Perhaps you've heard of one or both of these pranks/hoaxes. The first is mainly an annoying nuisance done by teenagers the second much more serious.
Gallon Smashing. A teen (usually a boy) goes into a grocery store, picks up 2 gallons of milk or juice and proceeds to throw them hard to the floor so that they break. He then pretends to slip and fall feigning injury. Other shoppers run to his aid. Dumb.
Swatting. This has been done to political foes, usually by extremist liberals to conservatives (maybe liberal is too mild a term). Or, it has been done to Hollywood celebrities by who knows who. It begins with someone calling 9-11 ostensibly by the owner of a home which says "I just shot and killed my wife" or there's a hostage situation, or some other horrific thing. The police come, surround the place and, not knowing the innocent homeowner has no idea about the phone call, put the family in danger.
The most recent Swatting took place Saturday night at the Michigan home of Republican congressman Mike Rogers. This is a dangerous game being played.
More appropriate term would be liberal crazies/haters.
Those on the left are more prone to violence to get their message out.
Posted by: Ron | April 29, 2013 at 08:47 AM
First, no one knows who "swatted" Rogers. Could be a disgruntled former employee, all kinds of people. But of course, to the whacko right, it's all a liberal conspiracy. Strange, no mention here that Wolf Blitzer was also "swatted" this weekend.
And Ron, as stupid as these things may be, whoever does it, I wouldn't call it violence.
And there is absolutely no evidence this is a liberal-on-conservative thing. ABSOLUTELY NONE. Except, of course, in the minds of the whacko right-wing "everything's a conspiracy" blogosphere.
Posted by: Rand | April 29, 2013 at 12:51 PM
If this is what you say, something Liberals are doing to Conservatives, please give me a list of confirmed instances.
Posted by: Rand | April 29, 2013 at 01:51 PM
Rand, here's a link. It's been going on since last fall at least, some cases are really bad.
https://www.google.com/search?q=conservative+bloggers+swatted&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Posted by: Diane Meyer | April 29, 2013 at 04:06 PM
Diane, it could be one person. For you to make a statement (your words) "usually by extremist liberals to conservatives (maybe liberal is too mild a term)" is ridiculous. You have no proof whatsoever. You are very loose with such a statement.
Using your link I found evidence of two "swats" prior to this weekend, altho freedomworks.com (a right-wing blog) used this headline "SWATting Against Conservative Bloggers Continues Unabated" to describe the two instances, They also pointed a finger at one nut job as being behind it all (some guy that once claimed to sell pot to Dan Quayle).
That was nine months ago, no other instances until the alleged swatting of Rogers and Blitzer.
UNABATED?
I read several of the articles in the link you gave me and could not ascertain anything but Frey in 2011 and Erickson last year. And for this you claim liberals are guilty of these attacks like it's commonplace. Pshaw.
And Ron makes the ridiculous connection that liberals are violent???
As for Brett Kimberlin, the blogger the two conservatives blame for their swatting, I couldn't find a political agenda as liberal or conservative. He spent time in jail for the Speedway, Ind. bombings, and later for drug trafficking. The conservative bloggers actually promoted a "Blog about Brett Kimberlin Day" last year, so it appears there is personal animosity here, not a liberal/conservative agenda.
Posted by: Rand | April 29, 2013 at 04:41 PM