Does anyone follow-up on these types of social media smears or threats?

The Secret Service does monitor the Internet for such threats.

Wow. Psychofest 2012. I would think they’d have to look into them. That’s scary.

@Adirondackwannabe I know right? I figure someone in the secret service has the job of watching the internet, but I wonder if any of these people wind up on a watch list or under some kind of surveillance – some of them seem like real whack jobs.

I’m afraid to open your link

I’m also afraid to open the link. But I do know the Secret Service is constantly monitoring these things and investigating those that is deems worthy of investigation. I think they have been doing a good job. They have managed to keep a lot of presidents alive.

Well I did follow the link. Then I researched one of the people who made the tweet. She was a 16 year old girl on the cheerleading squad with trailer trash parents whose best friend works at Hooters. She colors her hair blond.

I’m sorry, but if this profile is for real, there is no way this girl could threaten the President. She lives in Texas and I don’t think there is any way she could know how to even find the President, even if her school took a trip to Washington DC.

The profile could be a fake, set up to allow someone to say shit like that . But my sense is the girl loved to say “nigger,” and somehow, in her crowd of idiot friends, it was cool to say. These are the kind of thing that if one person says it, it gives a lot of other people permission to say it. I bet all of them aren’t serious. However, there is also the possibility that someone who is serious…. naw. If you were serious and capable, you would not announce yourself. They’re just idiots.

Although I’m sure the secret service must investigate them, anyway. Ick. I just spent twenty minutes of my life tracking down one person. I don’t think it would take too much more to find out where she lives. She left enough of herself online. Did I mention that she and her best friend are both boozers and her best friend’s mother is on her friend’s case about drinking too much? Need I mention that I don’t think she’s much different from her friend?

Looking through her pictures reminded me of the Southern emphasis on beauty contests. She seemed to be all about make-up and whatnot. She changed her hair color often. They had painted their fingernails in weird pastelly lightning bolts at one point. They were Texans’ fans. They liked country music. Scary what people will put online. And yet, if they are idiots, kind of reassuring. Most of these people, I would guess, are not real threats.

Yes, they do get checked. A guy in Colorado was arrested last week because he told his therapist he wanted to be the guy who killed Obama. He was also admiring some mass shootings, and was trying to buy guns.

I hate sounding like a broken record, but racism in this country has been held just below the surface and is now breaking through, and is a lot more widespread than we fooled ourselves into believing.

I agree with @zenvelo , racism in the United States is still rampant (but it is, generally, views that are held just below the surface). I truly do NOT understand it, but I think it is what is behind the ‘secessionist movement’ that has blossomed since the election. Far too many ‘white people’ are simply terrified of having a non-white President. And too many religious factions feed into this feeling of “us” against “you”. This is the same problem that faces the Hispanic immigrants who get punished for not being ‘white’. The people who spout these statements about African-Americans do not have a clue about how inter-connected the people are on our planet. I hope that some agency is actually watching over the President & his family…. it definitely sounds like someone needs to.

They clearly follow up on them, but I don’t see any reason to think they’re anything but nimrods spouting off on the Internet usually.

I’m with @Judi and @wundayatta – no way would I open that link. You can be sure that the secret service is monitoring the IP addresses of those that frequent that site. I’m certain they investigate those that are making threats against our President.

@laurenkem Don’t go in there if you don’t have a strong stomach. It’s bad.

It’s sad to see such seething hate. One more generation of kids whose minds have been poisoned with it. How can we bring it to its well deserved end?

@ETpro I was struck by how young most of those posters seemed. I tend to think hatred and racism like that are learned behaviors.

Mostly, @SuperMouse , hatred & racism ARE learned behavior…. unfortunately, it does not take very long for hatred & racism to be learned – especially when it is reinforced by religious ideology & negative examples.