On August 12th, 2019, police sent a SWAT team to the Pennsylvania home of 16-year-old Fortnite World Cup Solo Finals champion Kyle Giersdorf, also known as Bugha.
The event occurred during a livestream Kyle was broadcasting. He was thankfully not harmed, as a SWAT team member recognized him.
‘Swatting’ is a form of harassment in which a person makes a false report of crime happening at their target’s location in order to have a SWAT team ready to engage sent there. As an example, in 2017, someone in California ‘swatted’ a 28-year-old father of two in Kansas City, which resulted in his death.
With increased militarization of police in the United States, as well as the current political atmosphere, swatting incidents are incredibly dangerous to the target and it’s likely that instances will increase. Let’s hope that lawmakers will take these crimes seriously and create legislation to prevent more incidents from occurring.
— Michael Baginski
Source: The Independent, photo: ESPN.com
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