The founder of Alterna Comics, Peter Simeti, found himself on the receiving end of a live-stream SWATting. He survived the ordeal unscathed but also found himself embroiled in the #ComicsGate culture war, as various anti-#ComicsGate people (who are aligned with the anti-#GamerGate people on the Social Justice Warrior side) have been trying to snidely undermine his neutral position on the culture war. However, Simeti seems to be able to see through the ploys and machinations of the Social Justice Warriors, and has been gathering evidence and collecting info while working with the police on discovering who SWATted him.
It all started back on February 12th, 2019 at 9:28pm with a live-stream on YouTube.
Going LIVE in 5 minutes and TALKING SHOP with Dave of 1st Print Comics! https://t.co/bVbcptXAqD via @YouTube
— Peter Simeti 💬 (@petersimeti) February 13, 2019
Minutes into the stream Simeti was SWATted. At 10:16pm he explained over the course of several tweets what had happened and how the police arrived at his doorstep with guns drawn.
Simeti wrote…
“I just had two guns pointed at me tonight because someone made a call to the police and gave them my address along with a falsified report.
“I’m shook up, but everything is OK now.
“I’m going to talk to the police tomorrow and see if I can find out more.
“I was going to go back on and continue with another stream but we’re a bit of a mess over here. I’ll be back on later when things have calmed down.
“I’m grateful that the police were thorough and quickly assessed the situation. It was the scariest thing I’d ever been through, but their judgement in the situation is the reason I’m even alive right now and able to tweet this.
“Things could have gone much worse.
“According to the police, an anonymous caller pretending to be me, called up and said that I had “stabbed my girlfriend and that I was suicidal”.
“They gave the cops my name and address.
“The sergeant gave me his card and I’ll be giving them a call tomorrow.”
There was a battle over the veracity of the claims made, with some Social Justice Warriors attempting to dismiss that it even happened. Others, however, were more intent on trying to pinpoint who actually tried to SWAT Simeti so that they could out that person’s identity.
However, Simeti avoided any of the speculation, and the Alterna Comics issued a brief statement on the matter in an attempt to cool down the situation and vie for calmer heads.
At approximately 10pm on Feb. 12th during a YouTube stream (now made private), police visited the home of publisher Peter Simeti under false pretenses of a violent domestic call.
We are working with local law enforcement to learn more about the situation and what can be done.
— Alterna Comics (@ALTERNACOMICS) February 13, 2019
A battle began to rage on Twitter over who actually committed the act, and through the escalation of dialectical consternation, the culture war over who was responsible for SWATting Simeti raged on and around his Twitter account, prompting the founder of Alterna Comics to ask his followers to not engage but instead to send him any evidence of suspicious behavior so he can forward it to the police.
If you see someone tweeting out something disgusting/suspicious/incredulous/boastful/questionable in regards to the SWATting incident that occurred to me on the night of the 12th — please send me the screenshot if possible so I can inform local law enforcement, thank you.
— Peter Simeti 💬 (@petersimeti) February 14, 2019
The anti-#ComicsGate side, made up of Social Justice Warriors, continued to bicker with the #ComicsGate group that the whole thing was a hoax, and so Simeti reminded people to not engage and focus on collecting evidence instead.
DO NOT ENGAGE the people tweeting out these things. Send me a DM if possible as I’ve been told to gather evidence of any occurrence that might give a lead and quicken the capture of the person or persons involved. https://t.co/N06WM9VbMo
— Peter Simeti 💬 (@petersimeti) February 14, 2019
Pocket Jacks Comics posted up a 10 minute video about the matter. Now Pocket Jacks Comics is also neutral on #ComicsGate, but was honest enough to admit that majority of the violence seems to be coming from the Social Justice Warrior side, who are firmly against #ComicsGate, which is a movement about comic book fans wanting creators to go back to making good comics without kowtowing to the SJW agenda or using classic characters as a conduit for Cultural Marxism.
In the video, Pocket Jacks Comics notes that there have been an increasing amount of hostility from SJWs aimed at Peter Simeti for not condemning #ComicsGate and for being neutral in the culture war.
The assessment about the hostility is not wrong. In fact, screencaps emerged of comments made by comic book artist Tim Doyle – who sides with Social Justice Warriors against #ComicsGate – showing that he believed the whole thing was faked.
Tim Doyle AND Moose Bauman (in comments) take SHITTY to a new level by saying PETER SIMETI FAKED BEING SWATTED.
Detestable pieces of shit.
If you bothered to look, it happened on LIVESTREAM. And on the worst day of someone’s life, well, enter Anti-Comicsgate… pic.twitter.com/Gqk9G8xiGL
— ThatUmbrellaGuy (@ThatUmbrella) February 14, 2019
Other comic book professionals also chimed in to concur with Doyle’s assessment while pushing Simeti into the #ComicsGate group by default.
The Social Justice Warriors also ramped up their attacks by trying to pit Simeti against #ComicsGate supporter Ethan Van Sciver, who managed to crowdfund his own comic book, Cyberfrog, and is someone who regularly does videos condemning SJWs and the comic book industry for putting sociopolitical agendas ahead of making good comic books. However, Simeti would have none of it, and proceeded to condemn the SJWs who were trying to drive a wedge between Simeti and Ethan.
I’m dealing with a REAL and UNKNOWN threat on the life of me and my family to the point that an investigation has opened up and you want me to finger wag at Ethan for you because he rightfully pointed out that consistently spreading SERIOUS and FALSE accusations is DANGEROUS???? https://t.co/o2qusv5Ndt
— Peter Simeti 💬 (@petersimeti) February 14, 2019
Eventually Simeti decided to call it a day, and on February 14th, 2019 decided to take a leave of absence for Twitter for a few days after admonishing SJWs for trying to continue to stir the pot against him.
For those that have spent over a year harassing me for being neutral in this ridiculousness called comicsgate and are now using my words of neutrality as a weapon and a shield against people who are passionately defending me — I see what you’re doing — and you’re disgusting.
— Peter Simeti 💬 (@petersimeti) February 14, 2019
I’ll be publicly off twitter for a few days but I’ll be checking DMs. If you need me, reach me there. Thank you.
— Peter Simeti 💬 (@petersimeti) February 14, 2019
These sorts of attacks are not uncommon against those who support #ComicsGate or those who rail against the establishment media’s SJW-themed agenda to subvert the industry and indoctrinate people with their propaganda.
Richard Meyer, the owner of the YouTube channel Diversity & Comics has encountered years worth of harassment and ridicule from comic book professionals for simply calling out the SJW agenda in his comic book reviews. They tried getting him arrested at Comic-Con by plotting to harass him into an act of violence. They even attempted to sabotage his Patreon account on multiple occasions so that they could kill off his funding. Various industry professionals also tried to block publishers from distributing Meyer’s crowdfunded comic book, Jawbreakers.
Ethan Van Sciver was also on the receiving end of various threats and harassment, including a pizza shop being vandalized when he was supposed to show up to meet with fans. SJWs attempted to get Ethan fired from DC Comics, while also attempting to get Jon Malin fired from Marvel Comics because he compared SJWs to Nazis.
There’s a litany of additional stories regarding Social Justice Warriors harassing, threatening, or inciting violence against anyone who doesn’t kowtow to their ideological demands. Peter Simeti is learning firsthand that even though he declared himself neutral in the culture war, SJWs are forcing him to become pro-#ComicsGate simply because he refused to join the side of SJWs. Maybe given everything that has transpired in the last week he’ll rethink his neutral position after he returns from his social media sabbatical.
(Thanks for the news tip Ebicentre)