12/2: College freshman learns about dissent

[tw]

Originally posted by Undertoad
...two days after that, she was visited by the Secret Service and accused of having "anti-American material" in her apartment.

The poster reads "We hang George Bush". That is a federal crime. However once inside the apartment (instead of reading it from the street), then read the fine print: "on your every word". The Secret Service agent did exactly what we want the agents to do. Only the paranoid would see a sinister government in this act. They rightly stayed around just to make sure she did not fit the profile of Lee Harvey Oswald and friends. That is what they are suppose to do. That is what federal law demands of the Secret Service.

BTW, that fine print was no accident. It was intended to test the limits of the law. It is illegal - a federal crime - to say to anyone that we should shoot or hang the President. Why? In Israel, one man did just that repeatedly - and as a result is now the Prime Minister thereby resulting in the massacre of innocents Jews and Arabs.

There is certain speech that is not free. You cannot (and should not) make threats on a President's life just like you cannot yell fire in a theatre or that your gun in already on the plane. That speech is just not acceptable - or legal.

Once the agent determined this poster contained fine print and that the girl was indeed not a threat to the president, then the agent had done his job.

As for the girl, there is absolutely NO reason for her to be rattled if she is stable. They asked some honest questions as they should have. She had no reason to be scared or threatened. She had nothing to hide. But she should have learned about what that poster (and what free speech) cannot say.

What is more scary? A door to door salesman. If he is trying to sell that trash in my neighborhood, he is certainly deranged and a threat to honest people. Questions from a policemen where he has good reason to ask - never been a problem.

This article is silly nonsense because it intentionally ignores obvious facts (ie the fine print) and therefore is probably being hyped by the paranoid.