By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
“When they show up, pointing guns at the door and stuff, it sets you back. ‘Wow, what’s happening?’”
That’s Robert Ianuale getting swatted at his home in Keyport last month. Cops clad in riot gear, brandishing assault rifles invaded his living room after getting a bogus 911 call that Ianuale had taken hostages.
“It’s really not a joke. My dog could’ve been hurt, I could’ve been hurt, I could’ve been shot. People who are doing this need to take into account that they’re actually putting peoples lives at risk,” he said.
Ianuale told his story today to an Assembly panel considering a bill setting tough new penalties for people convicted of swatting. Swatters also hit the bill’s main sponsor — Assemblyman Paul Moriarty. As he sat home in Turnersville, police got this 911 call:
Caller: “I just shot my dad.”
Police: “OK, what’s your address?”
Caller: “I’ll shoot any cop. Tell them to stay away.”
Police: “Sir, is your father breathing or conscious?”
Caller: “I think so. I tied him up immediately, along with my mother and my sister.”
Police: “How old is your sister?”
Caller: “Five.”
“Calling out the police and hoping they’re gonna burst into a house with their guns blazing, that’s sick. And whoever’s doing that, we need to send a clear message: you’re going to jail,” Moriarty said.
Moriarty’s bill would make swatting a second-degree crime of creating a false public alarm — punishable by 10 years in prison and a $150,000 fine. But some think most swatting’s done by teens and young gamers who don’t deserve to spend years behind bars.
Sen. Jennifer Beck’s answering legislation creates a lesser third-degree penalty — a mandatory minimum of 30 days and 200 hours of community service, plus fines.
“This is happening at schools, it’s happening at businesses, it’s happening at private residences. It’s happening all over New Jersey,” Moriarty said.
The bills require towns be reimbursed because with every call, police must mobilize like it’s a real emergency. In some counties it can cost taxpayers $10,000 to send out the SWAT teams.
“The response by law enforcement isn’t a single man that’s coming to check if there’s something there. It truly drains the resources of a community, on our level a county,” said Union County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Dennis Burke.
“As long as they’re able to get away with this and not face any real time, I guess people will still think it’s just a funny prank. We’re here to say it’s not,” said Moriarty.
“Laws are too lax that they think, ‘All right I’ll plead it down if I ever do get caught.’ They think they won’t get caught,” said Ianuale.
Catching swatters is tough. They can disguise their phone IDs. But Moriarty’s bill would also set up a database to collect info that’ll help investigators track swatters down.