Following the advice of a poster in
this diary, I wrote to the prosectuting attorney of Pulaski County, Arkansas regarding
Ann Coulter's suggestion to poison Justice Stevens. I took the poster's advice and sent their artfully crafted letter to pulprosatty@aristotle.net:
To the Prosecuting Attorney of Pulaski County, I understand this violation falls under your perview. I expect you will have an appropriate response for this reprehensible act.
RE: Ann Coulter event, Friday, January 27, 2006 at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, AR.
While speaking to an assembled group, Ann Coulter willfully advocated the assassination of a federal official of the United States. Her exact quote was "We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee", thus threatening the health and welfare of a lawfully appointed sitting Supreme Court Justice.
As you are well aware, advocating the assassination of a federal official is a direct violation of Arkansas State Code 5-51-202, which states in part:
(a) For the purposes of this section, the term "government in the United States" means the government of the United States or the government of the State of Arkansas.
(b) It shall be unlawful for any person to:
(1) Knowingly advocate, abet, advise, or teach the duty,
necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence or by the assassination of any officer of any such government;
(c)(1) Any person who violates any of the provisions of this
section shall be deemed guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, be fined not more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000) or imprisoned for not more than ten (10) years, or both such fine and imprisonment.
As a patriotic citizen concerned for the welfare and safety of my country, I cannot idly stand by and let people advocate the unlawful overthrow of our government. I'm sure that you feel the exact same way.
I also have concerns that this encouragement, while then excused as "a joke", is neither a joke to Justice Stevens nor his family, and this comment has caused them duress.
Additionally I fear that some unbalanced or deranged individual will take this as encouragement to follow through with Ms. Coulter's assassination order. History has taught us the possibility of this happening is quite real.
Please review this matter promptly and take whatever actions appropriate to resolve this matter quickly.
Today, I received the following response from someone named Jack Ruple, sent from Jackr@mail.dist6pa.org
Please be advised that the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI are investigating this matter within their federal jurisdiction. Thanks for your concern.
Advice on following up with the FBI and US Attorney's office?