In certain states, you can now text 911. Jimmy Kimmel demonstrates how a majority of these text conversations are innocently going to go a awry. How many times a day do you accidentally type in the wrong word…Just the changing of one letter can turn your emergency into a much lesser complaint – or a truly absurd one.
Of course the system is practical in situations where you can’t make a sound, lest you tip off your captor or intruder…When the threatening calls are coming ‘from inside the house!’ Perhaps you wake to find yourself inside a car trunk – whatcha gonna do? The 911 text may also be useful for the mute and the deaf. Jimmy points out one downfall, the text system is unable to triangulate your location. This is a downfall in more ways than one. Not only can authorities no locate you in your hour of need, but of course, idiots have found a way to use the system for ‘fun’ – more accurately, a highly dangerous and illegal prank called ‘Swatting.’
Typical of swatting incidents, is a recent sore loser in a ‘Call of Duty’ tournament in Long Island,NY who sent a SWAT team storming into the home of a rival as revenge for beating him. No one was amused when more than 70 emergency responders – including helicopters, emergency vehicles and an army of cops arrived at the rival’s home. The Long Island Loser had told them that he (as the rival) had shot and killed his mother and brother and was ready to kill again.
Officers entered the home with guns drawn, and tried for 20 minutes to get the boy said to be the caller to respond. They assumed he was in hiding with a gun. He was in truth, upstairs in his bedroom, wearing headphones and blissfully unaware the uproar below as emergency sirens wailed and a SWAT team entered his home.
“In this … bizarre world of Swatting, you get points for the helicopter, for the police cars, for the SWAT team, for the type of entry,” Long Beach police commissioner Michael Tagney told the local station. “It’s very sophisticated. Unfortunately, it’s very dangerous.”
Whatever happened to the ordering a pizza prank or just TP’ing a tree?