It seem that alot of people misunderstood what this is all about, wich you now have made very clear; - Death threats.

It never was OK to threat anyone to their lives, or any other kind of threat for that matter. Be it an NG reg or the president of the US. However, it's more likley that somone actually is trying to assassinate the president, rather than some 14 years old being pissed of for being banned on the forum avenging the person who banned him/her. I'm sure most of you understand that.

Also do know that if somone would threat me for example, for them being banned (wich have happend, by the way:) it is my fully legal right to contact the police and report the event.
Now, I have never done that, because;

1. I live in Sweden, meaning a threat would only be taken seriously if it was of electronic kind, virus threat or whatever. I'm not exactly sure of what law it'd break, probably something that have to do with property or so.
2. I haven't taken the threat seriously, since it's obviously been from some kid (who live in the US btw) who simply is pissed of for being banned etc.
3. The very few times somone have been that pissed off with me IRL, have been after quite some alcolol, so nah, haven't taken any of that seriously either.

Now, these things I can decide and act on myself. With the president, it's entirley different. He have a whole freaking staff of people who ensure his safety, so yeah, theres nothing odd about them checking things out. They're just doing their job, and Wade is doing his, by warning us.

Nice to see tax payers money being spent well...not.

Do they not have anything better to do..like...I dunno...maybe actually stopping REAL threats to the president, and/ or terrorism?

At 5/24/07 12:14 PM, Tri-Nitro-Toluene wrote: Nice to see tax payers money being spent well...not.

Do they not have anything better to do..like...I dunno...maybe actually stopping REAL threats to the president, and/ or terrorism?

Just how does one go about separating the real threats from the not real? By investigating them of course.

Jokes aside, I do aknoledge that death threats against the president, even joking aren't the greatest idea suring the current hysteric phase of american society.

I allready understood that after the 4chan-football shenanigans. But still, it's kinda ridiculous they're looking in these kind of things.

Also, I'm a pacifist, and talking about murder isn't really my cup of tea. I might have said things in the past that would hint on the contrary, but I was young and needed the money.

I wonder how they could track someone down...The whole IP tracking system is flawed if the person uses Tor. As long as someone used a fake email address and Tor they'd be pretty much untraceable. Not to mention using WiFi hotspots instead of home lines there is no risk.

At 5/24/07 12:17 PM, Maus wrote: Just how does one go about separating the real threats from the not real? By investigating them of course.

If the threat being investigated hails from a website where the mass populace are 13 year old pubescents with 'Hentai strip search' listed as their favourite game and the person being investigated is a 13-15 year old...chances are its a joke.

It is VERY easy to determine whether or not a statement made on a forum is made in jest or not without travelling to interrogate the person.

Look through their post history. Does this person have a history of making anti-American remarks? Do they continually make threats to the president?

IS the website the post is made on known for harbouring Anti-US feeling?

If the FBI or whoever does that and then believes that said person is a threat then by all means go ahead and meet the person. But if all the posts they can find are discussing Final Fantasy 7, Hentai, and Porn, and the site isa site based around movies and games...then chances are they aren't serious.

Now, which of these scenarios is more likely on the BBS

1) It was a one off remark from an immature person who spends all their time discussing Naruto .

or

2) The person consistently threatened the president, the US and its inhabitants

Personally I'm inclined to believe scenario one is more likely to occur on NG. and if it was Scenario one the 'investigation' was a waste of time money and resources.

At 5/24/07 12:22 PM, Cojones893 wrote: I wonder how they could track someone down...The whole IP tracking system is flawed if the person uses Tor. As long as someone used a fake email address and Tor they'd be pretty much untraceable. Not to mention using WiFi hotspots instead of home lines there is no risk.

There are probably ways to get around it, but the other two users weren't that smart.

At 5/24/07 11:54 AM, DFox wrote: What is bullshit is that the U.S. government would use MY tax money, OUR tax money, hard earned money to investigate a threat they found on the NG BBS. Pathetic, just pathetic.

Slow day at the office?

