Author Topic: False calls about active school shooters are rising. Behind them is a strange pattern  (Read 550 times)

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Offline Smokin Joe

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https://www.npr.org/2022/10/07/1127242702/false-calls-about-active-shooters-at-schools-are-up-why

False calls about active school shooters are rising. Behind them is a strange pattern
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When Emmi Conley first heard in September about a rash of hoax calls reporting active shooters in schools, she dismissed it. Conley, an extremism researcher who studies groups and people behind public displays of violence, said she found no indication that these calls were connected to fringe online spaces where these pranks often originate.

But as the number of these reports swelled over time, Conley said she began to discern some very strange patterns

Posting this because High Schools across the State (ND) have had this, the closest large town today. According to some accounts, there were claims of hearing gunshots, but that has yet to be confirmed.

Of course, this sort of disruption this close to an election where the Democrats (gun banners/anti-police) are desperate to hold on to power in the face of electoral defeat, simply stinks on ice.
Use of panic and fear is a totalitarian hallmark, and this has the added 'bonus' of maybe getting some kid shot over a false report and propping up both agenda items.
That today's incident happened on the day the Parkland shooter was sentenced may be  one of those 'rule 39' things...
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Online Kamaji

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Quote
But as the number of these reports swelled over time, Conley said she began to discern some very strange patterns — including the possibility that the calls may have come from overseas, and perhaps specifically from Africa.

"The scale and the timeline of the events is highly, highly unusual," she said. "The calls are consistent. They are coordinated. They are grouped state-by-state and district-by-district, and they're also sustained. So somebody is putting significant effort to keep these going."

Offline Smokin Joe

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IP addresses and phone numbers can be spoofed, so it's hard to say where this is coming from, but the level of coordination indicates that someone is being systematic.

The fundamental trauma for parents of kids at any large school (likely leaning more liberal, the larger the city) is the goal, as far as I can see, with softening up resistance to gun bans part and parcel of that.

But to have such an event at a High School where I recall seeing the pickups parked (well, at the old school, this building is newer) with loaded rifle racks in the windows and no worry of theft, either, is a real change, and will register even with the parents who grew up in the area first as fear for their kids, and possibly as misdirected anger toward people who own popular firearms instead of those who perpetrated the hoax and possibly placed lives in jeopardy--even though those pickups with the rifle racks full back when may have belonged to them.

The idea that 'it won't happen here' is being chipped away at.

Hopefully, here, at least, after the inevitable relief their kid is OK, people will just get angry because some jerk cost their kids another day of school and endangered them to pull a 'prank' that may have more diabolical roots.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline Ghost Bear

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From the linked article:

Quote
The hoaxes are called "swatting," a term that refers to calls that falsely report an act of violence in progress or about to occur. They are intended to set off a massive and immediate deployment of armed law enforcement to a specific target, including SWAT teams. The results can be quite dangerous, as they were in a fatal incident in 2017, when police swatted a man in Wichita, Kansas.

Quote
In audio obtained by NPR of some calls in Ohio and one call in Minnesota, the person reporting an active shooting breathes heavily and follows a nearly identical narrative. He identifies himself as a student at the school, although he sounds like an adult male. He also speaks with a heavy accent. NPR also requested call records from locations in other states, but many were denied on the basis that the incidents are under investigation.

This reminds me of a swatting event against a YouTuber that I watch. When he spoke about it in one of his videos he mentioned that the caller seemed to speak with a foreign (non-American) accent.  This makes me wonder if there is some overseas "call center" selling its services to make swatting calls? Or if some foreign government, or even more troubling a US governmental organization, has set up such a call center to make swatting calls?
After 40 years of being lied to by people who called themselves "Conservatives", I no longer consider myself to be a "Conservative".

Offline Sighlass

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This is what pushes to have our freedom taken away, because jerks like this keep doing this, the FBI/CIA/NSA etc keep pushing to track all internet usage. Jerks need to be eliminated, but how to do it and still respect privacy is a tough row to hoe. 
Exodus 18:21 Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders over ....

Offline Sighlass

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From the linked article:

This reminds me of a swatting event against a YouTuber that I watch. When he spoke about it in one of his videos he mentioned that the caller seemed to speak with a foreign (non-American) accent.  This makes me wonder if there is some overseas "call center" selling its services to make swatting calls? Or if some foreign government, or even more troubling a US governmental organization, has set up such a call center to make swatting calls?

These VOIP (internet call places) that go through VPN(s) can be hard to track. Police can get warrants to hit the VPNs up, but the true privacy ones don't even keep records to give to the police.
Exodus 18:21 Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders over ....

Offline Smokin Joe

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From the other side of the State:

A Number of North Dakota High Schools Targeted by “Swatting Calls”

https://www.kvrr.com/2022/10/13/a-number-of-north-dakota-high-schools-targeted-by-swatting-calls/

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FARGO, N.D. (KVRR/KFGO) — Fargo Davies High, West Fargo High, and other schools across North Dakota are the targets of “swatting calls”: the reporting of a fake emergency to authorities, including threats of active shooters.

Dispatch received a call that there was an active shooter at Davies High School.

Fargo Police checked video from the school and did not find any evidence of a shooter.

West Fargo High School was also targeted.

The campus at Jamestown Public School went into immediate lockdown.

Schools soon sent out notifications to parents saying the calls were quickly deemed a hoax by law enforcement, and there was no threat.

Classes resumed.

These calls were also in Dickinson, Williston, Minot, and Bismarck--the major towns in the State all hit by these on the same day.
« Last Edit: October 13, 2022, 10:28:27 pm by Smokin Joe »
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline Smokin Joe

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https://www.valleynewslive.com/2022/10/13/police-threat-red-river-high-school-appears-be-unfounded/

Police: North Dakota, Minnesota schools target of threating phone calls

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GRAND FORKS, N.D. (Valley News Live) - Several North Dakota schools, as well as at least one Minnesota high school have found themselves the targets of threatening phone calls Thursday, and police are investigating.

Grand Forks Police responded to Red River High School after dispatchers received a call of an active shooter shortly before 10:30 a.m. Red River High was placed on lockdown as Grand Forks Police and the Grand Forks Sheriff’s Office rushed to the scene.

A sweep of Red River High was done as officers went room to room. GFPD Public Information Officer Lt. Andrew Stein tells Valley News Live officers did not find any evidence of anyone injured or shots fired. Stein says at this point, it appears the threat was a hoax and Red River High has resumed normal operations.

(also today)
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis