remember it all oh so well, and I’d always wondered why they changed their minds so dramatically. It all makes so much more sense now. Nice to see some folks finally connecting the dots. First they came for the drug dealing mooslim darkies, and I said nothing…
urizon
@jibeaux: Absolutely. The guy has spent his career putting people in jail, many of whom no doubt resent the hell out of him, and he says the incident is a result of his blogging activity? What evidence does he offer? None.
Fwiffo
This is something that 4chan has supposedly been doing for a while; did Patterico do something to piss them off? (generally not recommended)
kc
@Villago Delenda Est:
Has anyone been, er, “SWATTED” since Breitbart died?
Just askin. :D
R Johnston
Because in these days of easily spoofable caller ID, the police are fucking lazy.
Also, sending the swat team after someone is fucking criminally ridiculous if you believe he’s actually just confessed to turn himself in.
Warren Terra
@jibeaux:
This, exactly. There are an awful lot of more prominent bloggers who’ve received plenty of despicable mail but nothing like this; and there are plenty of prosecutors who’ve been criminally, physically abused (including murder, in dome tragic cases) by people they’ve prosecuted. I know which sounds more likely.
Knockabout
Well I’m no longer wondering why Cole hasn’t smacked Zandar down for always accepting stupid right-wing arguments and then trying to rebut them.
This whole thing is just stupid, and we’re coming to the table with “Yes liberals are terrorist killers sometimes.”
Great job, Cole. You and Zandar keep on fscking that rat.
lacp
Sounds like everybody involved in this is either a crook or bugfuck insane or a wingnut (but I repeat myself): http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/05/25/opening_act_blog_about_brett_kimberlin_day.html
Brett Kimberlin is a leftist in the same way Charlie Manson is a hippy.
Villago Delenda Est
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
If only that were true.
These cretins don’t get that they’re getting the world they wanted.
Just Some Fuckhead
@urizon:
Someone should photoshop him with a dick in his mouth. That will set him back 20 years.
Corner Stone
Honestly, I get my fill of paranoid anxiety fantasies each night when I wake up at 4:30am. I couldn’t do more than skim most of this CAPS LOCK JESUS blow by blow reporting.
FlipYrWhig
@Just Some Fuckhead: Do you remember in the primaries, there was a thing about Farrakhan having endorsed Obama, and Clinton challenged him to reject it, and it became a whole semantic thing about rejecting vs. denouncing?
Joey Maloney
@cervantes: Brett Kimberlin is a small-time doofus who went to prison in Indiana in the 1970s for setting off some pipe bombs in Speedway, Indiana. At one point he claimed he was being set up because he’d sold pot to Dan Quayle.
I guess he’s been out for awhile and is according to some kind of a litigious jerk. I had no idea. I was living in Indiana back when, but I hadn’t thought about him in decades. Blast from the past.
Jay C
@ John Cole:
While I quite agree with post, I think this bit:
is pretty much just wishful thinking: when was the last time you read ANY public criticism from ANY public or semi-public figure on the Right (whether fullbore wingnut or merely conservative) about the obsessive and ever-increasing militarization of this country’s police forces?
While Patterico is understandably (and rightfully) angry at the potential bloody downside of this sort of “prank”, do you really think he has any outrage to spare at the law-enforcement overkill (vs. for himself, as the except shows)? Or, is it more likely that, as a prosecutor, he just smugly assumes that SWAT-team assaults are only going to carried out against THOSE PEOPLE, who just “naturally” deserve this sort of ill-treatment?
kc
@FlipYrWhig:
If only Glenn Beck were here, with his chalkboard, he could SHOW us the connections!
