Thread: Bullet holes in Obama T-Shirt

Cop’s Facebook photo showing Obama T-shirt with bullet holes eyed by Secret Service as possible threat

(New York Daily News) / I am posting this article in its entirety due to it's brevity and due to the serious nature of the threat. Also being reported here by ABC.




"The Secret Service is investigating an Arizona police sergeant who posted a photo on Facebook of seven teenagers holding-up a bullet ridden T-shirt of President Barack Obama, reports The Arizona Republic.

Sgt. Pat Shearer, a 25-year veteran of the Peoria police, took and posted the photo on his own Facebook account. The photo shows the teens standing in the desert, four brandishing weapons and one holding a T-shirt with Obama's image -- which the officer said was used for target practice.

Secret Service spokesman Max Milien said Friday that the agency is taking the matter seriously.

"Any time information is brought to our attention where an individual or a group of individuals expresses unusual direction of interest in one of our protectees, we conduct appropriate follow-up," Milien told POLITICO.

But in an interview with ABC15, Shearer downplayed the photo as merely a "political statement."

“I don't think that the shooting of that T-shirt is that big of a deal," Shearer said.

"It's not like they were going to go out and shoot the president," he continued.

If the Secret Service deems the photo as indicating a real threat against the President, serious legal repercussions could follow.

"It is a crime to knowingly and willingly make a threat against the life of the President of the United States - in order to kidnap him or make a threat of bodily harm," Dan Barr, an attorney with the First Amendment Coalition, told NBC12 News.

"The first amendment does not apply if a true threat is made against the President of the United States."

The boys, who are all reported to be students at Centennial High School, did not turn up for classes on Friday, reported NBC12 News.

Although the police officer has not been placed on leave at this time, he does face a range of violations of the department's electronic media policies.

"Employees shall not post, transmit, reproduce, and/or disseminate information (text, pictures, video, audio, etc.) to the Internet or any other forum (public or private) that would tend to discredit or reflect unfavorably upon the department or any of the department's employees," the department's policy reads."

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Editorial in the Huffington Post about this:

This Time President Obama Literally in Gun Toters' Sights


"The bullet-riddled tee shirt of President Obama posted brazenly on Facebook by seven semi-automatic gun toting men among them a Peoria, Arizona, police sergeant was much more than the by now standard non-stop litany of racist cartoons, depictions, web postings, and kooky loose talk threats against President Obama.

The gun-toting men and the police sergeant were taking target practice on the president's likeness at an undisclosed desert locale. This is Arizona. The state where many legislators think it's ok to pack guns in the legislature, and for citizens to openly pack them in public. This is the state where former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was nearly killed in an assassination attempt, and where there's a wide body of respectable opinion starting with a finger in the face of the president by Governor Jan Brewer, that openly loathes the president's policies and in many cases him personally.

The gun-toting men made a virtual public call for the gunning down of the president. It comes against the backdrop of Secret Servicereportsthat the rate of threats against the President Obama has increased 400 percent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W. Bush. He receives dozens of assassination threats continuously, and that number has been steady before and during the campaign and increased after he took office. Federal law is very clear on Threatening the President of the United States. It is a class D felony under United States Code Title 18, Section 871. It consists of knowingly and willfully mailing or otherwise making "any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States....

...There is nothing shadowy or conspiratorial about what police sergeant Pat Shearer and his gun-packing friends in Peoria, Arizona, did. It was brazen and very open. The clueless Shearer for his part saw nothing inappropriate, let alone, dangerous, about what he did. He chalked it up to much ado about nothing or as he put it, he didn't think that shooting up a t-shirt with President Obama's face on it "was that big a deal." It was more than a big deal. The target in their in gun sights was not a regular bullseye, a likeness of Howdy Dowdy, or a cactus plant. It was President Obama. Federal prosecutors should see it as the "big deal" that it is and bring charges.""

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Goes to say that this kind of stuff is not only disgusting, it most likely is illegal and punishable under the law.

Imagine a police officer with a 25 year career on the force, one who has won awards for bravery, who decides to throw his career away over this. How stupid can a person be?

The sad part is, this is probably just one of many, many, many such cases that have not yet found their way to daylight.

Of course, some loose-screw conservatives here will try to defend the indefensible here and say, "well, gee, there were also death threats against Bush". True. And those death threats were also investigated. And not nearly as many as against Obama. So, feel free to defend the indefensible, but I hope they throw the book at this son of a bitch for incitement to assassinate the POTUS. Why, I may just pray the imprecatory prayer over him. (Not really, I don't believe in such rot).

But regardless of your ideology, just ask yourself, how had virtually all Americans responded to this just 40 years ago?

Looking forward to all sorts of kooky and bent out of shape responses from the right. This should be fun.

Originally Posted by metheron

They probably should arrest all these kids, throw them all in jail until their trial and then give them all the death penalty. They are all obviously intending to assassinate the President.

Good thing the Secret Service is on the ball.

Nice tongue in cheek. But I think you are missing the message. Try again.

Originally Posted by metheron

I won't try again. I am pretty content with my message. I really don't see the outrage. I think people have a tendency to blow things out of proportion, and I think you are doing it here.

I disagree and I am also very sure that were this to have happened during the Bush administration, where a COP would have posted a pic of youths shooting holes in a Bush T-Shirt (message: we want to kill the POTUS), then I am sure the right-wing blogosphere would have been just ablaze about it.

I am not doing anything other than to report what has happened.

Originally Posted by bonncaruso

Cop’s Facebook photo showing Obama T-shirt with bullet holes eyed by Secret Service as possible threat

eeexcellent. stupid ass bitches gonna have their lives turned inside out by the SS

Originally Posted by metheron

You certainly did not just report what has happened. Go back and re-read the op again. Specifically YOUR opinons/comments at the bottom.

And I probably agree with you about the same thing likely would have happened under Bush and I would have spoken out against the foolishness of it then as well.

Sure, I'm allowed to my opinion, but the majority of the OP is simply news.

Originally Posted by Tedminator

eeexcellent. stupid ass bitches gonna have their lives turned inside out by the SS

And just on a side-note: is all of America's youth this fat?

Originally Posted by bonncaruso

And just on a side-note: is all of America's youth this fat?

heh dunno. but those are. did you see the size of the cop that took that picture?