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22 year old gamer sentenced to 1 year and a day in prison for swatting

cameron

Member
“Swatting is not a schoolboy prank, it’s a federal crime,” said U.S. Attorney Dierdre Daly. “These hoaxes have expended critical law enforcement resources and caused severe emotional distress for thousands of victims.”

According to court documents, Tollis was part of a group of Microsoft X-Box gamers who call themselves TCOD (TeAM CrucifiX or Die). They used Skype to make hoax threats about bombs, hostages and shootings, and Tollis was involved in at least six incidents, including one at UConn on April 3 that resulted in a campus-wide lockdown for three hours.

Here's hoping the entire group gets convicted with prison time. Zero tolerance for swatting.

After completing his prison term, Tollis will also serve three years of supervised release and perform 300 hours of community service.
Extended community service would be good additional punishment. It benefits everyone. Might even help the guy with basic human interaction.
 

Dr.Acula

Banned
1 year for a first time offender who named other people in his affidavit? Seems okay.

People get DUIs and manslaughter and spend like a year in jail or less. Not everything is 25 to life. And a year in prison is *plenty* for most people.

I mean, why not just hang him, right?
 

Kamina777

Banned
Swatting can get people killed. That's why many of us think it's pretty close to attempted murder.
That's a preposterous point of view considering death has never resulted from swatting (calling in a swat team for a hoax reason), and there is no premeditation of murder just risky stupidity on the part of the swatter.
1 year is fine, most of the kind of people calling for 20 years couldn't last a week with no access to the outside world (among unpredictable and hardened criminals who have done worse than make a hoax bomb threats) for more than a week. Institutionalization isn't a slap on the wrist, dude has to start from 0 when he gets out. And he'll still be part of the system.
 

Myggen

Member
Still only a fraction of the punishment he deserves


Hope he has fun 'swatting' at Nasty Nate in the shower

Fuck's sake.

These threads always seem to turn into THROW AWAY THE KEY BECAUSE OF REASONS and prison rape jokes.

If America's criminal justice system is going to get a little less fucked than it is today people will have to get used with seeing people they don't like get less than 20 years for doing stuff like this.
 

foltzie1

Member
For those calling for a longer sentence, what would you like to see? Are you looking for punishment or rehab or a combination of the two?

Keep in mind incarceration is expensive.
 

inner-G

Banned
That's not funny at all fella.
Really? I stole it from a comedy

For those calling for a longer sentence, what would you like to see? Are you looking for punishment or rehab or a combination of the two?

Keep in mind incarceration is expensive.
Fines in the amount of the resources squandered + damages, directly garnished by the government from his wages.

A fraction? What woulf you deem full?
He probably wasted hundreds of thousands of public dollars across all of these incidents. He could not go to jail at all and spend the rest of his life paying it back and that would be fine to me, but that's not how the system works. Take average U.S. annual wage divided by what he cost the public and give him that many years.
 

Myggen

Member
For those calling for a longer sentence, what would you like to see? Are you looking for punishment or rehab or a combination of the two?

Keep in mind incarceration is expensive.

My bet is that it's punishment. If it's rehab you're looking for you wouldn't be advocating a longer sentence for something like this.
 
Unsure what "gamer" has to do with anything, title should read "22 year old idiot." /moaning

Not that swatting can't be performed by any group or that gaming is in some a way a cause of swatting, but each article in the OP mentions that the main person in question got into swatting via a group of primarily X-box gamers. It's a relevant detail.
 

Beartruck

Member
It'll be on his permanent record for life. He's gonna find it hard getting a good job or doing anything having that on his background check.

Yeah, people in this thread are really underestimating how much a prison sentence on your record basically fucks you for life in america. Not to mention that the crime wasn't of necessity, just pure sociopathy, which double fucks him.
 

Vilam

Maxis Redwood
That isn't swatting, it's just idiots calling in fake bomb threats. Two entirely different things in terms of the impact and potential outcome.
 
SMH at people shouting that "it's not enough". You guys are acting like it's all la-de-da after he gets out in one year. He still has three years of supervised release and 300 hours of community service, on top of being a felon. So that not only propagates well beyond his prison sentence, being a convicted felon is a black mark on your record and automatically takes you out of being hired in a lot of places. Trust me, this guy is gonna feel the effects of his assholery for the rest of his life.

Throwing him in jail for an arbitrary longer period of time isn't going to do anything beyond schadenfreude. "SHOULD BE 20 YEARS" is exactly the problem with the prison system in the US, just throwing people into jail for absurd lengths of time that doesn't do anything productive at the end of the day.
 
22... man it's weird thinking people who are supposed to be adults are the ones doing this kind of shit. I legit think they have problems in the head.
 

dose

Member
Why? If you were thrown in prison for a year, you'd lose your job and have a difficult time finding a new one.
And who's fault would that be?
There's a simple solution, don't be a fucking dick and swat people. Then they wouldn't have to worry about being locked up.
 

BokehKing

Banned
I was a 22 year old kid. I was pretty dumb too, just not maliciously dumb like this.
Being dumb at 22 is selling pot, getting into brawls and maybe stealing something

You knew you were doing wrong but it you probably got a slap on the wrist


This idiot did some next level moronic shit
 

E92 M3

Member
1 year is fine for multiple reasons: Taxpayers are saved some money, he has a criminal record (good luck getting a job) and a year in the pen is a tough psychological hit for someone like him (e-tough guy).
 
Seems a little light

1 year in the slammer, 3 years of supervised release, 300 hours of community service, having "convicted felon" on his record for the rest of his life (I don't understand why people gloss over the importance of this one especially) isn't light at all.
 
Its crazy how common crap like this is getting, I used to work dispatch for Police Fire and EMS and still talk to people in the field, its crazy how often this happens. And its also mind blowing that the kids that do this have no idea of the forces at work and the possible consequences. Not only for the person being swatted but for the officers who have to go in to that house unsure they are gonna come out. Or with the wasted police resources that might go to someone in real need.

They need to make an example out of these kids. Squash this nonsense.

Edit: oh yea forgot to mention, if you're going to get into streaming, and start attracting any sort of audience its not a bad idea to call your local authorities let them know you are a streamer.

Agreed 100%.

In particular, very good advice to report ahead of time to local police that you're a streamer.
 
Being dumb at 22 is selling pot, getting into brawls and maybe stealing something

You knew you were doing wrong but it you probably got a slap on the wrist


This idiot did some next level moronic shit

Yeah, I'd have to agree there's a difference between "young dumb" vs. "malicious dumb". On balance, I'm not sure that costing tax-payers even more by incarcerating him for a longer period of time would be the best idea. But his sentence as it stands does feel appropriately harsh. This isn't just typical dumb teenager/young man shenanigans. Collectively, "Swatting" is a serious societal problem.

Edit: What I might be ok with as a way to lower the risk of post-incarceration recidivism would be to actively limit/monitor internet use for felons convicted of swatting for a period of time determined by the severity of the crimes. Perhaps a lifetime internet ban if the offense(s) are particularly harmful and/or repetitive. Although it wouldn't necessarily stop all such activities (since some of this utilizes the plain old twisted copper telephone system) it could be an excellent deterrent. The primary caveat is this would require the creation of another bureaucratic organization designed to monitor daily activities of Americans. So, although the intent would be only to use it against actual felons I can see the temptation to use it against "suspected terrorists", etc...which is a slippery slope.

There's always a need for rational debate when it comes to discussing crime and appropriate levels of punishment.
 
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