Anti-racism activist Tariq Nasheed is fighting back after he says white nationalists targeted he and his family at their home in Los Angeles this week by calling in a fake bomb threat to police.
Speaking with local station Fox 11, Nasheed said he was roused from his sleep by a call from authorities, who instructed him to come outside. He didn’t think much of it, so he hung up. It took three more calls from police before Nasheed peeked out his front door to see several officers with their guns drawn. It turns out someone “swatted” him, or made a false report to police prompting an emergency response.
“They were told that there were bombs in the house and that I had my wife kidnapped and tied up,” he said. “It was just a whole thing they made up, and the police kind of suspected it could be a swatting thing.”
Nasheed, who’s produced several documentaries discussing race, said he quickly called the cops back and was advised to walk outside with his ID. The Twitter activist said he believes white supremacists made the call to police — the same ones who often target and troll him on social media. He claimed the folks responsible were associated with a “suspected” racist YouTube blogger named @Ice_Poseidon.
Here is the full news segment from Fox 11’s coverage of the swatting/assassination attempt a group of online white supremacists tried to carry out against me & my family today. The ppl responsible are associated with suspected racist > @REALIcePoseidon The @FBI should investigate pic.twitter.com/H4Wc6p1Edd
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) June 1, 2018
Some white supremacists called in bomb threats to my home today. The #LAPD came thru heavy. And the media showed up to talk to me about it. To all you white supremacist groups, these tactics don’t scare me. I will continue to stay on your necks ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾💪🏾💪🏾 #Ogun pic.twitter.com/926XgM75Vz
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) May 31, 2018
Fans of Ice_Poseidon, and the even vlogger himself have denied any involvement in the swatting incident and accused Nasheed of pointing the finger at “racist” white people to fit his racist agenda.
It’ll be a sad day if I have to start adding a satire disclaimer to my streams because of ignorant people. I looked at a timeline and I’m pretty sure @tariqnasheed had his racist fans brigade my rv stream because it now has 18k dislikes (which is over the course of 12 hours)
— Ice_Poseidon (@REALIcePoseidon) May 30, 2018
Also my twitter account had over 1000 reports for absolutely so reason. He’s also saying Cx means white power, he continues to slander my name just to fit his agenda that white people are racist. It’s fucked up and I’m saying it to show how evil this person. Professional victim.
— Ice_Poseidon (@REALIcePoseidon) May 30, 2018
https://twitter.com/zRezolution/status/1002380939069153280
When all was said and done, Nasheed described the responding officers as “good guys” who were professional but questioned why they handcuffed him if they suspected it might be a swatting situation.
“That’s a dangerous situation to put somebody in, especially a Black American in this day and age where you can be killed with impunity,” he said of the ordeal, evoking the case involving a Wichita, Kans. man who was shot and killed by police after someone made a fake 911 call.
It’s unclear if police are investigating who made the call to police. The penalty for swatting varies from state to state but is relatively minor.
