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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

One Metric on Impact: SWATting

Last week I wrote about the Speedway Bomber and current left-wing activist Brett Kimberlin. In 2011, after writing about Kimberlin, LA County Prosecutor Patrick Frey was rousted out of bed after midnight by the LA County SWAT Team. Someone had called 911 claiming to be Frey saying he’d just murdered his wife.

Sunday night as my family and sister’s family were around the dinner table and playing outside, sheriff’s deputies pulled into my driveway responding to an accidental shooting at my home.

One deputy was in the driveway. Another blocked the end of the driveway with his car. A neighbor tells me another was up the hill from the house.

There was no shooting at my home. Someone called 911, claimed to be at my home, and claimed to witness a shooting at my home.

As the one deputy and I spoke, the other deputy walked up the driveway, positioned himself behind the car in the driveway, and kept his eyes on me and his hand on his gun. My three year old ran between us all thinking it was so cool to have a police car in the driveway with its blue lights flashing.

Luckily, after I had starting writing about Kimberlin, I advised the Sheriff’s Department to be aware this could happen.

It was a prank, but not just any prank. This is a prank left-wing activists are increasingly deploying against those who dissent from their political views. When Barack Obama told his supporters in 2008 to bring guns to knife fights, some of his supporters took him more literally than I assume he intended.

The stories of what is happening are not getting much traction outside of right-of-center blogs and the occasional opinion column at the Wall Street Journal, D.C. Examiner, and Washington Times.

The Obama campaign set up a website listing major donors to a Super PAC supporting Mitt Romney. Naturally, individuals listed by the Obama campaign saw their lives turned upside down by investigators linked to Democratic opposition research firms. They, their families, their businesses, and their employees were harassed. Seemingly random people from random states started requesting old court case files involving the donors.

It was intimidation.

And now this. Brett Kimberlin has created several organizations that have gotten money from the Tides Foundation and other organizations. Kimberlin spent many years in prison, convicted of a series of bombings in Speedway, Indiana. Now, when conservatives start pointing out his past and his ties, they have been subject to swatting and other forms of bullying.

We do not live in a Banana Republic, but the left does not seem to care. I take my family’s swatting as a badge of honor. We are having an impact. It is very necessary though that we continue to speak up and not be silenced.

The activities of these people suggest one thing clearly — they are losing. We must ensure they do.

COMMENTS

  • bobguzzardi

    Erick, this is very scary. Making false statements to police is a crime and calling out SWAT on a “prank” is very dangerous to all, including the police.

    Be careful and have a lawyer on speed dial.

  • dabeall

    for the false police reports? Obviously, the police and the victims of such false reports are being put in danger, not to mention the waste of tax dollars in terms of man-hours and other resources.

    I lived very near Speedway, IN in 1977 and 78 and was personally effected by the fear engendered by the bombings at the time. Kimberlin was a punk then … deadly psychotic … but, a punk nonetheless. That’s all this is; a punk behaving thuggishly. He fits right in with the Progressive Left.

  • 6eorge Jetson

    It’s the logical conclusion of Leftist ideas.

  • 6eorge Jetson

  • ohiohistorian

    In your column, you indicatred
    “When Barack Obama told his supporters in 2008 to bring guns to knife fights, some of his supporters took him a metaphorically than I assume he intended.”

    Street organizers that I have seen know and like to use fear and intimidation. They are normally punks themselves, and think it is “brave” of them to get the crowd to do their dirty work. I really believe that “Barack Hussein Obama, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm” meant for this, and every other form of intimidation, to be part of his 2012 campaign. He got elected in 2008 by pretending to be the Hopey, Changey dude. That will not work in 2012, so I believe that this type of intimidation is the sort of “gun” he has been planning all along.

    He is NOT a nice guy. And anybody who thinks that William Ayers helps start the political career of a nice guy better think about that time in our history again.

  • Jack_Savage

    It is not a prank. It is a tactic.

    The left today has such a lack of self-awareness that they can’t see the parallels between themselves and some of the worst totalitarian movements in history.

    As far as Obama goes, there is a straight line between Pol Pot, Che Guevera, Socialist thugs, unions and the mafia, and “get in their faces” community organizers, and all of them move up and down the spectrum of violence depending on what they feel they can get away with personally and what they can get their supporters to do.

