Apparently the FBI knows how to deal with death threats

[terraformer]

Note that CA authorities ignored this guy until this week. They gave him a warning in March... Sounds like what the Pima Sheriff's office did too. Was this one dangerous? Who knows, but if you are going to make specific and targeted death threats, you should be charged.

A Palm Springs, Calif., man was arrested on Wednesday on a federal charge that he threatened to kill Rep. James McDermott (D) of Washington because of the congressman’s stance in last month’s debate over whether to extend the Bush tax cuts.

FBI agents arrested Charles Turner Habermann for making two late-night cell phone calls to the congressman’s Seattle office Dec. 9. According to an FBI affidavit, Mr. Habermann has a history of contacting elected officials and received a warning from California law enforcement officials in March 2010.

“Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, or George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, if any of them had ever met Jim McDermott, they would all blow his brains out. They’d shoot him in the head,” Mr. Habermann, 32, allegedly said in a recorded voice mail message on Mr. McDermott’s office telephone.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politi...ts-to-Rep.-Jim-McDermott-I-ll-kill-his-family

 

[cekim]

“Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, or George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, if any of them had ever met Jim McDermott, they would all blow his brains out. They’d shoot him in the head,” Mr. Habermann, 32, allegedly said in a recorded voice mail message on Mr. McDermott’s office telephone.

It seems, further down in the story, he actually said "I'll [deleted] kill him"...

But, the above example falls well short...

 

[Bill Nance]

PSGWSP

 

[terraformer]

It seems, further down in the story, he actually said "I'll [deleted] kill him"...

But, the above example falls well short...

I can't quote the whole article. He made death threats. Laughnor made death threats against school admins. ipso facto...

 

[terraformer]

Investigator: Loughner's law enforcement contacts weren't alarming
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/12/arizona.shooting/index.html

 

[Climbnsink]

They gonna get 1A and 2A restrictions out of this one...

 

[cekim]

I can't quote the whole article. He made death threats. Laughnor made death threats against school admins. ipso facto...

Yup - he's a dumbass, I just love how they quote that one mentioned as if its one of them - it isn't...

I still say the bar should be rather high on these issues - politicians threaten to kill us or imprison us implicitly all the time "if we do" various things... There's a standing death threat on all of us for any number of "if we do" this or that...

At some point you have to say that the threat goes beyond words, but on the one hand we ignore the obvious ones and on the other we arrest people for saying dumb things while they are pissed off...

People and politicians, as demonstrated by the press and our current laws are far too squeamish about words... Words are words - they can hint at intent, but as far as I am concerned, outside slander and libel, crime requires action. Even if its just concrete steps that prove your intent (though that is abused far too often with all of our pre-crime laws...)

I fully expect more of these sorts of arrests now after nut-case in AZ...

 

[bullseye]

There is going to be a big problem with this shooting as opposed to any other serf. This was a member of congress and the calls for action are not going to go away that fast as if it was just a "regular" shooting. Not only that but with this being as high profile of an "admired and loved" member, I can almost see restrictions being placed on hi-caps as well as new laws on contact with members of congress as well as the threat and security issue. If you can buy hi-caps, get em now, a reason to act has occurred and hi-caps are going to be hard to defend to the sheeple, who will see it much differently.

 

[Lamina]

Bullseye...

If they pass anything, the time is not to comply, but openly defy.

This is not 1994. We are not the same country. Every single one of us needs to stand up, draw a line in the sand and be clear about the repercussions for crossing that line.

"Shall not be infringed".

It matters not what you think you have to lose. If you can't stand against this, you will kneel to everything else.

 

[TomH]

“Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, or George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, if any of them had ever met Jim McDermott, they would all blow his brains out. They’d shoot him in the head,” Mr. Habermann, 32, allegedly said in a recorded voice mail message on Mr. McDermott’s office telephone.

I have a hard time disagreeing with this one, applied to most politicians.

 

[Flyer007]

Bullseye...

If they pass anything, the time is not to comply, but openly defy.

This is not 1994. We are not the same country. Every single one of us needs to stand up, draw a line in the sand and be clear about the repercussions for crossing that line.

"Shall not be infringed".

It matters not what you think you have to lose. If you can't stand for this, you will kneel to everything else.

Got your right flank......

 

[Lamina]

Got your right flank......

Good to know buddy.

When politicians start talking about how "threatening speech" should be a jailable offense, that's exactly the time that we should start threatening politicians.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

You infringe on my life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness, don't be surprised when I look to infringe yours too.

 

[Lamina]

double post

 

[cekim]

Investigator: Loughner's law enforcement contacts weren't alarming
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/12/arizona.shooting/index.html

It's easy to question this in hindsight, but this is why liberty is difficult (and should be). We'd all like to live in a world where we are all free, but somehow magically all the "bad people" are identified early on and stopped before they hurt anyone.

Of course the reality is that you can't do that without living in a brutal police state. We are rather imperfect judges of each other's character and even less perfect at prediction action. There is no magical wise-man/woman who can tell who is bad or good. The best we can hope for is that we have a society that values good parenting and provides a means of getting help without tossing you "into the system."

The boomers->hippies->liberals questioned and dismantled the family structure to correct what they saw as the "injustices" it created for women (well, that's the high brow version - the low brow version is they wanted to have intoxicated sex without consequences ). That isn't the only reason that our valuation of the family structure has been destroyed, but its a big one.

I bristle when any politician says anything that even sounds like "family values," because it is not government's place to tell me or anyone else how to live - period... Without equivocation - NOTHING I say on this topic should imply that we should regulate this. In fact, we regulate and reward bad behavior far too much.

That said, as a society - as a culture - we've lost an important asset to deal with things like mental health and juvenile delinquency that turns into adult criminal and anti-social behavior later which is THE FAMILY.

I don't know of any legal or ethical way to get back to a society that places a higher value on raising of children other than to decide to do it and rob the system of its ability to reward those who do not... Parents are responsible for their children, and should be. Everything we do in this system that says otherwise or rewards behavior to the contrary should be stopped.

 

[terraformer]

And now they are taking it overboard...
Ugh...

FBI pays visit to blogger as potential "threat"

In the wake of the Arizona shooting, the FBI questions a blogger-critic of a Missouri congressman
....
Long, an auctioneer and former talk radio host, is a freshman member of the new Congress. The blog in question, Long is Wrong, is now behind a password wall. Though Long is a Republican, the blog apparently attacked him from the right. While Bowler apparently "confronted" Long at some campaign events, there's no suggestion in the ABC article that he ever threatened the candidate.

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/01/14/fbi_questions_blogger_critic

 

[cekim]

And now they are taking it overboard...

Now? Just now?

 

[terraformer]

Now? Just now?

There was a few day window there...

 

[HooVooLoo]

There is no magical wise-man/woman who can tell who is bad or good.

So you're saying there is no Santa Claus. Bummer.

 

[KMaurer]

Yeah, he's a fruit-loop with a history to prove it, so there's no actual reason to quote the comments that got him arrested. OTOH, the MSM would never miss the opportunity to throw those dead white male extremists under the bus.

Ken