Police in Rome, Georgia, are substantiating claims made by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) that she’s been “swatted” two times in the last two days.
The term is shorthand for maliciously reporting fake, violent threats to the police, prompting them to forcibly respond to an unsuspecting third party ― sometimes with deadly results.
Officers first responded to Greene’s residence at 1 a.m. on Wednesday, having received a call about “a subject being shot multiple times.”
When Rome Police officers arrived, however, they realized it was the Republican congresswoman’s home and left after “she assured the officers there was no issue,” the department said in a statement.
Rome Police then received a second 911 call from the suspect, who police said used a computer-generated voice and claimed to be upset about the representative’s political views on transgender youth rights.
Given their anonymous nature, it’s impossible to verify the caller’s true motives, invariably raising the possibility of a “false flag” attack.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, Greene says she was swatted again.
Rome Police said the call this time “was received on what appeared to be a suicide crisis line from an internet chat.” As with the prior two calls, officers determined the report was a hoax.
Greene is not the first member of Congress to experience this.
In 2016, officers in Massachusetts responded forcefully to the home of Rep. Katherine Clark, where they barricaded her street and approached her with long guns.
The Democrat told HuffPost at the time she believed she was attacked because of legislation she’d introduced to facilitate finding and holding swatters accountable.
The FBI estimated in 2011 there were around 400 swatting attacks a year. That number has since grown to more than 1,000 in 2019.
Whoever sent the police to Clark’s door was never held accountable. Police are investigating the calls to Greene.
“These are sophisticated players, and they know how to cover their tracks through technology,” Clark told HuffPost in 2018.
“What happened to me, unfortunately, happens to many victims and families around the country and jumps out of harassment online and in the virtual world and really impacts security and safety in the real world.”