This couple was swatted 55 times in 2 years over a post about Norm Macdonald

Niki Robinson, left, and Patrick Tomlinson have been awarded a $575,000 US settlement by the City Milwaukee after armed police officers came to their home 55 times in two years responding to bogus reports of violent crime. (Submitted by Patrick Tomlinson)Social SharingThe first time heavily armed police officers showed up at Patrick Tomlinson's house, he was asleep in bed, naked. 

It was 1 a.m. on July 25, 2022, and someone had reported a hostage situation at his house in Milwaukee, where he lives with his wife, Niki Robinson.

"All of a sudden there's people pounding on the door," Tomlinson told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal.

"I go outside to be pulled out of the house by eight or nine police officers [and] handcuffed on the front porch, which I can tell you is the least fun I've had handcuffed and naked in my life."

Tomlinson, a science fiction writer and comedian, hadn't committed a crime. He was the victim of "swatting," a harassment technique in which someone places a hoax call reporting a serious threat in order to send armed police to the target's home. 

Over the course of the next two and a half years, Tomlinson and Robinson were swatted 55 times, despite repeatedly explaining their situation to the Milwaukee Police Department. They sued, and have been awarded a $575,000 US settlement from the City of Milwaukee. 

When asked for comment, Milwaukee police referred CBC to city attorney Evan Goyke, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

“While Niki and Patrick’s settlement provided closure and an acknowledgment of the violations of their rights, it is just as important that Milwaukee be more proactive looking forward," Jack Idlas, a lawyer for the couple, said in an emailed statement.

"The city has made no changes to policy and no officers have been disciplined for violating Niki and Patrick’s constitutional rights. That’s hard to believe after the taxpayers settled for over a half million dollars.

Tomlinson traces his troubles back to a social media post he made seven years ago about Canadian comedian Norm MacDonald.

In September 2018, he wrote on Twitter, now X: “Hot take: I’ve never found Norm Macdonald funny and was pretty sure all my comedy friends who did were either nuts or screwing with me."

After that, he says, he experienced years of online harassment, which is described in detail in an article in the Independent. That harassment, he says, eventually escalated into swatting.

"Our stalkers had specifically told us that they were going to begin swatting us…. We spoke to a dispatcher. We spoke with a desk sergeant. And both of them said there's nothing we can do," he said.

"Two weeks later, here I am, you know, on my front porch in the middle of the night, exposed to all my neighbours with shotguns and pistols and AR-15s pointed at my head."

A Milwaukee police officer seen on home security footage responding to a bogus crime report at the home of Patrick Tomlinson and Niki Robinson. (Strang Bradley LLC)Police were aware that Tomlinson's home was the target of swatting calls, according to internal memos and emails submitted as court evidence in the lawsuit. 

On Aug. 3, 2022, one officer sent a memo to the acting police captain requesting the couple's home be marked as a "swatter house." The captain declined, saying it could cause a "complacency issue for responding officers.”

In bodycam footage from one incident, shared with CBC by Tomlinson's lawyers, an officer can be heard saying: "This guy keeps getting swatted."

Nevertheless, Tomlinson says, the police kept showing up, sometimes multiple times per day.

On one occasion, an officer entered his home without permission, according to an agreed statement of facts filed in connection with the lawsuit. On several occasions, officers searched the couple's home without a warrant.

Tomlinson says some of the officers responding to the hoax calls were "professional and sympathetic."

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It's been an exhausting ordeal for him and his wife, he said.

"Having each other there to support one another through this, emotionally and to know that we're not alone, without that, I don't think that either one of us individually would have been able to come out of this sane and intact," he said. 

Nobody has been charged for the swatting calls, and none of the officers named in the lawsuit have been disciplined. The lawsuit settlement is not considered an admission of liability.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller determined that several police officers violated Tomlinson's and Robinson's constitutional rights by entering their home without permission and searching it without a warrant.

However, the judge granted those officers "qualified immunity," a legal doctrine that protects police and other government officials from prosecution or lawsuits for actions committed in the line of duty.

Tomlinson says he would like to see the officers involved disciplined, and for the police department to enact a detailed swatting policy.

In the meantime, he says, he and Robinson will keep speaking out.

"This is the only avenue, really, that we have to move the needle on this issue and to, you know, educate the public on this kind of harassment and stalking," he said. "Most people don't realize that you don't have to be a celebrity or a politician to be targeted by this sort of thing."

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