Topline
Police went to the home of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) early Thursday morning after receiving a false report of a shooting, local police confirmed to Forbes, marking the second time in two days the controversial lawmaker has faced a “swatting” incident.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks during a court hearing on April 22 in Atlanta.
Key Facts
Local police in Rome, Georgia, received a call shortly before 3 a.m. on Thursday about a man “possibly shooting his family members and then himself” at Greene’s house, leading two police officers to visit the lawmaker’s home and confirm the claim was fake, according to a police report and a statement from the Rome Police Department.
The Rome Police Department described the incident as “swatting,” a dangerous practice in which a prank caller falsely reports a violent crime to police with the intention of getting law enforcement—particularly heavily-armed SWAT teams—to rush into a victim’s home.
The fake shooting report—which was made using a virtual private network, or VPN, so the caller’s location is unclear—“was received on what appeared to be a suicide crisis line from an internet chat,” according to local police, and the caller said somebody “came out as trans-gender and claimed they shot the family.”
And early Wednesday, Rome police said they responded to a fake report about a “subject being shot multiple times” at her house, and 911 dispatchers later got another call from the suspect, who claimed to be “upset about Mrs. Greene’s political view on transgender youth rights” (police didn’t specify whether the report was made using a VPN).
Greene confirmed in a Thursday morning tweet she was “swatted again last night” (her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes).
What To Watch For
The Rome Police Department and U.S. Capitol Police are investigating the swatting incidents, according to a statement from local police.
Key Background
Greene has drawn near-constant controversy since entering Congress last year, including for her stance on transgender rights and her recent proposal to ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender children. In one incident last year, she referred to Democratic Rep. Marie Newman’s transgender daughter as “your biological son,” and posted a sign outside her office—which is near Newman’s office—stating “There are TWO genders.” She’s also faced criticism for making unsubstantiated voter fraud allegations, arguing with Democratic lawmakers, falsely claiming at least two high-profile school shootings were fake and supporting the bizarre QAnon conspiracy theory (she has since claimed to disavow QAnon).
Tangent
Police say swatting is dangerous, illegal and a waste of police resources. Serious swatting incidents appear to be fairly rare, and statistics on it are limited, but the practice’s sometimes-deadly consequences have drawn headlines in the past. A California man was sentenced to 20 years in prison three years ago after his false report of a hostage situation caused police in Kansas to fatally shoot an innocent man in 2017, and a Tennessee man died of a heart attack in 2020 after police reacted to a swatting call by surrounding his house with guns. The FBI has documented swatting incidents for over a decade, some of which involve prank callers who take steps to conceal their identities.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/08/25/marjorie-taylor-greene-faces-second-swatting-incident-this-week/