LOL@AMERICA

Note to the secret service: I'd be the first to pitchfork Mr. Bush (He's the president of the united states, google it if you're in doubt), should he show up where I live.

Calls for the president's assassination are indeed no joke. While you may not like Bush, You WILL respect him in his position. If I see this "assassinate Bush" bullshit, or disrespect to the Presidential Office, it won't be the SS (Perhaps I shouldn't abbreviate, it sounds bad that way. You know, Hitler and the nazis) showing up at your house, it'll be me. I'm all for freedom of speech (as you already know, I'm a fantic about it lol) but talking about shooting the fucking president?! The president is one of the three biggest reasons for your freedoms, and you want him dead? That's simply unnacceptable to me. Sppech threatening that freedom, or it's providers negates it. You are now a person who I would love to see executed in a "Saddam's regime" way. It rather disgusts me that people can act this way towards their leader. I could understand if he were like Hitler, Stalin, or Hussein, but he's not. He was a fairly elected official who has not violated the rights of the people or executed anyone because of their beliefs.

*Note* I'm not saying you have to like Bush himself, I'm simply saying you must respect his position. Hell, you can hate his guts, but like I said, respect the Presidential Office! I'm not clear on whether or not he is still a political official after his term ends, and hence pay no attention to what you say about him then. I'll be paying attention to what you say about the current president.

If you are outside of America, posting threats to the president on a website where you're a user who's agreed to be bound by the laws of the jurisdiction of the state of Pennsylvania, and the SS regards your threat to be serious enough, you can be extradited to the United States to stand trial should your threats be found legitimate.

It's how things work. You're on an American website subject to OUR laws. I guarentee that precedent will be set sometime in the near future.

PS: It's really annoying that NG has burned the initials "SS" to mean "Star Syndicate."

At 5/24/07 12:28 PM, Tri-Nitro-Toluene wrote: It is VERY easy to determine whether or not a statement made on a forum is made in jest or not without travelling to interrogate the person.

As I said earlier in this thread: reading through the posts of some of the users here, I'd show some concern as well if I didn't 'know' the user all that well.

Travel time is nothing. They have branches all over the U.S. in most major cities. A telephone call takes at most an hour out of the day.

I'd rather they waste a couple hours on jokes here and there than ignore stuff and let something slip through.

At 5/24/07 12:34 PM, Crue wrote: respect the Presidential Office!

I hold no level of respect for the presidential office. I do, however, respect Bush as a person. I just don't agree with most of his decisions on how to run things.

I don't afford people different levels of respect based on their position and it's pretentious of you to suggest that it's required for me to do so.

At 5/24/07 12:34 PM, Evark wrote: PS: It's really annoying that NG has burned the initials "SS" to mean "Star Syndicate."

It's really annoying that the nazis has burned the initials "SS" to mean "SchutzStaffeln."

:)

wich is what i think of when i hear/read "SS".

I remember when I was in school I met the whistle blower for the cigarette companies. He was at his brothers house in new jersey and he mailed pictures and lab reports of rats being addicted to cigarettes to the FBI and for a return address he put his thumb print, he claimed he had never been printed before. A few days later they were at his house in California looking to talk with him. It's amazing how quickly the government can find you. People leave enough internet traces to easily be found.

At 5/24/07 12:34 PM, Evark wrote: PS: It's really annoying that NG has burned the initials "SS" to mean "Star Syndicate."

I'm thinking more "Slutzstaffel".

At 5/24/07 12:38 PM, Evark wrote:

At 5/24/07 12:34 PM, Crue wrote: respect the Presidential Office!

I hold no level of respect for the presidential office. I do, however, respect Bush as a person. I just don't agree with most of his decisions on how to run things.

I don't afford people different levels of respect based on their position and it's pretentious of you to suggest that it's required for me to do so.

I don't think people have to respect anything about a President if they don't like them. They just can't run around, in public, making threats against the President's life, as well as anyone else for that matter.

Note this is not a threat to the president but a fact about past presidents...

With that said I think this might be the reason they look into threats a lot.

