Reuters: Anatomy of a Death Threat

[The Blue Flower]

https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ELECTION/THREATS/mopanwmlkva/

Trump supporters have waged a campaign of intimidation against the state and local officials who administer U.S. elections. This visual analysis explores hundreds of menacing messages - and explains why they’re difficult to counter.

[gab13by13]

1. You must have missed Merrick Garland's testimony before the Senate?

He was there to explain how DOJ was going to work with local law enforcement to stop this horrid behavior against election and school board officials. Did you watch the hearing? Garland has this under control. Do I need the sarcasm thingy?

It's just Magat's expressing their freedom of speech, that's what every Republican Senator told Garland. They accused Garland of violating the 1st Amendment to which Garland responded, "DOJ is just going to make suggestions to local law enforcement."

[Kid Berwyn]

2. GOP today is NAZI.

“Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death.” — Adolf Hitler

[gab13by13]

4. It seems that Churchill's quote is also appropriate,

Just a paraphrase though; The only thing worse than the pure evil and death that Hitler brought upon the world was good people standing back and allowing it to happen.

[Kid Berwyn]

7. Thank you for the excellent reminder.

The idea goes back millennia…

From Proverbs 24:

10 If you falter in a time of trouble,
how small is your strength!
11 Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
12 If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?

[gab13by13]

9. and thank you for your reminder.

[mahina]

3. Alex Jones was on the radio yesterday whipping up his listeners to a froth

Very clearly inciting people to violence. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard him so I don’t know if that’s his daily product but if he is telling them to go do this. How is that legal?

[gab13by13]

6. He doesn't live in Canada.

Steve Bannon is doing the same thing on his pod cast yet I am told that Bannon has been held accountable.

[Irish_Dem]

5. The death threats are also against public heath officials, elected officials,

educators, health care workers, etc.

It is a concerted effort to break down American institutions for the purpose of the GOP obtaining permanent power.

Also foreign interests very much want a greatly weakened American democracy.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

17. Reuters has huge influence as a news aggregator. Wonderful to see this and hopefully

the heads in the sand on purpose corporate media in America will print it…over and over as the article richly deserves.

[Jetheels]

8. Maybe they saw how their Orange Vomit used the "I was just kidding", when he promoted violence

during the weekly rallies and hourly toilet textings. And the only repercussions were free media press.

[Lonestarblue]

10. We have a serious collapse of societal norms.

And while Republican leaders have been stoking violence and racial hatred for decades, it was Trump who put the culmination of that hatred on steroids. Threats of violence an death are not completely new, but the volume of them is. Trump’s behavior—constant lying, calling people nasty names, encouraging violence by police and white supremacists, shoving foreign leaders out of his way, openly stealing from taxpayers through his and his family’s travel, telling people to break the law and he would pardon them—opened the door to malicious behavior by his followers. Their hate and anger are eating then alive, but their refusal to learn any facts will keep that hate and anger alive. Like Jim Jones, Trump was able to mesmerize followers into believing in a myth that he was their savior. And now we have people who think no laws or social norms apply to them and they can do and say anything they want.

[modrepub]

12. Nation of Trolls

Trolling seems to be the number 1 past time in this country. Social media has only amplified and encouraged this trend.

That said, all of the legions of RW masters of Troll are really only tapping into a large segment of the US population who are boxed into dead end jobs with long hours and no benefits and can't seem to help themselves to find a way out. Instead they are encouraged to blame their plight on immigrants, liberal elites, young professionals or any other imaginary scape goat (except themselves).

I ran across an article on Johny Cash (in the Atlantic I think) that pointed out this huge contradiction. Cash was a direct product of FDR New Deal programs but seemed to despise people who took government handouts. A large fraction of the current US Trolls are directly supported by government programs at some point in their lives (but don't seem to see the connection). It's like a self-loathing syndrome that they project onto others with reckless abandon.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

18. Nicely said. I admire Cash...do you have link to article in Atlantic?

[The Jungle 1]

11. Rush limpballs did great harm to this nation.

I do believe that puke caused the hate to grow like no one else ever had.
He was a horrible American.

[FoxNewsSucks]

14. He was the face of that hate and evil,

the spearhead.

Roger Ailes was equally responsible for the conditions of hate being incited in this country. It's hard to say who did the most damage.

[Martin Eden]

13. Trump and others who incite these threats have committed stochastic terrorism

stochastic terrorism

the public demonization of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted

[Alexander Of Assyria]

19. Yes, sir. Textbook definition. Should be prosecutable crime odd, narrowly defined.

The Sedition Day Insurrection would have to qualify under any criminal definition.

[stopdiggin]

15. more from a good article

Reuters, 12/30/2021
Crimes or protected speech? A challenge for U.S. law

- snip - Building a criminal case for threatening messages is notoriously difficult.

The U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment provides sweeping freedom-of-speech protections, even for statements that advocate violence. The Constitution does not, however, protect direct threats to a person’s life or safety, legal scholars say.

The problem: the U.S. Supreme Court has not clearly defined a “true threat,” scholars say. That makes it difficult for police and prosecutors to know where to draw the line. Law enforcement officials often look for language or context that reflects a clear intent to act or instill fear, rather than simply suggesting a frightening outcome. For instance, many prosecutors would consider “I will kill you” as a clear threat, but “you should die” as legally protected speech.

- snip - Threats that instill fear don’t necessarily merit prosecution under U.S. law. Of the 200 messages collected by Reuters that called for the death of an election staffer - often by hanging, or firing squad - only 66 could potentially be prosecuted under federal law, legal scholars said.

- snip - The review found four cases since November 2020 of people charged with threatening an election official or worker. In the same period, at least 14 people were prosecuted for threatening members of the U.S. Congress – often with language strikingly similar to threats documented against election workers.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

21. Any speech that could reasonably be interpreted as intended to cause fear, and subjectively

causes fear in the target…why is that protected free speech?

And judges actually know how to objectively judge such things, that’s why called Judges.

[stopdiggin]

22. speech has a long history of evaluation and adjudication.

(and perhaps occasional song and dance and side stepping - which courts have also been know to do on thorny issues) "Why is that protected speech?" Ask them! (although I agree with a fairly large umbrella of protection for the most part)

And -

And judges actually know how to objectively judge such things, that’s why called Judges.

Was that actually intended as a serious comment?

[panfluteman]

16. Government by Death Threat - What a Novel Idea!

And it just might be the Orange Goon's most enduring (not endearing) contribution to American politics - we shall see.

Wake up, Merrick Garland, wake up!

[Alexander Of Assyria]

20. Wow, the details are frightening...a deliberate, coordinated campaign of terrorism.

“Reuters has documented more than 850 threatening and hostile messages aimed at election officials and staff related to the 2020 election. Virtually all expressed support for former President Donald Trump or echoed his debunked contention that the election was stolen. The messages spanned 30 jurisdictions in 16 states. They came via emails, voicemails, texts, letters and Internet posts.”