Legal scholar Jonathan Turley is the latest "swatting" victim, with someone making a false emergency call claiming someone was shot at his Fairfax County, Virginia, home one day after he spoke out in an interview against the practice.
"I was swatted this evening," Turley, a law professor at George Washington University and columnist said in a statement Friday, reported the New York Post. "It is regrettably a manifestation of our age of rage. We are grateful to the Fairfax police officers who were highly professional and supportive in responding to this harassment."
The local police department confirmed that the caller had claimed someone was shot at Turley's address. The fake report was made one day after Turley told Fox News Digital that swatting "flourishes because there is insufficient deterrent."
He also pointed out that Virginia has recently passed a law making swatting a criminal misdemeanor and said that "it can also be charged as a form of criminal threats."
Turley added in the interview that there is "no mystery to how to address these crimes. There must be greater detection and penalties to achieve deterrence."
Over the past week, several lawmakers have been targeted by swatting, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Republican Georgia state Sens. John Albers, Kay Kirkpatrick, Clint Dixon, and Democrat Kim Jackson, all on Christmas.
Republican Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones said Thursday that his home was "swatted" and that someone called in a bomb threat to his district office.
Rep. Brandon Williams, R-N.Y., and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., also had their houses "swatted" this past week, and police responded to Republican Ohio state Rep. Kevin Miller's home the day after Christmas when there were fake reports made about a shooting there.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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