Back atcha Part the Third
Keep the skeer on ‘em, as the greatest cavalry officer in history liked to say.
Maine secretary of state’s house ‘swatted’ day after Trump ballot disqualification decision: ‘Unacceptable’
The home of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows was “swatted” Friday evening, police confirmed Saturday.Maine State Police responded after an unidentified man lied about having broken into the house.
Bellows and her family were away at the time of the hoax call.
The incident comes after Bellows disqualified former President Trump from the state’s 2024 Republican presidential primary ballot late Thursday, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which bans from office those who “engaged in insurrection” over his alleged incitement of the Jan. 6 riot.
Bellows made the ruling after some state residents, including a bipartisan group of former lawmakers, challenged Trump’s position on the ballot.
“Swatting” is when someone calls the police under dangerous false pretenses to trigger a law enforcement response, especially a SWAT team to a location.
On Saturday, Bellows called the swatting call “unacceptable” in a lengthy statement on Facebook.
“Thank you for the messages of love and support,” she wrote. “I’ve been moved by every one and especially by those from friends and loved ones who disagree with my decision but have reached out to express love and respect.”
Bellows added that her staff had faced “unacceptable” and “non-stop threatening communications” on Friday after her decision.
Poor old Goodtime Charlie Jazz Shaw has his panties all in a wad over the SWATting. He is wrong.
This isn’t any sort of case of “all’s well that ends well.” As horrendous as Bellows’ decision to remove Trump from the ballot was, she described the swatting attempt as “unacceptable” and she is correct. This has become an increasingly common trend and it needs to stop. The majority of recent swatting incidents have been against Republicans, including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Congressmen Brandon Wiliams and Kevin Miller. But that doesn’t legitimize a similar attack on a Democrat official.
Swatting is extremely dangerous and people have literally been killed or injured by the police accidentally during these attacks. Filing false reports to the police is a crime and calls intended to produce stressful SWAT Team responses are among the worst. Also, we’re living through a time where crime rates are surging and the police are already overwhelmed in many cities. They don’t need to be wasting their time chasing false reports when there are very real crimes taking place that they need to be responding to.
Simply claiming “but the liberals do it” doesn’t make this any more acceptable.
Oh, doesn’t it? In a better, saner, more just world that would be so, sure. Unfortunately, this is NOT that world—and that is mainly because of the machinations of shitlib swine like the execrable Bellows and her ilk. Which fact, as far as I’m concerned, changes everyfuckingthing.
The only correct response would be to track down the people making these calls and lock them up for a long time as an example to others.
Again: in a just world, wherein the late, lamented rule of law still existed, sure. To date, however, there have been scores if not hundreds of SWATting incidents perpetrated by shitlib trash who specifically hoped to get their conservative victims unjustly arrested or mistakenly killed, and I know of exactly one (1) of the perps being arrested for it…after his victim WAS in fact killed, actually (the incident wasn’t sparked by politics, but over an even more insane reason: a stupid-ass video game).
Shaw’s daintily horrified response puts me in mind of one of my personal favorite LOTR quotes: “You won’t rescue Lotho, or the Shire, just by being shocked and sad, my dear Frodo.” It was true when Tolkien wrote it, and it’s true now, and all the more applicable for being non-fictional this time.
Live by the sword, die by the sword, bitch. As MisHum says, albeit in slightly different words, I am all out of fucks to give.
Update! This shit also puts me in mind of Jefferson Davis’s plea at the end of his first message to the Confederate Congress (Provisional), which inspired me to make a meme:
Same as it ever has, and ever will, it would seem. Here endeth the lesson.