LA Weekly Interviews Patterico About His SWATting

LA Weekly recounts the story of Deputy District Attorney Patrick Frey, the well-known conservative blogger Patterico, being SWATted last summer.

SWATting is the practice of impersonating someone to call in a fake 911 emergency. The result is armed police showing up, often late at night, and dragging unsuspecting victims from their homes at gunpoint.

Patrick’s brush with the practice began shortly after he began reporting on the story of Rep. Anthony Weiner who, in addition to sexting grown women, was allegedly sending direct messages to underage girls on Twitter.

On July 1, 2011, Frey, in his nighttime blogger role, was talking to asource over his cellphone just after 12:30 a.m. — his wife and kidsfast asleep upstairs in their Rancho Palos Verdes home — when he heard athunderous pounding at his front door.

“I was sitting right here in this chair,” he says, re-enacting thehaunting experience as he sits at his kitchen table, the South Bayharbor gleaming up through hot glass.

“I jumped up to the counter … and peeked around the corner,” hesays. Five or six armed deputies on his porch were barking, “Come outwith your hands up!”

As he opened the door, Frey, afraid to set down his cellphone — anyquick move could be deadly — prayed they wouldn’t mistake the device fora gun.

But the cops were cautious, and no shots were fired. Deputieshandcuffed the longtime deputy DA and hustled him into a patrol vehicle.His stunned wife, Christi, was patted down against the garage wall. Thecouple’s two young children tell LA Weekly including mentions of the other three conservatives who were SWATted, apparently by the same individual.

Over at his site, Patterico posted an investigation video clip by Inside Edition that includes an interview with Mike Stack, another victim connected to the Rep. Weiner situation.