    Looks like Kimberlin feels he can get away with a lot. I wonder why.

  • http://lukos.com Ed54

    It is a crime. It should be investigated and prosecuted.

  • renl57

    It’s a lack of historical perspective. The Left doesn’t know anything about what happened to socialist movements of the past.

    They’re a living example of Santayana’s famous maxim that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

  • renl57

    …they would be in a state of near hysteria, with commentators on TV and in newspapers talking excitedly about “a rising tide of fascism” and “Storm Troopers Come To America.”

  • Darin_H

    Make the liberal who they paired you with denounce him and have them call for his funding to be cut off.

  • Jack_Savage

    And if we gave them the benefit of the doubt and assume they knew that socialist movements actually existed before now, maybe we could rif on Santayana by saying that those who misinterpret the past are eager to repeat it.

  • Jack_Savage

    Of course before he does it, a pre-emptive call to the Sheriff and State Trooper’s offices would be in order.

  • spolson

    We could start our list with Progressive Insurance. The name isn’t a coincidence.

  • spinoneone

    deja vu. Hitler started his little band of merry men in 1923 and kept up the “good work” through mid-1945. In 1934 he let loose the SS and Gestapo to bring down the Brown Shirt thugs, who had become a threat to the regime. Brett Kimberlin and his thugs are part of the new 0bozo Brown Shirts. It will be a while before anyone decides to bring them to heel.

  • cam1

    It is designed to get someone killed by a police “accident”. The perps know that if they do this an “accident” will happen. I hope 911 in Macon knows who made the call.

  • ihateliberals

    The terrorist have no central body of control. they have dedicated members with the ideologically of Obama and when Obama says keywords that to us seem innocent are actually marching orders. The left-wing activist then go into action and Obama is squeaky clean of the whole affair. Since there is no apparent central command who do you go after? This is the reason when news of an alleged Terrorist leader hits the News I know that it is just pure BS since there are no specific leaders of these terrorist groups. they work independently even though mentally tht are connected.

    I am sorry that your family was put through this but please keep up the good work you do. Don’t be intimidated by these thugs of Obama’s and the left. I hope others follow your example and not back-off off Romney. He is our only hope now of ridding our Nation of the biggest threat to our government in it’s entire 236 year history. I hope tht more organizations and Corporations give more generously to the Romney campaign because of these types of activities.

  • tankertodd

    I would reason that any time cops are called into a situation, there is a tiny chance that they will kill you. After reading about seemingly growing occurences of the innocent being gunned down (e.g. a CCW-carrying, West Point 1994 grad/medical supply rep shot dead in front of Costco) you’re placed in danger when police are deployed. Using the old adage we learned in the military (better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6) you can see why police are perhaps less apt to take chances.

    You could have made a sudden move for an innocent reason but that cop behind the car has to make a snap judgement whether to respond or not. Thankfully 99.9% of the time they make the right call, but who should bet their life on a .1% chance of death? And if liberal nutjobs do this 1000 times, they’ll get to take out one of their enemies and they get away with it scott clean.

    This has to be actively prosecuted and stopped before someone gets accidentally shot by a cop.

  • rosegrower

    The question is, why ISN’T it happening to liberals? Why are conservatives still playing nicely-nicely. We are stronger, more numerous and better equipped to do battle with these thugs than they imagine – all it takes is some motivation. I say, throw this kind of stuff back at ‘em. Dig up dirt on any leftist activist you can and publish, publish, publish until they start to squeal and have to play defense. Let the hysteria begin…..

  • freedomwriter

    I think we are making a mistake when we label Obama as a leftist. He’s a consensus builder, that’s why he couldn’t get his parties views through the legislature. No one was concerned about compromise. When we falsely paint someone as the devil, then we do everyone an injustice.

    The Speedway Bomber is obviously a screwball. He didn’t need anyone to prompt him to act out. Let’s hope the police have already traced those calls, and will soon have the culprits behind bars. Thank heavens, you and your family are all right.

