My point is this—
idiots yell this in domestic cases all day and don’t get locked up—there wouldn’t be enough jails to hold them.
The threat has to be credible. I mean, in the law certain things have to be weighed, you have to have dates, times, places, intent, if a four year old communicates a threat to take the car and drive to Mexico that is different than if a 15 year old does so and the parents will react differently, right? Same with law enforcement—they have to constantly make these kinds of assessments and then have them approved by the court system—you can’t just go out and pick someone up and hold them, a lawyer will have you out in a NY second and if you overdo it you will get fired, kapish? Individuals have rights in this country. At this point anyway.
I get your point, that there wasn’t much the sheriff could have done. And since he may not have been aware of direct threats against Gifford, I guess (apparently) the threats were against a grab bag of other people, it didn’t occur to him that she needed protection.
But it is noteworthy that the sheriff knew the kid, and immediately came out guns ablazing against tea-party “vitriol” which of course had nothing to do with the case... and the sheriff knew it. He was making a preemptive attempt to muddy the water.
He couldn’t protect her against a crazy kid that he knew was making threats, he didn’t bother to have a deputy on hand to help with crowd control or what-have-you, but he could lash out against people who did not threaten her. Which is to say, us.