posted
I read in the newspaper that a sixth grade student at Bourbon Middle School(a school in a town near where I live) had written a threatening letter to the president and mailed it. He started bragging about it and someone reported it to the police department. The police called the FBI and the FBI called the Secret Service. A few days after he mailed the letter a black van pulled up to his house, found the "supect," disabled him, and threw him into the van. They continued to drive off. I mean sure he did threaten the president, but isn't that going a little far?
posted
That's ridiculous Zeugma. They would've constructed a cybernetic being using the technology they stole from their last encounter with the borg. Sheesh. Some people.
quote:I read in the newspaper that a sixth grade student at Bourbon Middle School(a school in a town near where I live) had written a threatening letter to the president and mailed it. He started bragging about it and someone reported it to the police department. The police called the FBI and the FBI called the Secret Service. A few days after he mailed the letter a black van pulled up to his house, found the "supect," disabled him, and threw him into the van. They continued to drive off. I mean sure he did threaten the president, but isn't that going a little far?
Threw him into a van? Are you quoting from the article? I tried googling for "Bourbon Middle School" + secret service/bush/fbi and got nothing.
Posts: 4116 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Well, the middle school he's referring to is Bourbon Middle School in Bourbon, Missouri (Crawford County) but I also can not find ANY link with any report of this type of incident happening there. And that is a rural enough area that it would be big news if that happened.
quote: Sixth grader held for threatening president
A Bourbon sixth grader has been taken into custody for threatening the president.
The boy, whose name has been withheld by police, was taken into protective custody last week and turned over to the U.S. Secret Service and the Crawford Count y Juvenile Office.
Little information has been released regarding this case, but the Free Press has learned that the boy allegedly wrote a threatening letter to President Bush that was to be sent to the White House as part of a class project. The Secret Service Office in St. Louis responded quickly to determine the origin of the letter, due to the nature of the threats that were made.
The Secret Service claims they investigate every presidential threat to the fullest extent, no matter the source.
It is not clear at this time if there will be criminal charges leveled against the juvenile suspect, or if the school district will impose any disciplinary actions.
I don't think this is out of line. They treated it the same as any threat against the president, or against the school, etc. -- put him in juvenile hall until they can determine his motives/mental state.
I don't see anything about "disabling him and throwing him in a van" or anything out of line in that article.
posted
I think this is a perfect response for a sixth grader. He needs to learn that this sort of behavior is unacceptable. He was probably scared out of his mind which is a good thing.
Posts: 473 | Registered: Sep 2001
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posted
I don't think it was out of line. It was just a random 'burp' of rage. What aspectre said is unprovable even if something 'like' this happened. Any of us could say anything we want, but the burden is on aspectre to prove what he says before we all dismiss his credibility.
Posts: 1660 | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
Was the cop attempting to hit the innocent bystander in the eye? Did this cop aim for the innocent bystander?
Permit a fairly simple observation - not many cops could make that shot if they wanted to.
Whether or not the cop acted responsibly or not is another matter and that depends entirely on the circumstances because like it or not, accidents do happen and the officer may have been acting in good faith in carrying out his or her duties.
As to the subject of this thread - how many freaking 6th graders would have written a threatening letter, never mind to the freaking President of the United States and then bragged about it? I'm not entirely sure I knew who the President was when I was in the 6th grade.
While it may be a waste of resources to actually send Secret Service agents to follow up on this, I can't say that I object to the kid having the living hell scared out of him. It might just keep him from doing something even dumber later in life.
posted
The eye shooting incident was completely dumb bad luck. The cop was firing "non-lethal" bean bags into a crowd of rioters. I totally fail to see the connection to this thread.
Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
Then aspectre was, in my humble opinion, belittling Farmgirl's opinion by referencing her attitude towards an incident that he(?) feels has comparable ramifications.
However, I have to agree with Farmgirl on both accounts.
posted
I don't even remember any incident with a cop shooting a bystander, or any thread about it, but I'm old and have a bad memory.
However, aspectre has never liked me, and we rarely agree on topics, so while I was surprised he lashed out at me suddenly, it also really doesn't bother me. He (or she)? has his opinions.
posted
I can think of at least three times this week he has gotten personal in order to repudiate a poster's point of view. *shrug* Maybe he can't think of effective arguments.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
What constantly amazes me on messge boards is how rude people are. No one is this disrespectful in real life.
