This comes from the Joe Rogan Experience:
Kash Patel was SWATTED.
Swatting is attempted murder.
These people need to be arrested. pic.twitter.com/T7zwDFFWav
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 6, 2025
We won’t present too much in the way of analysis but this author has first-hand experience with this phenomenon and we will share a few thoughts.
First, Libs of TikTok is right. Very often SWATtings should be treated as attempted murder, if no one dies. If anyone dies, it should often be treated as straight up murder. SWATting is a new term, so its exact definition is debatable but our understanding is that it is calling the police and making a false report of a serious, dangerous criminal situation, trying to invoke a dangerous encounter with the police, such as “I am looking in my neighbor’s window and I see a hostage situation.” The purpose is to disrupt that person’s life, to put that person in serious danger and to terrify that person, often as part of a plan to coerce that person or to retaliate against them. Sometimes the SWATter will impersonate the victim and even use a hacker trick to make it appear that they are calling from that person’s phone number. So, the person who did this to Kash Patel might have spoofed the system to make it seem like they were calling from Patel’s phone number, and said, “I am Kash Patel, and I just shot my wife and I think I might shoot other people.”
The idea is to get a SWAT team to arrive, which is why we spell SWATting that way. But we will also note that we don’t think an actual SWAT team has to arrive for it to count as SWATting. We think the term is correctly applied to using any false report that creates a dangerous encounter with the police.
(Mind you, we are not saying that the SWATter actually impersonated Mr. Patel or made it appear that he or she was calling from his phone. We are just using this current news event to illustrate a point.)
We will also note that sometimes there are what we call “investigative SWATtings.” Let’s say that a malicious actor wants to find out where a person lives and they have several possible locations from their research. They might literally SWAT one location and then watch to see if there is any reaction from the victim. If they react, perhaps on social media, then that person would know they hit their home location. And if they don’t react, they might SWAT the next and the next until they get a “hit.”
So hypothetically imagine that John Doe hated Jane Roe and wanted to know where she lives because she teabagged him in Call of Duty. Doe tries to look up her address but gets three hits. So he SWATs the first address, and watches her on Twitter/X. If she doesn’t react, he goes for the second address. Let’s say this time she reacts by simply writing: “holy crud, I’ve been SWATted.” Now Doe knows where Roe lives.
And of course, very often innocent third parties are put at risk. In Mr. Patel’s SWATting, he might have had family at the home who committed no crime worse than being related (by blood or marriage) to someone who heads the FBI. And, of course, the investigative SWATtings we described often endanger random, innocent people as well. We will say that the kinds of SWATtings we talked about should always be seen at least attempted murder, assuming no one dies.
As for Patel, at this point, we don’t know more about the SWATting, but we would hope that he would share as much info as he can very soon, but without compromising what is hopefully an ongoing criminal investigation. And we pray for his safety and his family.
How does the director of FBI get swatted?
— Ian (@IanMovesYou) June 6, 2025
Bluntly, it can happen to anyone. If you have any suspicion that you might be SWATted, talk to your local police to give them a head’s up. This author had to do that at one point and, while our local police said they have to take every emergency call seriously, they were at least alerted to the possibility of a call like that being fake.
But will anyone go to prison?
— Edward the Work Daddy (@EdwardWorkDad) June 6, 2025
Hopefully, yes.
Of course, there always has to be that guy.
Sounds made up
— MJL (@147Aurora) June 6, 2025
@FBIDirectorKash wasn’t “swatted” you and @GenFlynn are Israeli terrorists who need to be deported to CECOT immediately. https://t.co/An6JkY4oCU
— ℂ҈ 𝕙҈ 𝕒҈ 𝕣҈ 🕸𝔸҈ 𝕫҈ 𝕟҈ 𝕒҈ 𝕓҈ 𝕝҈ 𝕖҈.ₒₙ 𝕏 (@CharAznabIe_) June 6, 2025
You can’t deport natural born American citizens, moron.
Moving on:
Wow!
Head of FBI swatted!!!
How???
The thing is how do people know where he lives?— Riyan Mendonsa (@RiyanMendonsa) June 6, 2025
Bluntly, Patel might have just told his SWATter exactly where he lives today.
You would think the local police department knows whose house that was. Presumably they ‘called ahead’.
It will be interesting to see if the phone number making the call was VPNed from overseas. A number of these calls are funneled through Ukraine, or sometimes the Mideast.— ChetTheJet (@TheJetNamedChet) June 6, 2025
In which universe is this possible without someone (or multiple ppl) getting jailed for this?
— Etzel (@maccster_) June 6, 2025
Since it just happened yesterday, it will probably take time to build a case, assuming they can be caught at all.
Deep state, anyone?
— Gr@ntlɘr 🥨🍺 (@oida_grantler) June 6, 2025
We also saw people asking Grok about it, as if the AI would have any answers:
@grok how is this possible? SWAT Team raiding Director of FBI?
— Fortuna 🧩 (@Fortuna_Dev) June 6, 2025
@grok is this true 🤔
— Swipe to viral (@swipeToViral) June 6, 2025
Seriously … even if he was faking it, how would Grok know?
The Elon domino effect is now in class.!
— Beanie (@metabeaniex) June 6, 2025
We doubt that this has anything to do with Musk and Trump’s dustup yesterday. Indeed, it might be a mistake to assume it has anything to do with politics at all. There are certainly thousands, maybe millions, of ordinary criminals who have a grudge against the head of the FBI.
We need public trials.
And decades long sentences.
— Nurse Patriot (@LABeachGal1) June 6, 2025
Executions, if anyone dies.
You guys know he has an entire security detail w him 24/7…
— A Stoic Głupotnik (@Michal_Mac) June 6, 2025
Maybe so, maybe not. Hopefully he does now. But for this author, the intent is what matters. And as we noted above, this risks the lives of more than just Mr. Patel. For instance, imagine if he was not home when the SWATting happened. Any security he had might not have been there, but innocent third parties might have been. One of the worst things about this crime is the extreme recklessness these SWATters demonstrate.
I think I speak for everyone when I say LOL
— Jesse Dalba (@JesseDalba) June 6, 2025
You speak only for sociopaths.
Finally:
How is it possible that this is not the #1 News story?https://t.co/4dUaoanrYr
— Canhandlethetruth (@IamRussB23) June 6, 2025
Hey, we typed this up as fast as we could!
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