jibeaux
In NC, the whole marriage equality debate is continuing, partly because advocates for marriage equality won’t let up and partly because advocates against it are always going to get their dumb-ass cracker selves on national TV making the whole state look about 2 steps evolved from the cutworm. So, we have this dumbass pastor who talked about putting gay people behind an electrified fence until they died out. Awful. One of their parishioners actually went on Anderson Cooper and I don’t even want to talk about that. But do you know what is so much more not just ethical and legal but also deeply, deeply satisfying as a response? Donating money to LGBT causes in his name. Gets them on the email and the snail mail list to boot. Almost as good as a pedicure, right there. And secondly, if you are in the market to replace old china or flatware, or if you need to round out a discontinued pattern, please consider Replacements, Ltd., which is an excellent company that you can find on the google. They were the only significantly sized business in NC that I know of that expended a significant amount of money and visibility to oppose A1, and they have lost customers as a result. So the moral is not to fight hate with spoofed phone calls, it’s to fight it with love, your spending power, and a few thousand postcards to bigots acknowledging the donations in their name.
shortstop
@urizon: If all his entries are as ridiculously long-winded as this one, we can rule out everyone who isn’t an insomniac locked in a bare-of-all-other-stimuli room with a non-respondent browser stuck on Patterico’s blog.
lacp
@Just Some Fuckhead: Thanks. I needed that.
ChrisNYC
No sympathy. First Sherrod, etc. Second, these people run around making themselves out to be revolutionaries (water the tree of liberty with blood, anybody?). They constantly assume the posture of soldiers and evoke the threat of violence. You want to be an outlaw and a cowboy and spew dangerous and vile nonsense constantly to “stir things up” and prove how big your dick is? You might get something you don’t like. (Like, say, the US soldiers who were killed in the riots after the Koran burning threat that none of these heroes could be bothered to condemn.) Not saying you should but you might.
Just Some Fuckhead
@FlipYrWhig: Yes, but that was limited to the blacks-are-always-on-the-hook-for-their-kind paradigm. This is a lot bigger, ensnaring white folks.
Citizen_X
WHY OH WHY WOULD SOMEBODY TRY TO HARM A BIG-CITY PROSECUTOR? MUST BE LIBRUL BLOGGERS.
Oh, and good thing he wasn’t blah, because then he’d be shot daid for sure.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jay C:
It’s this.
Like I said earlier, these dumbfucks are getting the fascist nightmare they dreamed of, except they were supposed to not be the objects of it.
kc
@Just Some Fuckhead:
BWAHAHAHA!
FlipYrWhig
@Jay C: This just shows my age, I guess, but as I recall one of the recurring bits in _Boyz n the Hood_ is that the police helicopters are constantly hovering over the neighborhood. I guarantee that Patterico doesn’t give two shits about that kind of thing.
elmo
I am a horrible, horrible person, and I deserve to have hot coals heaped upon my head, but I just. can’t. manage. to muster up any sympathy for the prosecutor crying about evil people sending armed cops to his door.
For everyone else it’s supposedly happened to, my outrage and sympathy are total. And unlike Patterico, my outrage and sympathy extend not only to his fellow wingnut bloggers this has supposedly happened to, but also to all of the non-wingnut, non-blogger, non-politically-powerful-or-connected people – primarily nonviolent drug offenders and their families – to whom this happens every single fucking day, to Patterico’s cheers and acclaim.
If he had an ounce of empathy or human imagination, he would be having a fucking Jean Valjean-level epiphany right about now. But he haz not it. And so I haz no sad.
FlipYrWhig
@Just Some Fuckhead: Oh, jeez, this is going to take a hell of a lot of denouncing, rejecting, refuting and repudiating. I’ll put the coffee pot on.
Heliopause
Tried reading a few paragraphs at the link but it just makes your head spin. Sounds like a bunch of assholes I’ve never heard of or barely heard of, some ostensibly on the left and some on the right, having a virtual turf war. Not sure why any of us need to be involved. Crimes should be investigated by the police and short of that these fucksticks can tweet insults at each other throughout eternity as far as I’m concerned.
shortstop
Everyone just calm down. As soon as the police trace this call to someone Patterico prosecuted, or a loved one of same, he’s certain to write a 20,000-word correction.
Villago Delenda Est
@shortstop:
Yes, and next week I’ll be crowned Tsar of all the Russias.
JGabriel
How does Patterico know he was “SWAT’d” because of his blogging?
I mean, he’s a prosecutor. Don’t they tend to make a lot of enemies? I’d be more likely to suspect someone who wanted him to know what a paramilitary police force home invasion felt like, maybe someone innocent (or guilty) who had been put through the same thing.
