posted on September 2, 2004 08:29:13 AM new
Things getting sticky for owner of sticker
By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Derek Kjar is not the president's biggest fan.
But the 19-year-old Salt Lake County man says he does not intend to harm President Bush with anything more than a vote for John Kerry come November.
Just to be sure, though, agents from the Secret Service recently paid Kjar a visit, telling him that his neighbors had alerted them to a potentially threatening bumper sticker on his car.
The sticker, which can be found on a number of Web sites, features a black-and-white likeness of Bush, a crown tilted slightly on his head. Under the image are the words "KING GEORGE - OFF WITH HIS HEAD."
Glen Passey, agent in charge of the Secret Service's Salt Lake City office, would not confirm that agents visited Kjar.
But Passey said his office investigates all threats against the president.
"Oh, please," said David Hudson, a research attorney who works for the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. "It's political hyperbole. However distasteful you might think it is, it's pure political speech."
Hudson said the message would never qualify as a true threat under the law.
But Kjar didn't know that. He said the agent he contacted in response to a cryptic message left on his voice mail would not even say why he wanted to talk - only that he wanted to meet Thursday morning.
That's when Kjar began to cry. "I didn't know what the hell was going on," he said. "It made me so nervous."
Kjar said two agents visited him at his job at a dry cleaning service, where they asked him about whether he had any ties to terrorist groups or enjoyed reading historical accounts of assassinations. They also asked Kjar about his friends and family, and even wanted to know how he paid his monthly rent.
The agents finally left after Kjar handed over the sticker.Kjar said he feared the agents were going to "take me away."
Now, he feels as if they did.
"I kind of feel trapped, like I'm not allowed to express my opinions. I felt like my freedom of speech was shot to hell right there."
Dani Eyer, director of the Utah chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said Kjar's experience exemplifies the "chilling effect" government actions can have on free speech.
She cited U.S. Supreme Court rulings that protect exaggerated political expression.
In 1969, for instance, the high court overturned the conviction of a man who said he wanted to place President Johnson in the sights of his rifle if he were ever to be drafted.
"While direct advocacy of immediate violence can possibly be a crime, context is everything," Eyer said. "Only someone who has never read the Declaration of Independence and never heard of King Louis XVI could have mistaken revolutionary war rhetoric for a criminal threat."
posted on September 2, 2004 09:25:55 AM new
It was not a death threat, not even close. What Bush's SS did was use intimidation to silence political free speech.
It is against the law to threaten the life of the president. If this young man threatened the president's life he would have been arrested. They took the bumper sticker away, not him.
posted on September 2, 2004 09:35:35 AM new
Free speech has many limitations. A 19 year old, who started crying, just learned a good lesson. Don't go promoting cutting off a US President's head. It's taken seriously...and will be investigated.
-----
Just one more result of the Patriot Act.
Maybe, maybe not. Might just have been routine procedure even BEFORE the Patriot Act was signed. Remember a lot of the Patriot Act came from other laws that had already been established.
posted on September 2, 2004 09:52:09 AM new
Yup, the neonazicons like Linda are all for neighbor turning in neighbor, SS pounding on your door in the middle of the night and hauling off your bumper sticker.
Well, guess what, WE paid for that ridiculous fiasco.
REMEMBER:
In a Republican dictatorship humor is "NOT ALLOWED".
Only idiots would take that bumper sticker as a real threat to bush. And they did.
posted on September 2, 2004 11:04:24 AM newFree speech has many limitations. A 19 year old, who started crying, just learned a good lesson. Don't go promoting cutting off a US President's head. It's taken seriously...and will be investigated.
Promoting what the bumpersticker promoted is not against the law. It was not an immediate threat nor serious statement.
posted on September 2, 2004 12:07:37 PM new
The 'Lectric Law Library's Lexicon On
* Threats Against President *
THREATS AGAINST PRESIDENT - 18 USC 871, makes it a Federal crime or offense for anyone to willfully make a true threat to injure or kill the President of the United States.
A person can be found guilty of that offense only if all of the following facts are proved beyond a reasonable doubt:
First: That the person uttered words alleged to be the threat against the President;
Second: That the person understood and meant the words he used as a true threat; and
Third: That the person uttered the words knowingly and willfully.
A "threat" is a statement expressing an intention to kill or injure the President; and a "true threat" means a serious threat as distinguished from words used as mere political argument, idle or careless talk, or something said in a joking manner.
The essence of the offense is the knowing and willful making of a true threat. So, if it is proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the person knowingly made a true threat against the President, willfully intending that it be understood by others as a serious threat, then the offense is complete; it is not necessary to prove that the person actually intended to carry out the threat
As always everyone jumps to the conslusion that it is Bush's fault. Well what if that person really turned out to be a threat. do you know him? If so you can speak. If you don't then he needs to be investigated as any threat would be investigated whether against Bush or Kerry. Now if it was a picture of Kerry how would you feel?
Evidently the neighbors who reported this crying individual thought he was a threat.
posted on September 2, 2004 01:47:12 PM new
The people who made a mountain out of a mole hill were the SS.
Imagine this, on Bush's watch after being warned by FBI agents 19 foreigners illegally enter the country, illegally board planes and commit mass murder and mayhem.
And now Bush's SS is after a kid for displaying a humor bumper sticker.
First: That the person uttered words alleged to be the threat against the President;
The bumper sticker made no threat by any rational stretch.
Second: That the person understood and meant the words he used as a true threat;
It couldn't be construed as a true threat by any menas and therefore the person could not have meant it as such.
Third: That the person uttered the words knowingly and willfully.
No one could have uttered this knowingly, because no one could take it seriously, except Bush's nazi troopers.
posted on September 2, 2004 02:20:03 PM new
Yes, logansdad, as we have been asked to do by homelandsecurity. If we see something suspicious...we're asked to report it. It was reported.
posted on September 3, 2004 04:29:29 AM new
I guess the SS has nothing better to do. We must not have any sleeper spys or terrorists to hunt down in this country. Whew, I feel safer now.
Cheryl
. . .if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist- I really believe he is Antichrist- I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend.. . - War and Peace, Tolstoy
