An Alabama man who pleaded guilty to threatening the life of the President now faces up to five years in prison for his repeated tweets that ultimately referenced an anti-government militia group.
“Jarvis Britton, 25, wrote the Twitter threats last year and now faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced on June 20,” Don Terry at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s HateWatch blog reports:
“Free Speech? Let’s Test This! Let’s Go Kill The President!†Britton tweeted on June 29, 2012. That was followed the next day with, “@BarackObama I wish you were dead.â€
A search of Twitter finds an account named Jarvis Britton surprisingly still active, and tweets matching those mentioned by the Southern Poverty Law Center still visible and not deleted.
“But it wasn’t until ‘an anonymous female caller’ contacted the authorities and informed them about the tweets that Secret Service agents interviewed Britton in his Birmingham home last July,” the SPLC adds:
According to court papers, Britton admitted posting the threatening statements but said he didn’t intend to harm the president.
He told the agents that he had been drinking and was “just acting stupid.’’ He even apologized for wasting the agents’ time. Britton was not arrested until nearly three months later, when the Secret Service Internet Threat Desk notified the Birmingham office that he was at it again.
“Let’s kill the president. F.E.A.R.,†he tweeted on Sept. 14, 2012.
F.E.A.R. is an acronym for an anti-government militia, Forever Enduring Always Ready. The group, largely composed of active-duty soldiers based at Fort Stewart in Georgia, was in the news around the time of Britton’s September tweets. Several of its members had been charged with killing two teenagers in an effort to keep their plot to overthrow the government and assassinate the president secret.
There is apparently no evidence that Britton had any connection to the militia.
On Sept. 19, Britton again hit the send button. “Serious question?†he tweeted. “If you knew about a terrorist group planning to kill the president, would you tell? I kinda wanna see if they can! F.E.A.R.â€
About 48 hours later, agents were knocking on his door again. This time, he refused to talk to them. “I cooperated last time,’’ he said, according to court papers filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Birmingham. “This time I’m gonna test the system.â€
The system arrested him that day.
Indeed. Good. All too often threats against the president are made on Twitter. It’s rightly illegal, a serious drain on taxpayer dollars, and a wasteful diversion for the Secret Service, who do follow up on these. Hopefully others will get the message.
Related:
24 People Who Hope Obama Gets Assassinated — Or Want To Do It Themselves