Every United States president elected or re-elected in 20-year intervals, beginning in 1840, has died in office, viz: Harrison (elected 1840), Lincoln (elected 1860), Garfield (elected 1880), McKinley (elected 1900), Harding (elected 1920), Franklin Roosevelt (elected 1940). Kennedy's assassination continued the pattern of the 20-year curse or the zero factor. However, the pattern was broken with Ronald Reagan (elected 1980), who was shot in an attempted assassination on March 30, 1981, but survived.

So stretch it to include assassination attempts and you got a pattern. Although one might argue that Bush survived his pretzel incident, so I'd say he is safe.

At 5/24/07 12:45 PM, TropicalPenquin wrote: Man... What happened to free speech. Can they get me? I live in england.

Read the topic. Free speech doesn't give you the freedom to threaten someone's life without faces investigation, punishment, etc. Considering the UK is an ally to the US, if the US felt a threat was credible enough they could call on your country to either investigate you, or have you brought to the USA for investigation.

I Got to Fucking Agree. Newgrounds is about Freedom of speech, let the fucking S/S Come over, Because im not losing my Pride.

At 5/24/07 12:38 PM, Maus wrote: As I said earlier in this thread: reading through the posts of some of the users here, I'd show some concern as well if I didn't 'know' the user all that well.

I hate to say it, but I have to agree with Maus on this one. I say terrible shti all the time and even regular users of this site still confuse my extreme remarks as serious comments.

In most cases, there's probably no real way a SS agent would be able to define a joke from a serious threat without doing some in-person investigaton.

... There was supposed to be a quote... but... oh well, Yeah!

Time to make a Collab About this :b

oh, and sorry for DP.

At 5/24/07 12:52 PM, Reed wrote: it was prolly a bad idea making this thread

Why? At least people are engaging in a debate and hopefully people will come out this topic learning something.

I have one question about this.

I know that making a threat about the president is wrong, and all. But what about making jokes about his/her intelligence?

At 5/24/07 12:52 PM, lolomfgisuck wrote: In most cases, there's probably no real way a SS agent would be able to define a joke from a serious threat without doing some in-person investigaton.

Most agents in the USA and probably other western countries can't even tell the difference between a prayer and a plan for a terrorist attack, when listening to phone conversations by devout Muslims.

At 5/24/07 12:57 PM, Sanity-of-Insanity wrote: I know that making a threat about the president is wrong, and all. But what about making jokes about his/her intelligence?

Perfectly fine. Pretty much anything goes as long as you aren't threatening the President with bodily harm.

At 5/24/07 12:57 PM, Sanity-of-Insanity wrote: I have one question about this.

I know that making a threat about the president is wrong, and all. But what about making jokes about his/her intelligence?

we do it all the time here. so its ok

... Problem is, How the Fuck Is A Little Joke a threat to the president??
The Freedom of Speech is Lost. Its like taking the piss out of.. lets say, The President of... another country. they dont send secret service people over to another country, i mean, WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO SAY?

What, "You made a Joke about the President. you will be put to jail".

Fuck You, and Your Fucking "Lose Your Pride" System. as far as im conserned, this calls for a collab. please, make a collab.

Lol, couldnt help the ending.

At 5/24/07 01:00 PM, WadeFulp wrote:

At 5/24/07 12:57 PM, Sanity-of-Insanity wrote: I know that making a threat about the president is wrong, and all. But what about making jokes about his/her intelligence?

Perfectly fine. Pretty much anything goes as long as you aren't threatening the President with bodily harm.

Okay thanks for clearing that up.

At 5/24/07 01:01 PM, Twist-Chao06 wrote: ... Problem is, How the Fuck Is A Little Joke a threat to the president??
The Freedom of Speech is Lost. Its like taking the piss out of.. lets say, The President of... another country. they dont send secret service people over to another country, i mean, WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO SAY?

What, "You made a Joke about the President. you will be put to jail".

Read the topic. You are completey ignorant on this subject, but that is to be expected considering your age.