Pete Buttigieg’s Ordeal Is a Frightening New Form of Political Harassment

The news that former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was investigated by Child Protective Services for a false allegation of child abuse was surprising. Not that an accuser would attempt such a cruel form of harassment—this, unfortunately, is not shocking at all—but because nobody seems to have aimed this particular tactic at a prominent politician before. Even in these unimaginative days, Americans are still capable of new innovations in cruelty.“Someone decided to hurt our family this week,” Buttigieg wrote in a Substack post last week. Buttigieg, the first openly gay Cabinet member and a likely Democratic presidential contender, wrote that state police and a CPS worker arrived at his home in the last week of June to investigate an anonymous report that Buttigieg may have harmed his 4-year-old twins. The matter was quickly resolved, but only after Buttigieg was separated from his children for 24 hours and CPS had interviewed them. State investigators in Michigan, where Buttigieg lives, determined that the tip had been false.Life as a public servant in America requires an escalating tolerance for danger. Politicians, judges, election workers, school-board members, and librarians face online abuse, threats, true risk of physical violence, and bullying—persistent, creative torment that emerges from unexpected corners and darts back and forth across the line of physical and psychological peril. Now people considering a role in public life have a new nightmare to consider: the possibility that a malicious hoax will lead the state to take away their children.As Buttigieg himself noted, his ordeal bears a striking resemblance to another contemporary form of harassment. “Swatting,” as it’s come to be known, involves a 911 caller alerting law enforcement to a supposed violent crisis at the target’s address. Police show up, guns drawn, to a peaceful home and a terrified victim. The tactic leverages the militarization of American police, placing the target and their