It’s wrong, whoever is doing it.
That said, it might be whomever Patterico is accusing. I don’t know.
But he’s trying Kimberlin with circumstantial evidence in the public court of the internet. I’m not entirely sure how kosher it is for a public prosecutor to do that — though Patterico has my sympathies if what he says is true.
Other than that, what else can one say? I don’t know who, if anyone, is credible in this story.
.
shortstop
@Villago Delenda Est: You’re a bleeder, aren’t you? I knew it.
Forum Transmitted Disease
Crickey, if the Magic Evil Hacker God just sent the cops after one of their own, instead of a prosecutor, this could have ended in some serious lulz.
Get a few cops on the receiving end of police brutality and that brutality will slowly start to end.
RossinDetroit
I read the whole thing, plus the TBOGG link.
Can I have my two minutes back please?
Corner Stone
I’ve tried a couple times now to piece together Patterico’s claims. That’s some crazy shit he’s putting down.
amused
That’s some funny shite and couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. If he’d been shot, it would be his fault for sassing the coppers.
Tractarian
You know who else exhibited seriously messed up behavior?
The approximately 40 people who actually committed murder in the United States. Yesterday.
And yet we’re supposed to exhibit high moral dudgeon because of a prank phone call?
If I didn’t know any better, I would think Cole is trying to burnish his centrist credentials.
RossinDetroit
If the SWATting happened because of blogging, Patterico is pretty fucking lucky that he’s a prosecutor. How many other people would have made a false move in that situation and gotten ventilated, to the genuine and sincere regret of about 15 police officers with smoking Glocks in their hands?
It’s scary, but it happened to the not-wrong guy.
slag
I’m just still disappointed that Patterico didn’t get out his AK-47 for an old-fashioned shootout like at the OK Corral.
But since the only other people harmed in the making of this fiasco were other, similarly inclined assholes, I have no further area of disappointment to express.
cthulhu
From what I can tell, it seems that Patterico (Asst DA John Patrick Frey if you want to search both names) also has a history of harassment, etc.
It seems best just to steer clear of any ongoing conflicts between Kimberlin’s and Breitbart’s crews. Too much obnoxious craziness to go around.
Taylormattd
Is there any reason in particular to believe a single word of this actually happened, or that, if it did happen, it had anything at all do to with his blogging?
Mr. Moderate
I don’t know if this is actually related to this Brett Kimeberlin or not. However even if it isn’t, both he and Ron Brynaert sound like a bunch of litigious pricks that left wing organizations would do well to expunge from their ranks. I know it’s the same pathology that keeps the Breitbarts of the right tied with those organizations, but while the right somehow can be excused for having ex-cons and con-men amongst their ranks the left can’t. Is that fair? Probably not. However I would rather not be associated with an organization whose “director” is someone with Kimberlin’s criminal record and staffed with blowhard trouble makers like he and Brynaert.
It would probably help if someone besides the right wing blogsphere actually does some reporting on it. Their track record is less than stellar but in the absence of anyone else reporting on it there is nothing else to read. Incidentally you can read the wiki article if you dig through the editing system. It sucked pretty bad, didn’t have any real details and didn’t have any sources.
Soonergrunt
@FlipYrWhig:
@Butterfly 8: He’s supposed to be a county prosecutor in LA–home of the world famous LAPD. No PD gets as bad as LAPD (consent decree, anyone?) without getting a LOT of cover from the local prosecutor. Somebody has to help them get away with all that shit, after all.
Given the online thug behavior of Patterico and well, pretty much every fucking right winger with more than three followers, (countertops) and the passive/aggressive shit they pull every day, and the false flag crap for which Breitbart (who is still dead) used to pull and pay for, and the framing of union members as thugs, and on and on and on with these people, I’m less surprised than Pattycakes might be hoping for.
I am glad that one of Patty’s children didn’t get killed by a cop clearing the house, but he’s white middle class, so that wasn’t very likely either.
@Villago Delenda Est:
Precisely.
SteveM
@kc: Beck has been talking about this on his radio show.
