DJ Akademiks found himself in a bad spot on Thursday after someone watching his stream called in a SWAT team to his home. Overall, this is a practice known as Swatting and it has gotten people killed before.
Last night, Akademiks took to social media with a video of himself being placed in handcuffs by police. Footage shows the rap commentator walking out of his home while being greeted by police cars. Subsequently, Ak puts his hands up and walks backwards into the officer.
Ak was communicative with the authorities during the entire ordeal. However, the officer that had him in cuffs was very adamant that the cops still had to enter his home as a precaution. Eventually, authorities realized this was a false alarm, and Ak was free to go.
Swatting has happened to various big streamers including the likes of iShowSpeed and even Adin Ross. However, in lower-profile cases, people and animals have been killed by mistake. Swatting is technically punishable by prison.
DJ Akademiks Swatted
Following the incident, Akademiks took to his Instagram where he told fans to come and enjoy his streams. He stated that he doesn't want any trouble, and that Swatting is absolutely unacceptable. Moreover, he explained how as a black man in America, calling the cops on him puts him at an even greater risk.
In order to get a SWAT team sent to someone's home, there has to be a large allegation made. For instance, it has to be drug, kidnapping, or even murder related. Although it is hard to prevent crazies from coming to your home, large content creators are typically encouraged to pre-emptively speak with authorities in their neighborhood to warn them of future Swatting attempts.
No matter what, this is all very scary and indicative of the parasocial world we live in right now. People think that watching someone on stream gives them Carte Blanche to do whatever they want. Anonymity has ultimately emboldened people to do things like this.