Posts: 1480 | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
Hmm . . . it would be interesting to debate whether it is ethical of you to withhold this knowledge from a paying customer simply because he was rude to you . . .
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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quote: So it's okay to insult another poster as long as the insult is "unprovable"?
What I said wasn't an insult. I merely pointed out a lack of proof. Anyone in a conversation needs to be able to prove what they say, or the people who you're talking to will be more likely to dismiss you later.
Posts: 1660 | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
I agree with taking this kid into custody. Scared Straight.
Besides, where do you draw the line? If 6th grade is too young to take the threat seriously when would we? Some vague point between 9th grade and senior year?
Do I THINK this kid is a threat? Nope. But it's not my job to determine that and I think there should be repercussions for our actions. Michelle
Posts: 152 | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Do I THINK this kid is a threat? Nope. But it's not my job to determine that and I think there should be repercussions for our actions.
Agreed. And it IS the secret service's job to determine that, so this is entirely appropriate.
aspectre, that was a low blow that contributed nothing to the conversation, and it surprises me - I'd think you'd be above taking cheap shots at someone personally. If you don't like FG's opinions, challenge them, but leave off the insults. It's just childish.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Ah - I see aspectre added a link to the original thread only after I said I didn't remember the original conversation. Well, that makes me look dumb...
And in the thread he/she refers to, I never said I'm "all right" with the policeman shooting the person - I said you could not tell his intent by the article or news report. Aspectre was trying to say the policeman purposefully and with willful intent to kill shot the person, and there is no indication of that at all.
So I'm not sure how you take that and twist it into your above statement about
quote: you don't see anything out of line with a cop killing an innocent bystander by shooting her in the eye.
I think it is horrible that a person died, and most likely the policeman who did the shooting feels the same way.
posted
It's rather par for the course, at least prior to the last two months or so.
According to aspectre, I'm conservative because I'm lazy and/or incomepetent and want to preserve a system where I don't have to actually compete.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
I remembered the thread once I clicked on the link
I also read fairly well, and didn't see anything resembling that comment from you, FG. aspectre, if you are going to post a link that proves that someone said something, at least have the character to make sure it says what you claim it does. I remember you being up in arms about this, assuming the worst before any type of investigation was done. I also had a friend (mentioned there in that thread IIRC) who was there and saw how the crowd reacted.
While he was scared, and felt horrible about what happened, he saw a number of people throw things and get way out of hand before the police reacted. He has said that he was surprised, given the way thins went, that the police didn't react sooner.
Too bad, I expected better of you....although now that I think of it I can't figure out why.
I can't remember why I should have any opinion of you one way of another...I don't know you at all, other than that thread, and all I saw there was bias against police officers in action.
posted
Actually I thought it was a good thing he was "detained" also. I just wanted to know what everyone else would think. If a sixth grader is already breaking laws, what are we teaching the children of today? Not that I should really say anything because I one of those children of today, I suppose you could say.
Posts: 6026 | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
Pardon me if I'm demonstrating pure ignorance here, but when I was in the intermediate grades and we wrote letters in class as part of the assignment - which were sent off to the recipient - the teacher reviewed, edited, and/or discussed the drafts before the final copy was written and then sent off.
It seems to me that at some point along the way, a teacher or TA or someone would have reviewed these letters before they were sent off and spoken with the boy - offering information like:
"Threatening the President is not a first amendment right. It's a crime. What would you really like to say?" And helping the lad figure out a more appropriate way to express his thinking.
posted
Good point. That's the second case I've heard of in the last week (on forums) of class letters with inappropriate things getting past a teacher:
posted
Whoa -- I totally missed that. You mean he wrote the letter as part of the assignment, and it was reviewed by the teacher? I assumed everyone was supposed to write a letter, but I didn't think about the fact that the teacher would probably review the letter.
quote: that the boy allegedly wrote a threatening letter to President Bush that was to be sent to the White House as part of a class project
Amazing.
Icarus: that story is also amazing. What were they thinking?
posted
Things are a bit more independent in sixth grade, in Bourbon as far as I can tell. I don't think the teacher noticed it, or the teacher isn't happy about Bush's continued reign so she let it slide, which is even worse.
Posts: 6026 | Registered: Dec 2004
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