X-Files Fan on Live Journal Reported to Secret Service

Live Journal ^ | October 28, 2004 | Hobsonphile

[Hobsonphile]

I strongly suspect this incident has more to do with a stupid fandom grudge and the Secret Service doing its damned job. But the liberals on my f-list are using this to shriek about the Patriot Act and the Bush Administration and omgwtfbbqAmericaisafasciststate!!!!!one.

So, from people who know what they're talking about, I need to know. What is the standard procedure for the Secret Service when they receive a tip? I'm so sick of the ranting and raving from the left wing of the Live Journal Community and would desperately like to inject some common sense and context.

By the way, what the individual in question said was: "Please God, kill the President." Which is so vile and reprehensible, I really don't have any words.

[cripplecreek]

The secret service checking out a threat has nothing to do with the pat act.

I saw an interview with a former agent last week. He said that literally every threat is checked out. The guy said that most are determined to be insignificant or people having emotional problems. Only a tiny number of threats ever result in charges or visits from the secret service.

[desherwood7]

They need to lock up the crazy moron soon. Was he a teenager or a college student?

[hellinahandcart]

This stuff happened long before the Patriot Act.

I believe a freeper got a visit from the Secret Service for saying something similar about Clinton. Then right after election 2000, someone from DU also had some explaining to do, for a (half)joking scenario he'd laid out whereby Gore could still become president if he were to run for Congress that fall, be immediately elected Speaker of the House, and then succeed to the Presidency after Bush and Cheney had both been assassinated at the same time.

This is what the Secret Service does now, after a spate of successful and attempted assassinations starting with Kennedy. If you don't want to spend time with them, be careful how you express your desire for the president's death. That is all...

[hellinahandcart]

Anyway, the Secret Service are not haunting fan lists looking for threats. Probably someone in your group, who also found that sentiment reprehensible, dropped a dime on the guy.