Man Sentenced to 3 Years for Threat Against Obama

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Friday November 06, 2009 · 8:16 PM PST

2009/11/06 · 20:16

Welcome to the internet. I am not anonymous. Neither are you.

All those crazies you see lurking on the comment boards of newspapers and sites might be, well, actually ill.

A Wisconsin man was sentenced late today in federal court in Jackson [Mississippi] to three years in prison for making a threat on the Internet to assassinate then-President-elect Barack Obama.

Steven Joseph Christopher, 42, faced a maximum five years in prison.

[...]

Christopher said he never intended to harm Obama. He said he made the threat to gain attention for his cause that he is the second coming of Christ and the apocalypse is coming in 2012 and much of the world will be destroyed. - Clarion Ledger

Christopher was disturbed. From his internet postings:

"Yes, I have decided I will assassinate Barack Obama. It's really nothing personal about the man. He speaks well, has a loving although controlling wife and two cute daughters. But I know it's for the country's own good that I can do this. Barack Obama, I view more as a sacrificial lamb, but the sacrifice must take place," Christopher wrote on January 11.

Certain media infotainment shows feed on the gullible, the unstable, and the afraid. It can cause violence.

The threat was likely not capable of fruition, but the potential for violence was there. And I am baffled by some Mississippi newspapers headlining this as a "false alarm threat" sentencing. Any threat to the President is a serious threat.

"I'm trying to get people's attention, they were only bluffs. I'm trying to get everyone to listen to me because I have an important message from God," said Christopher. "Everyone needs to move to Florida by December 31st, this is the end of the world as we know it," he further warned in a video posting. He is being held in the Madison County Jail until a bail hearing Thursday.

The local news tonight proclaimed he wanted Americans to move to Australia before 2012. (What the fuck?) This was his way to get attention.

The internet is not a shield. Words have consequences.

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