The Mayans were right.
cthulhu
@Taylormattd: I wouldn’t recommend jumping into the fever swamp that is these “swatting” claims but yeah, two things stand out regarding them: 1) no apparent local news coverage or other independent verification that this ever happened and 2) the 911 tapes from both CA and NJ were supposedly released to small time bloggers who have gotten voice experts to verify who really made the calls. They are running their own independent investigation, and darn it, can’t seem to get the authorities interested in their findings. All very weird.
I can’t imagine anyone would make this stuff up given a position as a Asst DA but some of the other stuff he has done does make me wonder.
burnspbesq
@JGabriel:
The State Bar of California can’t get it’s resource-starved act together long enough to investigate Orly Taitz. It’s not going after a deputy DA any time soon, for anything short of knowingly offering perjured testimony at trial.
Soonergrunt
@cthulhu: The part about this that bothers is that Pattycakes is supposed to be a Deputy DA. You’re trying to tell me that he doesn’t have ANY resources for dealing with this all? And nobody has had this happen except a couple of small time right winger bloggers in the last few years?
JWL
I was forced to disconnect my bullshit detector after reading that account, and it’s still going off.
cthulhu
@Soonergrunt: Not to mention, given his interest in showing how bad left wing activists are, why not take his story to the mainstream news, local at least. I think this would be a compelling story (HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEW THING TO WORRY ABOUT!!) but no sign of it that I could find.
taylormattd
@cthulhu: I’m sorry, but the fact of the matter is, these people have far more than earned a “you are lying” default here. I ALWAYS start from the position that the things they write are lies, until proven otherwise.
Dave S.
Robert Stacy McCain claims he and his family have gone into hiding as a result of Kimberlin doing… something, it’s hard to tell. The link’s in the Steve M. piece; trust me when I say you want to stay in the boat for this one.
kc
I hope Patterico’s closing arguments aren’t as convoluted as that post of his.
kc
@SteveM: \
I wish I had some computer graphics skills.
Soros + Kimberlin —–> liberal bloggers |
|
|
Socailims<———StalinHitler + Muslims = OBAMA!!!!!
AA+ Bonds
I . . . wouldn’t bother writing about this if I were you
AA+ Bonds
This is one of those things where someone unknown/insane does something (maybe?) and then it allows for the creation of a left-wing conspiracy myth on the right
And then otherwise intelligent left-leaning publications feel they need to “respond” to that “story”
You don’t
Please don’t
Understand that the very introduction of this narrative into discussion is an attempted ratfuck
Cassidy
@kc: All you need is a chalkboard.
Man. And I thought this story would have a happy ending.
Hart Williams
You’re missing the forest for the trees. First, it is laughable for these thugs to complain about intimidation. Intimidation is their middle name.
Secondly, this was a test run for Brownshirting the blogosphere, much as they coordinated their takedown of Private Beauchamp and the New Republic.
Wake the hell up, else write variations on Martin Niemoller’s famous lamentation. This was the first test of a massive Psy-Ops juggernaut for the fall campaign.
And WHEN did this stuff start being credible? The blatant use of lies by the Reicht has been so omnipresent that only a fool would take this crap at face value.
AA+ Bonds
@Hart Williams:
Abso fucking lutely 100% correct
Mike G
Whew. For a second there I suspected a right-winger might actually be having second thoughts about their full-throated support for militarized hair-trigger policing that kills people at the drop of a hat — on the arrogant presumption that it will never be aimed at ‘special’ people like themselves. False alarm.
But glad no-one was hurt. Whoever set this up is a psycho.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I wouldn’t be surprised one bit to learn that James O’Keefe pulled this stunt.
Wait for the video.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I hate to say it but in a way I’m glad that Patterico got to experience a small taste of the law enforcement that he and his have supported and unleashed on the public.
At least he survived, unlike many other innocent people who have had their lives ended at the point of a gun that was supposedly there to “Serve and Protect” them.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
strange world, if patterico were black, he’d be a martyr now.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
strange world, if patterico were black, he’d be a martyr now.
lacp
This guy is a public prosecutor, and he’s got wingnut bloggers investigating this alleged incident instead of law enforcement officers? Why doesn’t he go all the way up river and recruit those meddling kids and that darned mutt of theirs?
