78-Year-Old Man Arrested For Threatening to Kill Obama

A 78-year-old man with more than a dozen weapons in his home was arrested after federal authorities said he told a nurse he was thinking about killing US President Barack Obama, it was reported on Friday.

Michael Stephen Bowden was being held Friday at the Spartanburg County jail. Bowden was arrested recently after he told a nurse at a Veterans Affairs clinic in Spartanburg he was thinking of killing the president, according to a sworn statement by a US Secret Service agent.

LINK

This is rediculous that they would even go to this extent to arrest a 78 year old. I know if this man is eligible for being arrested then my grandpa is more than eligible. I just can't imagine that this is about the statement it self.

well..he have alot of weopons ..and he tell people he think about killing the president Oo

so what you expect? 78 year olds can also pull a trigger ...


dont get me wrong..maybe some years ago..i would be surprised..but look..for what nowadays people get aressted

That's sad, but necessary. Many 78 year old men are physically fit, and perfectly capable of using a gun. It's sad because he more than likely was just talking shop, venting his frustration with things and doing what many people do when they are frustrated with their lives: blame someone in power.

But the Secret Service has to take these threats seriously, and make examples. Anyone in this country who is brazen enough to proclaim their desire/plan to kill a sitting U.S. President just might be brazen enough to make the attempt.

Those people must be taken seriously.

If you thought a 78 year old man was a threat, there is always the dangerous ham sand-which.

www.athensnews.com...

I was trying to find better links, but just about anything can be indicted now and days.

The link says the saying "you could indict a ham sand-which" has been around for 15 years.

Scary huh?

we have no rights, no freedom of speech, no freedom to vent, we cannot be ourselves, the way we were when we came into this world, we must conform, assimilate, walk like the duck, and quack when quacked to.

The scary thing is they can just make it all up.

Even if you not in america, and someone rings up the americans, they will take the threat serious, even though the person they rang up about has no knowledge that peopel ring up american agencies to get people killed by them.

All over this world peopel must think all kinds of things, but your one call away from things like this.

People that hate you can ring up these groups now, and they believe any threat and i mean made up ones about anyone. They just seem to want to have names of people, and that can be anyone.

I have mixed reactions about this. I am not a fan of Obama, but I do not condone killing. It's not like Obama actually makes any of the decisions in this administration, he is just a puppet. Killing him would serve no purpose. On the other hand this old fruitcake had no right to run his blabber mouth about killing anyone, especially with a storage of weapons. In this day and age the thought of performing an act of crime can be punishable. Perhaps they will let this old man go, I think it is what they should do. Imagine if a 40 year old armed man threatened the life of the head of a country, would there be as much sympathy?

Originally posted by harrytuttle

But the Secret Service has to take these threats seriously, and make examples. Anyone in this country who is brazen enough to proclaim their desire/plan to kill a sitting U.S. President just might be brazen enough to make the attempt.

If that were the case then there wouldn't have been enough Democrats walking free to vote for Obama in the election.

Just about every one I know said something along those lines about Bush.

reply to post by Lupin


yeah sounds about right like his old as$ could pull it off. He is probably mad that the "price is right" has a new host lol. I can see it now 5:30am wake up polish hover round chair, oil gun call jimmy tell him to drive the get away car 6:45am nap 8:00am get up scream at children on my lawn take bus to supermarket8:30 hold up the line at the supermarket by paying with a check 9:00 play bridge maybe shuffle board at local senor center 10:00am watch parade and wait for my moment 10:15am shot fired miss due to my rheumatoid arthritis damn!!!! 10:30 high speed chase jimmy driving with flow of traffic i have never been so scared!! 10:45 we are caught cops laughing for some reason? 11:00am cops tell be i tried to kill the president with a bb-gun damn that ophthalmologist i told him i needed new lenses tried to kill Obama with my grand kids red rider.

After reading the article, there doesn't seem to be too much wrong here to me. I don't like Obama, I don't like a lot of his policies and would like to see a different president come into office. That aside, he is the president of the United States currently, and saying you want to "Shoot the president and then yourself" is going to send up red flags in a lot of places. The guy was asked if he had any suicidal thoughts, and they had recorded him having suicidal tendencies back in April. I would say that shows some mental instability along with saying to more then one person that you would like to murder the standing leader of the country.

When asked about his comments to the nurses, Bowden admitted he made them and also gave agents a sworn, written statement, saying, "if I had the opportunity to put Obama against the wall and shoot him, I would."

That's just signing your ticket to jail right there. If they hadn't acted and this guy was unstable enough to actually go shoot or attempt to shoot the president, there would be topics on this board about how our security is a waste and with a history like his and previous comments why didn't they do anything to stop him. Out of all the arrest stories that roll through I usually agree that it was unwarranted or excessive force but, this time, I think they did the right thing.

It's not freedom of speech to proclaim that you want to take out the POTUS. That's a direct threat. For those of you who might not understand, it has actually happened before, so they take those threats seriously.

See my post on the following thread :

"30 month sentence for saying "The Pres. Must be shot!"

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Text of post :
The thinking behind this is that once the idea that POTUS deserves to be shot will manifest and grow itself into the thinking that POTUS must be shot and gets the person to start actually contemplatng to in fact wether or not they should shhot POTUS and opens the door further into actually designing and putting into effect an actual plot to shoot POTUS.

This is The United States Secret Service being proactive and hopefully a 2 1/2 long stint behind bars is enough to deter dude from wanting to shoot POTUS but unfortunately for him he is forever on The United States Secret Service's Potential Secruity Threats list that USSS keeps and maintans. Every citizen of The USA is on a USSS list. If you advocate peace then they are not worried about you but if you call for POTUS to be shot make no mistake that you are blacklisted by USSS!

