Rep. Katherine Clark has for a few years now been on a crusade against shitty behaviour on the internet, from death threats made against women to hoax calls that send armed police to a victim’s home (also known as swatting). On Sunday night, Rep. Katherine Clark’s home was swatted.
The Boston Globe reports that while the Congresswoman and her husband were at home watching TV police blocked off their street, the flashing lights alerting Rep. Clark to the presence of “multiple officers, some with long guns, on my front lawn.”
The report says police told Rep. Clark “they had received a report of an active shooter at her house, where her 13- and 16-year-old boys had just gone to bed.”
For what it’s worth they were regular cops, not a SWAT team, and after speaking with Rep. Clark it became clear it was a hoax and everyone went home.
While swatting a Congresswoman is dumb at the best of times, this is a particularly notable example because last year Rep. Clark sponsored a bill that would make swatting a federal felony.
Hey, kids. You want to make swatting a federal felony? This is how you make swatting a federal felony.