Villago Delenda Est
@lacp:
He claims to be a public prosecutor, but he’s not acting like one in jumping to assumptions about who pulled this stunt on him, if indeed the stunt actually took place.
Frankly, the wingtard blogosphere has ZERO credibility. They are rabid animals, and they are impossible to reason with.
CtrlAltDelirious
@Hart Williams: This isn’t new. A few months ago, an odious right-wing shit named Brooks Bayne (the anti-Semite who outed Sandra Fluke’s boyfriend as – quelle horreur! – a Jew) summoned his 100K Twitter followers to email and call the home phone, place of business, and business clients of someone who somehow offended either him or one of his allies on Twitter. This used to be the province of socially-maladjusted /b/tards, but members of the right have begun exploiting the same methods to destroy their perceived enemies, usually without any fear of punishment. The victims have almost no legal recourse available to them and the left is generally unwilling (George Tierney, excepted, I guess) to use the same tactics because it (correctly, in my opinion) doesn’t see itself engaged in an existential conflict with the right. It’s not enough that right “wins” the political debate in this country (the right has essentially given up trying to win that debate through the power of its ideas). The right has to also destroy its opponents. In fact, more often than not, this seems to take precedence over actually “winning”.
cthulhu
@Villago Delenda Est: He’s definitely an Asst DA in Los Angeles but perhaps we will be able to find out the truth about the “swatting” incident eventually: http://nadianaffe.com/
Repsac3
@cthulhu:
That’s the weirdest aspect of the whole thing (and yeah, I’ve read entirely too much about this whole shitstorm in the last few days…); James Frey (patterico), Aaron Worthing, R.S.McCain, and others are making all these accusations about some pretty awful stuff that supposedly happened to them at the hands of this guy, and yet none of them–not even an LA assistant D.A.–can get the police or other authorities, or the legit media (by which I mean anyone not owned by Murdoch or the Moonies) to pay any attention. Even a swat raid on the D.A.’s house apparently didn’t register a police or media blip… …and the cops were already there…
Somethin’ do seem a little fishy…
clayton
@Repsac3: Like you, I have read way too much of this, but it seems to me to be an escalation of a well used tactic.
Most of these people (patterico being an exception) are unemployed people, likely on disability or living for free in some religious commune. They encounter people they disagree with politically and go all out to shut them up. However, when one person fights back, they don’t know what to do. They fumble the legal aspect of it and blame it on the person standing up for himself.
The rest of their crowd then falls back on the old link fest thing and swamping memeorandum — a site I’m the only one I know who visits — so limited audience — and they finally get to the top at that site and they win?
It’s like that Powerline guy claiming the right has taken over and rules the twitter machine. I feel sorry for all of them.
John Difool
Kudos to John Cole for calling out the scare tactics of Kimberlin & Co. It’s worth noting that this whole thing started off when they went after a liberal book writer & a liberal blogger.
However, this is not a right or left issue, it’s not partisan. People from both the right and left should come together during times like these and stand up for the right of free speech, both liberal and conservative speech whether you agree with it or not.
Hart Williams
@CtrlAltDelirious:
No, it’s not new. I covered the coordinated swarm against Private Beauchamp and the New Republic and then the New York Times on “Petraeus betray us” in 2007 (nobody listened).*
But this is that on steroids. Never as large. Never as coordinated, and you can ignore the object of the high tech lynching. The point is that this is calisthenics for the lynch mob. Expect this to be turned on Democratic politicians as this sick political year moves on. A word to the wise ought to be sufficient, but something about 10,000 …
* http://hisvorpal.wordpress.com/2007/08/14/a-beauchamp-master-list/
Wile E. Quixote
How long before we end up with another incident like the Goldmark case caused by another right wing lunatic like David Lewis Rice? That seems to be what these bastards want.
Wile E. Quixote
How long before we end up with another incident like the Goldmark case caused by another right wing lunatic like David Lewis Rice? That seems to be what these bastards want.