A Police Officer and a Violent Troll Walk Into a Harassment Forum

Punch line: they're the same person.

New details have emerged in the case of an anonymous poster on the harassment website "OnAForums" who has claimed to be a police officer and is alleged to have used his position to conduct illegal surveillance on a man's location through his mobile phone and other databases to help a criminal harassment group perform numerous "swatting" attacks against science fiction author Patrick Tomlinson.

Swatting is the criminal act of abusing an emergency line to report a violent crime at a victim's location or home, causing armed police to arrive and a dangerous situation to play out. The many Internet-sourced attacks against Tomlinson, including nearly forty swatting attacks directed towards his home and several directed towards the home of his elderly parents, have prompted further investigations into OnAForums.

💡 Content Warning: Racism, Police Violence