How does saying "you ought to change your name to racists" qualify as a "threat"

[Empowerer]

The MSM keeps playing the tape of the caller to Jean Schmidt's office and calling it a threatening phone call. But unless they're not playing the entire tape, this comes nowhere near constituting a threat. Of course, I can't help but noticing that the caller sounds like a black man. How convenient.

I'm not surprised that Schmidt would try to so characterize it - but why is the media going along with the canard?

Never mind. I think I know . . .

[Deep13]

1. sarcastic complaint =/= threat, especially when he was right. nt

[catbyte]

5. It's because he was African American and that's SCARY

:sarcasm:

:puke:

[Empowerer]

6. "Hey, everybody. I'm being targeted, too! A scary black man said mean things to me. HELP!!!"

:sarcasm:

[mwb970]

2. Also, how many calls like that does Mean Jean get in a typical week?

I'll bet she gets calls like that all the time (especially since her party actually is racist). Her making this one public and claiming it's something new has all the credibility of that slimy Cantor creep's tall tale about being targeted by liberal bullets.

Shame on the media for highlighting Mean Jean's phone call and ignoring the actual physical bricks used against Democrats. Even MSNBC! I'm beginning to think there is no hope. They seem to have us in a stranglehold. Even when we win big in two elections and control all three branches of the government everything is still heavily slanted in favor of conservatives.

Will future acts of right-wing terrorism simply go unreported then?

[NatBurner]

3. she wasn't threatened, she was cussed out

there's a difference

[chill_wind]

4. It doesn't. And it's as if the MSM is pretending no one's ever heard of C-SPAN

and the range of sharp opinion you could hear any and every morning of the week.
How pathetic and transparent.

[kenny blankenship]

7. Probably where he calls them all racists and says if 1 racist spat on him he'd shoot them all

"in the fucking face with (his) fucking nine millimeter. Fuck all you racist motherfuckers."

Specific threat? No. He didn't threaten to kill one specific person, just an entire party full of people. What does he mean by addressing such violent & general warnings towards a specific Congresswoman? That's what the police will be talking to him about when they find him.

I guess his lawyer will plead that the terroristic threats were the result of his client's poor language skills and inability to express himself with precision.

Just so we all know what we're talking about:
----
Speaker: “Yeah, I’m glad the president passed health care. Yeah. Funky ass, racist-ass Republicans hate that, don’t you? Jean Schmitt, when you got hit by that car, you should’ve broke your back, bitch. And Boehner, motherfucker…that Mitch McConnell. All you racist fucking Republicans. Why don’t you just change your party name to racist? Cuz if one of those fucking Tea baggers had spit on me, I’d have shot all them in the fucking face with my fucking 9 millimeter. Fuck all you racist motherfuckers.”

[jenmito]

8. By putting the "you" in bold, are you implying the CALLER is racist?

He said IF any of the racists (and they ARE racists) spat on him, he'd shoot them. Doesn't seem the same as threatening anyone for legislation they passed or for anything else they did. He said he'd harm them only in retaliation for something they MIGHT do. Not really the same (even though it ain't right). :shrug:

[kenny blankenship]

9. He is lumping Schmitt, Boehner, McConnell, Republican Party, and Teabaggers together

under the category "racists" and saying an insult from one will bring death to them all. If he doesn't want to be understood as threatening Schmitt for her position, why would he call her office to deliver threats to spitting Teabaggers? You can't say he wishes her well because he starts off saying he wishes she had had back broken when she was run over by a car.

It is a ludicrous threat, but it is a terroristic threat all the same.

[jenmito]

11. He's not saying an INSULT could bring death to them. He said SPITTING on him could bring

retaliation (which is way over the top, but not a threat for something they did).

[kenny blankenship]

12. Oh please.

[jenmito]

14. You keep editing your posts after I reply to them. And again-he didn't say he was going to

kill or harm them so they better keep looking over their shoulders. He said if THEY do something to HIM, he'll retaliate. The cops will not be visiting him for that.

[kenny blankenship]

15. That is a threat. Check it with your local police if you don't believe me.

And whatever you do don't tell them that you'll shoot them in the fucking face with your fucking nine millimeter if they hang up you.

Yeah, you'd only be retaliating but that is a threat.

Law enforcement in DC are investigating the call.

[jenmito]

18. So he DIDN'T threaten anyone. He said if one of those teabaggers WOULD HAVE spit on him, he

WOULD'VE "socked them in the face" with his gun. That's according to your own link.

[kenny blankenship]

19. Hilarious. Call in and say the exact same thing and see what happens

Pick up your home phone and call Jean Schmidt's office and leave a message saying the same words you hear at the link below.

He says "shot" by the way, not "socked". The transcript at the other link is heavily redacted and inaccurate.

Hear what was said for yourself. That's the same voice and words I heard on CNN.

It's very stupid to make excuses for people calling Congress with terroristic threats, from any side.

[jenmito]

26. He, unlike the teabaggers, said he WOULD'VE shot them IF they would've spit on him.

He didn't threaten the person he called or anyone else. He didn't tell them to watch out because he's going to kill them. He expressed extreme frustration and anger at those who hate HIM and other people of his race.

[goclark]

10. And how do we know he was not a Republican

saying those words?

Just wondering>

[kenny blankenship]

13. We don't. That's something the police will discover when they find him.

And no one suggested we did know he wasn't a Republican.

I'm sure you want this cleared up immediately.

[goclark]

16. Of course I do want it cleared up immediately!

??
Why wouldn't I -- oh, maybe you don't know me.

[ecstatic]

23. At the end of the day, the call might be another fake GOP ploy

[LatteLibertine]

17. On a side note

Anyone hear how Rove addressed the N bomb being hurled at black Congressmen? "The Tea Party may be guilty of raw unsophisticated rhetoric..." Is that what they're calling it these days?

[BlooInBloo]

20. If you're black, you're automatically a threat. Durr.

[Moochy]

21. Carefuly hand picked to maxiimize fear of white plantation owners

[ecstatic]

22. Tam'ron mentioned the distinction but I haven't heard anyone else make it so far

I guess an unhappy black caller automatically equals "threat."

[NatBurner]

25. and that's why tamron is my celebrity boo... well that, and some other stuff.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

24. If I call the White House and say...

...that if Rahm Emanuel called me fucking retarded I would shoot him in his fucking face it would be looked into as threatening.

I offer that analogy because it's apt. There was a controversy where many leftists believed that Rahm had called a fellow leftist fucking retarded. (I know he was talking about a strategy, but the point is the perception.)

Calling someone fucking retarded is a provocation. (Unlike spitting on someone it is not a crime, but that is not a definitive distinction insofar as siptting is a class of assault that cannot properly be countered with deadly force. The spitting, or the verbal provocation, would be potentialy extenuating things to talk about at your murder trial but there would be a murder trial.)

Shooting someone for calling you fucking retarded is a crime... it is not self defense or justifiable.

Does the Schmidt call constitute a threat under some criminal statute? Probably not.

Does it constitute intimidation under some criminal statute? Quite possibly.

Is calling any politician to fantasize about murdering people the sort of thing that gets investigated? Of course it is!

In any event, I am not much interested in defending this particular call because I suspect it was not sincere... the guy might be a republican.


(These comments all refer to the world as it is, not as I would design it or as it arguably should be.)

[Cha]

27. Racist Teabaggers...yeah, it has a ring of veracity to it. nt