Threat to Bush weighed...

[tlcandie]

http://news.tbo.com/news/MGBXTT7JE0E.html

<snip>
TAMPA - Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill says he knows there are plenty of people who say, ``I hate President Bush, and he deserves to die.''

Whether such sentiments are ominous plots or frivolous talk, experts say, is the key question in federal cases involving threats to kill the president, including the upcoming prosecution of a former Tampa police officer.

Joseph Mazagwu, 35, is scheduled for trial in November before a U.S. magistrate. He is also charged with lying to a federal agent for initially denying he made the threat, prosecutors said. If convicted, he faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each charge.
<Snip>

<snip>
TAMPA - Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill says he knows there are plenty of people who say, ``I hate President Bush, and he deserves to die.''

Whether such sentiments are ominous plots or frivolous talk, experts say, is the key question in federal cases involving threats to kill the president, including the upcoming prosecution of a former Tampa police officer.

Joseph Mazagwu, 35, is scheduled for trial in November before a U.S. magistrate. He is also charged with lying to a federal agent for initially denying he made the threat, prosecutors said. If convicted, he faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each charge.
<snip>

[Still_Notafraid]

1. If Kerry wins

maybe Kerry can pardon him,if Bush had any compassion he would have aready.

[aquart]

2. Saying someone deserves to die is NOT necessarily a threat.

It can be a simple statement of fact.

My hope is that the POS lives and becomes a public embarrassment to all Republicans. I hope he walks into churches and proclaims his godhead. I hope he gets his own damn cable network where he exhorts the faithful to send him cash.

[ogradda]

3. you know what?

you may have hit on something there. you may have found the one thing he could do without screwing up!

[Skittles]

4. I disagree

in the context of speaking about the president (no matter how fake he is) it absolutely could and would be considered a threat

[screembloodymurder]

10. Bullshit!

The man should be convicted of treason and receive his just sentence. Is that a threat or a statement of fact? He lied to congress to get them to sanction his illegal war. That's treason. What's the penalty for treason?

[Skittles]

12. that's a lot different than saying he should DIE

nt

[Thurston Howell IV]

15. You're making a different argument than the man in the article

He said he hates bush -- he wasn't talking about constitutional issues. It sounds like he wants to take care of the matter himself -- which is vigilantism, not justice.

However bad Bush is (and we agree he's extremely bad for the country), rhetorically supporting this kind of action is wrongheaded, and doesn't aid our cause in the slightest. It just makes it harder to convince non-ideological citizens to join us. There may be only two or three of them left, but they won't be drawn our cause.

Now, to add the nuance -- it is hard to judge from a newspaper article, but it does seem like he was just letting off steam. If secret service thought there might be more to it, they should investigate further; based on there findings, they might want to put him under surveillance or press charges (if they had some evidence of actual intent).

[Democracy Died 2004]

13. I wonder if my

praying to God that he strike this person dead is a threat?

[sandnsea]

5. Or political dissent

Doesn't the article say that a protester said he wanted to get Johnson in his sites and the courts ruled that it was political dissent? Or did I misunderstand.

Based on everything I read in this article, this is a waste of time. The guy was obviously blowing off steam.

[iamjoy]

6. This Man Allegedly Said More Than That

According to the story, he made reference to shooting the president in the head. If true, that is undoubtedly a threat, especially coming from a cop who has a gun.

[snippy]

11. But there are no vital organs in Bush's head. n/t

[trogdor]

16. What if I said...

...there must be a special place in Hell waiting for his stupid ass? Is that a threat? I don't think so.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NVMojo]

8. I will only say

I hope he grows a conscience and turns his greedy, lying life around before it is too late. Karma ain't a funny thing. I hate it when I do something I shouldn't and it doesn't take long to slap me in the butt.

[illuminaughty]

9. They needn't worry

Their guys are never assassinated. I love how they describe us as the liberal loonies all wacked out on drugs. But look at history.

President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcom X, atttempts on Truman and FDR.

Squeaky Fromme didn't even have a loaded gun with Ford
George Wallace paralyzed
Reagan survived and it sure wasn't Jodie Foster that made Hinkley do it. (Neil Bush and Scott Hinkley)

Bush has to be the most hated man in the world. And yet there is no "lone gunman" wacko in sight.

[w4rma]

14. That police officer is someone who used to be a Republican, I'd bet.

He figured out that Bush is as corrupt as they come. But since he's new, he hadn't yet figured out that Repugs and Dems are held to different standards. He used to say that stuff about Democrats all the time and noone paid him any mind. Heck, his fellow Repugs all egged him on to say stuff like that. When he turned on Rush or Hannity he heard stuff that came right up to that line if it didn't step over it entirely. He says it about a Republican and, Blamo, he has now been hit with a fine he'll never pay off for the rest of his life *and* prison time.

Double-standard? yes.

[barbaraann]

17. Well, if you can't say that a President should die, you can't

ever accuse any President of treason, because there is a penalty of death for treason. And then any rightwinger who ever accused Clinton of treason was/is advocating death for Clinton.