Can we leave, because Romney is in town and I want to go shoot him
A 19-year-old man was arrested after threatening to shoot Mitt Romney during the presidential candidates visit to Ohio, just one of a recent wave of violent threats against Romney that have been downplayed by the media.
During class at Lorain County Community College earlier this week, Shaquille L. Brown spoke of his plan to assassinate the former Governor of Massachusetts.
According to a police report, Brown was in an English class when he blurted out: Can we leave, because Romney is in town and I want to go shoot him, reports Fox 8 Cleveland.
On the same day that Brown made the threat, Romney was speaking at a campaign stop just 20 minutes away at a high school in Avon Lake.
Browns stunned teacher immediately contacted police as the 19-year-old was escorted to the colleges security office. Brown pleaded his innocence, telling an officer, I dont even have a gun to do it.
The Elyria Police Department contacted the Secret Service who sent an agent to interview Brown, who is now being held in the Lorain County Jail.
Brown was subsequently charged with one count of inducing panic, a low-level felony, and continued to claim that the threat was just a joke.
The arrest follows a deluge of threats made against Romney over the last few weeks, most notably on Twitter where hundreds of users advocated the use of violence against the presidential candidate if he defeated Obama in the election.
Although the Secret Service announced that it was monitoring the situation, an investigation by the Weekly Standardfound that, More than a dozen Twitter accounts that were used as a medium to publically threaten Republican candidate Mitt Romneys life after the second presidential debate remain active.
Not to be outdone, scores of Obama supporters took to the social networking website earlier this week to express their desire that Romney would be killed by Hurricane Sandy.
Despite the fact that the establishment media routinely hypes violent online rhetoric made by conservatives and right-wingers, the deluge of threats made against Romney over the past month have been met with virtual silence. Only a handful of blogs as well as the Drudge Report have consistently reported on the issue.
Compare that to the response prior to the 2008 campaign, when threats made against Obama were routinely a national news story. While threats to assassinate Obama were treated with the seriousness they deserved, leftists have characterized violent and sometimes graphically precise threats made against Romney as sophomoric jokes.
Poster Comment:
At least he was polite enough to ask the teacher.