Some here have implied the very same thing and for those who did not beleive me when I mentioned it's a chargable and prosecutable offense do you beleive me now?

In the world of USSS, there is no such thing as second guessing, take every threat deadly serious (even in cases where no clear and present danger exists) and do not ever not ignore a threat becase the threat you ignore could kill POTUS. They need to protect him with life, limb and with the full resources of The United States Federal Government.

To add to what the previous poster (ID : whatukno) to mine said :
Your 1st Amendment rights to free speech does not cover direct, indirect, outerdirect, intentional, unintentional threats to any sitting memeber of Government regardless of the tier domestically as well as any other foriegn head of state. The 1st is there to protect you if you say "The Government cares more for bugs and insects then it does for the people" and you cannot be touched. Personally I may;ve been Anti 43 Bush but I will not condone nor tolerate anyone wanting him dead as that will create way more problems then it would solve. If you think we have no rights now, let someone assassinate POTUS and watch everything go bye bye!

The following text is copied and borrowed from The United States Secret Service's website :
www.secretservice.gov...
After the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, Congress directed the Secret Service to protect the President of the United States. Protection remains a key mission of the United States Secret Service.

Authorization
Today, the Secret Service is authorized by law to protect:
The president, the vice president, (or other individuals next in order of succession to the Office of the President), the president-elect and vice president-elect
The immediate families of the above individuals
Former presidents and their spouses for their lifetimes, except when the spouse remarries. In 1997, Congressional legislation became effective limiting Secret Service protection to former presidents for a period of not more than 10 years from the date the former president leaves office
Children of former presidents until age 16
Visiting heads of foreign states or governments and their spouses traveling with them, other distinguished foreign visitors to the United States, and official representatives of the United States performing special missions abroad
Major presidential and vice presidential candidates, and their spouses within 120 days of a general presidential election
Other individuals as designated per Executive Order of the President
National Special Security Events, when designated as such by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security

Click on a link on the toolbar to the right side of the screen called "National Threat Assesment Center" This is deputized to look for threats wherever they exist.If you don't think that The USSS isn't watching this website you are sorely mistaken.

Originally posted by Corruption Exposed
I have mixed reactions about this. I am not a fan of Obama, but I do not condone killing. It's not like Obama actually makes any of the decisions in this administration, he is just a puppet. Killing him would serve no purpose. On the other hand this old fruitcake had no right to run his blabber mouth about killing anyone, especially with a storage of weapons. In this day and age the thought of performing an act of crime can be punishable. Perhaps they will let this old man go, I think it is what they should do. Imagine if a 40 year old armed man threatened the life of the head of a country, would there be as much sympathy?

"Just sayin':"78 ;He probably remembers some govt somewhere openly admitting to trying to kill Castro,Khadaffy duck, Sadam Hussein;amadinejhad and other leaders.Now "o-man" has the powerto assinate u.s. citizens( only those "foreign"; arab looking ones of course) ; it would never be used here at home.


So whats an arsenal??

Our secret service is doing its job; it has to take it seriously.

reply to post by leira7


Hey look! An entirely baseless statement made because a crazy old guy with a bunch of weapons got arrested for threatening to kill a sitting President.

You know what, we don't have an absolute freedom of speech. I cannot yell "FIRE!" in a crowded theater, you cannot go incite violence, and companies can't go around making blatant and fraudulent claims about their products.

And you cannot threaten to kill the President of the United States.

Oh, and you're complaining about it on the internet. You clearly have some freedom.

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
reply to post by leira7

 

Hey look! An entirely baseless statement made because a crazy old guy with a bunch of weapons got arrested for threatening to kill a sitting President.

You know what, we don't have an absolute freedom of speech. I cannot yell "FIRE!"

Why you certainly can if there's an actual fire. Rights and responsibilities are two sides of the same coin( thats a "Badnarikism") you have the right to yell "fire" but you then have the responsibility to the patrons who maybe injured getting out or to the theater owner for lost revenue.and damages.You see it a shopworn technicality beaten to an unrecognizable death.

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
in a crowded theater, you cannot go incite violence, and companies can't go around making blatant and fraudulent claims about their products.

And you cannot threaten to kill the President of the United States.

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul


You are correct it is against the law to threaten the prez.You can't even joke about" da bomb" in an airport without being arrested.that goes along with with all the ridiculous zero tolerance b.s. like kids who get expelled for "doodling" rockets( "weapons") in their school notebooks.

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
Oh, and you're complaining about it on the internet. You clearly have some freedom.

reply to post by Lupin


I am glad he was arrested and I hope they lock him up for the rest of his life. No matter how much you dislike a sitting president have respect for the office if not the man. Threats like this must be taken seriously.

reply to post by badgerprints


And how many were reported.. I know of someone that had a website saying that he wanted to see Bush dead, and he got a personal visit at work from a couple of Secret Service members asking him to take the website down.

WHAT?! It's illegal to threaten to kill somebody? What a disgusting loss of freedom.

It has ALWAYS been a serious offense to threaten the life of a sitting president, ANY president. Even if it's said in jest. Political assassinations don't make a country any freer; in fact they are often the prelude to military dictatorships. They represent the forces of anarchy against a duly elected government of the people.

A person may not like the government that has been lawfully elected, and may even question the validity of election results. Citizenship still does not include the right to forcibly remove someone from office without an act of Congress.

If you don't like it go live where they have revolutions all the time.

Just sounds senile imo,take away his guns and throw him in a nursing home.