Free Advice: Don't Tell Secret Service You Want to Kill the Prez

Hat tip to Brian Drourr via Facebook for this little list of good advice, based on a news article Brian found about a tremendously stupid man in Florida:

1. Don't threaten the president's life. Even if you don't like him. Such threats are illegal and dumb.

2. Especially don't threaten the president on Facebook. Lots of people can read it. Including the Secret Service. The Secret Service really, really doesn't like threats on the president.

3. If the Secret Service sees your threat on Facebook and want to have a little chat with you, don't reinforce the threat when talking with the Secret Service by saying you want to "bitch slap him and beat the shit out of him."

Christopher Castillo allegedly made
threats to President Obama.

According to The Smoking Gun, a guy named Christopher Castillo, 28, of Melbourne, Florida did all of the above and now, not at all shockingly, he faces felony charges.

He was to be released, maybe, after they put a GPS device on him. Probably smart. Don't want him near the White House these days.

Florida Today reached Christopher's father, Frank, who said: “A lot of people say things on Facebook that they don’t mean, and I understand the Secret Service has to do what they have to do, it’s their job,” said Frank Castillo of Tyler, Texas. “I would imagine they would find some people out there that really are loose cannons. Christopher is not one of them.”

Except when talking to Secret Service agents, apparently.

I'm actually amazed by how many similar instances there have been lately of people putting out presidential threats on Twitter, Facebook and other media. Isn't the point of posting there a way to let a lot of people read about what you're thinking about? And that means pretty much anybody.

Was Castillo and his ilk surprised by Secret Service visits? Is the Secret Service hiring? I ask because they probably need a lot of people to follow up on all these threats.

There's probably just a quick spike in threats now because Obama won the election. I get it that people who voted for Romney are angry and upset by the outcome. Perfectly natural.

But for people who want a Republican in the White House, the best revenge is to vote that way the next time, even though some other Democrat, not Obama will run next time.

It's awfully hard to vote from jail, folks. Let logic be your guide, if that's possible in your limited brains, threat people.