Teenage girl questioned by Secret Service over alleged Bush threat on MySpace


This article made me furious. I mean, yeah, the picture was a bit cruel and exaggerated, but you can find hundreds that are similar to it all over the internet. The way I imagine it, the offending picture was something done crudely in MSPaint.

My question is, do you think that the U.S. government has gone too far with this? Is our freedom to protest and post satiric images being crushed by paranoia and bureaucracy? Or, if you think that the investigation was justified, do you think that the Secret Service was too harsh on a 14-year-old girl? Or that her parents, as her legal guardians, should have been involved?



Personally, because of the way I keep imagining this supposed “death threat” in my own mind, I think the investigation was a bit unnecessary. Then again, I haven't seen this picture and can't give a proper judgement. However, I do think that the girl's parents should have been involved, that she shouldn't have been taken out of school for the questioning, and that the Secret Service was definitely too harsh on her. I mean, she was reduced to tears!

If I was that girl's mother, I'd be suing the federal government for my daughter's emotional distress.

People have gotten worse for doing less. Age doesn't really matter in these things. I have a feeling we aren't getting the full story in that article. They took her out of class for a whole 15 minutes. If they thought she was a real threat, they could have done much worse. My guess is the whole ordeal was just to make sure it was just a childish outburst and not somebody else using her account for ill purposes.

If I was that girl's mother, I'd be suing the federal government for my daughter's emotional distress.

I wouldn't. That's a lot of money to spend on a court case you can't win.

Holy shit! I think I see a way to use this shit as a publicity stunt!

Once someone has enough pages on their comic, submit a few suggesting violence against the president and other gov't officials. And then laugh your ass off as they advertise your shit in the news once the gov't comes to you to see if you are really going to hurt the president!

Rich
Holy shit! I think I see a way to use this shit as a publicity stunt!

Once someone has enough pages on their comic, submit a few suggesting violence against the president and other gov't officials. And then laugh your ass off as they advertise your shit in the news once the gov't comes to you to see if you are really going to hurt the president!

You are a genius!

*runs off to draw Bush getting killed by the entire Mortal Kombat roster in turbans*

Ah, now I can sit back and watch the publicity come in from all the news shows I go do.

But really, if that were to happen and DD got that many hits, would the site crash?

Personally, I'd wait until I have at least 100-200 pages before pulling a stunt like that. And I doubt DD would die from that many hits. Hell, they'd prolly gain a fortune from their advertisement partners.

I'm all for equality. So fuck that girl, and fuck the goverment.

I don't think you really could use it as a publicity stunt. The girl got quite a bit of leniancy, most likely BECAUSE she was a kid. I recall a case a few years back where a guy made an offhand comment about how someone should ahoot Bush on his website. It was the same sort of situation where he wasn't seriously trying to invite harm upon the president. He got his site shut down and he was under house arrest for a few weeks while he was investigated.

I don't think we're not being told the whole story here. I think it's just well, not being put in perspective.

As much as I dislike Dubya, I can't say this isn't justified. It was a call to well, kill Bush. It was a “better safe than sorry” moment for them.

I think we're forgetting one valuable piece of information here:

they pulled her out of molecular biology. Not normal “I'm a 14 year old girl” biology, but molecular biology.

She was obviously a Communist spy sent to steal our national secrets.


Good work, Mr. FBI. Good work.

hahahaha, It's ridiculous
next thing they'll do is hack sites and write the offensive words themselves

Vagabond
I think we're forgetting one valuable piece of information here:

they pulled her out of molecular biology. Not normal “I'm a 14 year old girl” biology, but molecular biology.

She was obviously a Communist spy sent to steal our national secrets.


Good work, Mr. FBI. Good work.

AH, that changes everything. I have renewed faith in our country's leadership now.

“I wasn't dangerous. I mean, look at what's (stenciled) on my backpack - it's a heart. I'm a very peace-loving person,” said Wilson

…maybe she shoulda been an artist

lol i beat u to it!

*

This reminds me of the whole Seanbaby/Fat Chicks in Party Hats thing…

http://www.seanbaby.com/cleveland/part3.html


I should also note right here an now, I don't want to bring harm to Mr.Bush. In fact, I happen to like many of his policies. I made the GIF to show how stupid and crude the picture probably was. Really, it's a 14 year old girl. I promise the knife was poorly drawn in MSPaint. And unless the president is somehow afraid of MSPaint knifes, I just can't bring myself to understand how the Secret Service thought she was such a threat. Oh well…

Guess what I'm saying is, that GIF is basically what they deemed urgent enough to open a case file on a 14 year old. And to think, our tax dollars funded it. Now a speech, or a website devoted to content that condones violence against our leader, I can see that being treated as a federal offense. But a drawing by a 14 year old. C'mon…

*Made it for an avatar, but I doubt I'll use it. Also, I have no clue how to avoid ruining images by saving them as GIFs…

Well, it certainly was an overreaction, but the Secret Service doesn't have a sense of humor. After William McKinley, the government doesn't take anything lightly.

And I wouldn't recommend doing something like this for advertisement purposes unless a record in the FBI database is on your agenda.