<story><title>LARPing and Violent Extremism</title><url>https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/larping-and-violent-extremism</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>crazygringo</author><text>I was definitely confused by this article at first, thinking it was some silly guide for law enforcement which can&amp;#x27;t tell the difference between criminals and LARPers...??&lt;p&gt;But no -- it&amp;#x27;s actually about terrorists and criminals trying to claim in court that their criminal planning wasn&amp;#x27;t that at all, but just LARPing:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;For example, after Kaleb Franks was arrested in October 2020 for plotting to abduct Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, he told the FBI he and his compatriots were only LARPing. Franks later pled guilty and testified that this was a lie.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;So this document is for investigators to ensure they have a specific framework for being able to collect the appropriate evidence to use in court that prevents a defendent from using a LARPing defense.&lt;p&gt;Which actually makes a tremendous amount of sense. When armed militia members claim all of their organizing&amp;#x2F;preparation is just recreational, and totally unlinked to violence that members &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; eventually commit, it&amp;#x27;s important to have delineated standards to be able to refute that.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Jensson</author><text>It isn&amp;#x27;t just courts, these are for police officers in general, they say it near the top &amp;quot;which may be helpful to both law enforcement and prosecutors if suspects of targeted violence claim they were playacting&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;These standards will likely make officers go after more genuine LARPers than before. These tips are very problematic if police officers start to follow them, for example:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Role players will not discuss law enforcement concerns on social media or provide guidance to each other if confronted by an officer. Also, they will have no demonstrated interest in criminal cases involving claims of LARP.&lt;p&gt;If police officers are going after LARPers then LARPers will start to talk about what to do in those cases.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The foremost distinction between LARPers and violent extremists is that genuine role players will not care whether others are watching. They may even embrace third-party observation, such as nonplayer characters or a general audience. After all, LARP is a performance.&lt;p&gt;Lots of people are embarrassed to do things in public, a police officer coming across some people LARPing in private shouldn&amp;#x27;t be cause for investigation.</text></comment>
<story><title>LARPing and Violent Extremism</title><url>https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/larping-and-violent-extremism</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>crazygringo</author><text>I was definitely confused by this article at first, thinking it was some silly guide for law enforcement which can&amp;#x27;t tell the difference between criminals and LARPers...??&lt;p&gt;But no -- it&amp;#x27;s actually about terrorists and criminals trying to claim in court that their criminal planning wasn&amp;#x27;t that at all, but just LARPing:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;For example, after Kaleb Franks was arrested in October 2020 for plotting to abduct Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, he told the FBI he and his compatriots were only LARPing. Franks later pled guilty and testified that this was a lie.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;So this document is for investigators to ensure they have a specific framework for being able to collect the appropriate evidence to use in court that prevents a defendent from using a LARPing defense.&lt;p&gt;Which actually makes a tremendous amount of sense. When armed militia members claim all of their organizing&amp;#x2F;preparation is just recreational, and totally unlinked to violence that members &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; eventually commit, it&amp;#x27;s important to have delineated standards to be able to refute that.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>TheJoeMan</author><text>To add a counterpoint, that specific example is really a poor choice to get the point across. It’s been established (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.insider.com&amp;#x2F;kidnapping-conspiracy-whitmer-fbi-informants-report-2021-7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.insider.com&amp;#x2F;kidnapping-conspiracy-whitmer-fbi-in...&lt;/a&gt;) that the Whitmer plot was run by the FBI itself, in a way having agents LARPing as terrorists.&lt;p&gt;Also, I would hope the real LARPing community can feel safe enough to share tips on what to do if they run into police while running around the woods with foam swords.</text></comment>