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.

There does not seem to be a mechanism to effectively hold police departments, as institutions, accountable. You can sue them, but the money just goes from the tax payers to the victims, never out of the police budget, never out of salaries, never out of pensions. Worst case scenario: the police raise the money from its victims by more overpolicing.

This is the kind of situation that leads to riots.

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."

Qualified immunity needs to be done away with - these police officers are emboldened enough to do this multiple times to the same people and the only risk is that the taxpayers have to pay a settlement for these police officers' crimes.

Qualified immunity is some judicial ratfuckery if you look into its history.

Hard for the victims not to settle without a judgement. Big moral hazard.

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.

WTF