Ky. man charged with threatening Obama in Web poem

[proud2BlibKansan]

A Kentucky man has been charged with posting a poem threatening President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama on a white supremacist Web site.

U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Stephan M. Pazenzia said Johnny Logan Spencer Jr., 27, of Louisville wrote and posted the poem, titled "The Sniper," on a page called NewSaxon.org. The site is described as an "Online Community for Whites by Whites." The poem was posted in August 2007, according to an arrest affidavit.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Dave Whalin on Friday ordered Spencer released on $25,000 bond, but kept under house arrest at a family member's home. He's charged with making threats against the president and threatening to kill or injure a major candidate for the office of the president.

The poem describes a gunman shooting and killing a "tyrant" later identified as the president, setting off panic in the wake of the fatal shot being fired.

more . . . http://www.kansascity.com/437/story/1759266.html

[Robb]

1. "Man" seems a bit strong. nt

[FreakinDJ]

2. Have you googled this guy's screen name

A bunch of really disturbing "White Power" "Aryan Pride" "Hitler Loving" websites

It was the 1st time I had ever seen any thing like it

[kywildcat]

5. Welcome to my world

I'm surrounded by inbred hillbillies who really believe if the civil war had just lasted another year, things would be different. And for all of the hoopla about KY, I live just shy of Cincinnati-and that city has some pretty intense racism as well. I'm just a few miles from the creation museum-if that doesn't say it all about KY....

[Mari333]

8. huge hugs

[Bluebear]

22. :(

[Mari333]

3. someone needs to tell these guys that everyone's ancestors come from Africa

according to dna and human genome project.


yeah everyone has the same gr gr gr gr gr gr times 10000 grandmothers.


from Africa.

[kywildcat]

6. You have to get them out of the creation museum first.

They're all lining up to learn about how we saddled up the dinosaurs and road the prairies.

[Mari333]

7. rofl

[Webster Green]

13. Indeed. They'll never believe it though.

LOL! When I read your post, I heard the "from Africa" in the ominous way the chimp phrased it in his infamous and idiotic yellow cake uranium speech fail).

[Jim__]

4. Is the poem available to be read?

I went to that website and couldn't find it. My understanding is that it should only be criminal if it is inciting people to violence. Suppose the poem were about George Bush. Would you use the same standard to decide if it was criminal? I'm not defending the poet or his beliefs in any way; but our rights are slowly being chipped away by a militaristic government and a national security state.

[ChicagoSuz219]

9. I hope not!

Those wingnuts are crazy enough without added inspiration.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Yes if it was about Bush it would be just as bad

[Jim__]

14. Have you read the poem?

If not, what makes you think it is a threat against the president. I've read the article, my guess is that it contains the most imflammatory parts of the poem, yet I don't see anything there that's really a threat. I definitely have concerns about the government interpreting art and arresting people because of their interpretation.

[truth2power]

17. "our rights are slowly being chipped away"...

Yes. See my post downthread.

[Jim__]

18. Yes, I agree with your post. - n/t

[ET Awful]

11. Regardless of how disgusting the content, if it was posted in 2007, can it really be said

to be a threat against the President?

Are we now prosecuting people retroactively?

I mean . . . if the threat was made before the primaries, let alone the election, can their content be considered a threat against the President?

I would say the same if it were a poem about Bush written in '98 or '99.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. It's also illegal to threaten a US senator

[ET Awful]

19. That's not what they say he's being charged with. They say he's being charged with

making threats against the President at a time when he was not the President. That's as close to an ex post facto situation as you're likely to see. Normally that term is reserved for laws passed after an act is committed, but in this case, I think it fits because the crime he is being charged with was not possible at the time he allegedly committed it, as the person he "threatened" wasn't the President at the time the "threat" was made.

Sorry, but regardless of how much of an asshole this guy is, to try to prosecute him for threatening the President before he was the President is farcical at best.

[Fast Dude]

20. EXACTLY! This is scary stuff

Everyone who railed on Bush, might want to start deleting old posts. :rofl:

Seriously, how in the Hell do you threaten a POTUS, a year before he becomes POTUS?

You folks that are cheering this prosecution, might want to stop and think about what you are cheering on. If they can do it to this guy, the can do it to you.

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. "and threatening to kill or injure

a major candidate for the office of the president."

[heli]

15. It's about time to set an example

Way past time, actually.

[truth2power]

16. Ye' know, on reading the OP, I thought the same thing

as some others who posted in this thread. I want to read the poem.

I suppose I can be excused for wanting to make my OWN decision as to whether it's a threat. That, it seems, is the path to critical thinking. Or are we supposed to let the ubiquitous "they" tell us what to think? Sounds like a bunch of Repugs.

* * *

As an aside... that snippet posted in the original article: "And the inspiration on the casing reads DIE negro DIE,"

From a psychological point of view, it seems that a white supremacist would characteristically have used the "other" N-word.

Not saying that the author wasn't a white supremacist. Apparently those who've Googled his screen name have answered that question. I'm just curious.

[Fast Dude]

23. Prosecution worries the ACLU

William Sharp, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which isn’t involved in the case, said: “If the government's prosecution is predicated solely on the poem, we believe that there would be a strong argument that the poem, despite its obviously horrific and racist imagery, would be protected speech under the First Amendment.

“The mere fact that authors write graphically violent imagery, even if born out of racist or otherwise repugnant beliefs, does not automatically remove First Amendment protections and justify criminal prosecution.”

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100219/NEWS01/2190375/Louisville-man-charged-with-threatening-to-kill-president-in-poem