A sheriff in Texas sat down with Glenn Beck and discussed the “swatting” phenomenon that has recently left conservative influencers and their families terrified in their own homes.
Swatting occurs when a person falsely reports a crime in progress or recently committed at someone else’s home or place of business, compelling cops to race to the location and investigate and putting the lives of the officers and those inside the building in imminent danger.
‘This could have gone horribly wrong.’
In just the last few weeks, conservative influencers — including comedian Shawn Farash, alleged Bill Clinton rape victim Juanita Broaddrick, and Matt Von Swol, an advocate for those affected by Hurricane Helene — have claimed to have been the victims of swatting schemes.
Von Swol posted doorcam footage of the police who arrived at his home in the middle of the night Sunday. Thankfully, no one was hurt physically, though many were frightened.
“Please watch and understand how this could have gone horribly wrong if this was you and your home,” Von Swol wrote.
“This is not a joke. This is domestic terrorism.”
Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck apparently agrees, telling Tarrant County, Texas, Sheriff Bill Waybourn on the Friday episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” “This is terrorism, and those people who are making these calls should go to prison for a very, very, very long time.”
Sheriff Waybourn, who protects the county where Beck and his family live, then shared some horrifying details about the swatting-related calls that come into his department. For one thing, he said that swatting has become rather commonplace in Tarrant County lately.
“In this area, over the last year, there’s probably been 15 or 16 cases,” he told an astonished Beck.
‘It’s all happening through the gaming systems.’
Moreover, at least some of the calls do not originate in Tarrant County, the state of Texas, or even the U.S. “We’re finding some of these people are overseas. They’re not even here in the United States,” Waybourn explained.
Beck then warned that online gaming systems can also be a possible Trojan horse, giving swatters and other predators a means of entering homes virtually and perhaps gleaning private information about residents there. He even shared that his son had been “groomed” by a “pedophile” through the young man’s gaming system.
“Luckily, we found out about it, and the FBI came into the house,” Beck claimed. “They took the gaming system, and they said, ‘It’s all happening through the gaming systems.'”
Waybourn assured Beck and his listeners that law enforcement is well aware of the swatting scheme, but he noted that officers still have to be prepared to investigate every report.
“When they get their these urgent calls, they have got to respond. They got to be ready to go, as far as law enforcement, in case it is real,” Waybourn said.
Waybourn also claimed that federal law enforcement stands ready to prosecute those who make false reports that lead to swatting. Attorney General Pam Bondi “is absolutely on board of prosecuting people federally, if at all possible,” Waybourn asserted. “That’s just the temperament of who our attorney general is.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel have already pledged to hunt down the swatting perpetrators.
“This is an attack on our law enforcement and innocent families, and we will prosecute it as such,” Noem posted to X on Wednesday.
The conversation between Beck and Sheriff Waybourn can be seen in the video below:
Because the officers who respond to the swatting calls are armed and often surprise unsuspecting homeowners who likewise carry firearms, swatting poses a risk to officers and building residents alike. For this reason, Von Swol told Blaze News that those who call in false crime reports to initiate swatting have one main goal: to get somebody “killed.”
“Whoever is swatting people is absolutely attempting to get them killed,” Von Swol insisted. “If you read the police notes from the incidents, it’s clear the caller is attempting to get the police to rush into a situation that isn’t real with serious force.”
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Glenn beck, Bill waybourn, Tarrant county, Swatting, Matt von swol, Kristi noem, Pam bondi, Kash patel, Politics