  • sharinlite

    SWATing and every other extremist action needs to be criminally investigated everywhere….charges need to be filed against the websites, persons involved. Between Red State and every Tea Party, Freedom Works plus other conservatives and their websites, there must be attorneys, prosecutors, web geeks we can recruit to make this so public that they will need to very crafty to continue this hate campaign……Kimberlin may have taken law in jail, but he can’t hold a candle to Patterico…how do we get an army together on the net and across the country to stop this. Michelle Malkin got that treatment and every other like her would too….where are our guts? Are we so wimpy and scared we cannot do anything? This President has encouraged a road so far into the dark side that hate, bigotry, lies, cheating and stealing is now the norm. It has come to the point that news is so bad, if you are a conservative, Republican or Independent and do your own news reading..not what the “media” serves us, that I am sick at heart.

  • sharinlite

    Let’s do something about this….Remember Bill Ayers…now with the newest weapons of terror what do you suppose his ilk will do?

  • Ann_W

    The black panthers outside the polling place, Jon Corzine, the black panthers with their bounties, now the swatting. I wonder where Obama supporters would get the idea that they won’t be prosecuted for things that conservatives would be prosecuted for?…

  • Tbone

    is that Obama is an America hating racist who has more affinity for Marxism than socialism and has used his office to payoff supporters and to foment class hatred.

    Do you not know that 71% of all DoE grants have gone to companies run by Obama donors and bundlers? Guess where they got the money to fund his campaign this time around?

    Obama is a typical tinpot cook.

  • tnfriendofcoal101368

    A concensus builder, Obama and the democratically controlled Congress pushed through a massive stimulus with no Republican support, pushed through ObamaCare with no Republican support, installed Lisa Jackson at EPA to bankrupt the coal industry with no Republican support (well maybe Fred Upton’s but does that count), gave 16 billion dollars of the taxpayers money to political cronies at companies like Solyndra, First Solar, etc without Republican support, used the Justice Department under Eric Holder to run guns for the Mexican drug cartels without Republican support, etc. When Republicans won the House, this era of consensus building magically ended and the President started campaigning on all the stuff he and the Democrats didn’t think was so important back in the day when they had control of Congress like the Buffet Rule.

  • gizmo

    Currently reading book paralleling Hitler & Stalin (sorry don’t rememberr author, but published erly 90′s) and this is SO PARALLEL to the NAZI & STALINIST activities!
    NO reasoned or thought-out ideas, just pure ambition for total power.
    Narsacisstic personalities, attracting other bizzarre, out of main personalities;
    “They” against “we” – there’s always a scapegoat or 2 for them to accuse & abuse;
    Not taking responsibility of ANY of their own actions, blaiming others, including their own sublings, for failures;
    While supposedly “playing along” politically & visably, they fererishly are working behind closed doors, in “secret” building a power structure, even an “army” (SA & Stalin’s hit groups supposedly working for unionisation)
    Then using Harrassment, intimidation, physical abuse. Even Martial Law, shutting down any & all opposition to their agenda, politically & socially.
    There are other points, too, such as the involvement of intelligesia, taking over education & youth, etc. but I’m not gonig to go that far…. yet…
    Orwellian – History repeting itself IF we don’t stop it now….

  • nonna

    This is a crime. Why aren’t these people being arrested? The police know where these calls are coming from.

  • tlhanger

    That after you alerted them before hand that they didn’t check it out differently. Filing a false report should be the main objective here and they should be checking into this.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    You forgot to check the box that says ‘I will be posting propaganda for the President’ when you registered.

  • http://pocketchangeproductions.net/ anotherindyfilmguy

    Could it be decades of pulling the teeth out of the legal system?

    Could it because the DOJ won’t go after them for attacking conservatives?

    Could it just be the veneer being pulled back a bit showing the future we face if it have unchecked leftism running amok?

  • MF

    At least that’s what they seem to call it on TV shows. It’s probably a phone you can buy at WalMart and then put minutes on it, and it’s entirely untraceable. The thugs buy it, use it and then throw it away.

  • Jack_Savage

    And the consensus he has built on the left is “By any means necessary”.

    The victim of Kimberlin who killed himself because of the pain the shrapnel from the bomb caused probably wasn’t aware that Kimberlin was just a “screwball”. Maybe you could pass that along to the daughter he left behind. Heck, planting the bomb was probably just “hijinks” or a “madcap adventure”.

    Kos is really down to the benchwarmers if this is any indication. And for the record, people who apologize for killers make me want to vomit.

  • earlgrey

    a Republican Senator to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat.

  • soljerblue

    exactly the tactic that can be used to retaliate.