cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/1255681

Archived version: https://archive.ph/tAw7a
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20230809205032/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66457089

  • bigmonkey [they/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    The messages continued as late as Tuesday, when he posted: "Perhaps Utah will become famous this week as the place a sniper took out Biden the Marxist."

    bawllin-sad The world is lesser now that we have lost this great mind

    • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Guy just wanted Biden to live up to the legacy of the first Catholic president

    • ElHexo [comrade/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Right? The US government kills people for no reason all the time and this guy thinks he'll be safe after giving them a reason

      • temptest [any]
        ·
        1 year ago

        It's worth pointing out that the victim probably isn't in social circles where the government killing people for no reason all the time gets much attention. Hyperreality is a serious thing, the guy's worldview probably makes it seem like free speech exists, unless it's a bad slur on facebook dot commie.

  • Wage_slave@lemmy.ml
    ·
    1 year ago

    "The complaint said Robertson came to the attention of federal agents in March after he posted a threat against Mr Bragg on Truth Social, the social network owned by Mr Trump. The company alerted the FBI's National Threat Operations Center.

    FBI agents then visited the suspect, who told them that the post was a "dream" and ended the conversation by saying: "We're done here! Don't return without a warrant!""

    Not only does Truth Social narc on him, but the "dreams" defense was a true sign of just how far gone that asshole was.

    • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
      ·
      1 year ago

      I imagine they put him down like a dog after he said that. I also imagine they just killed him first and made up that statement afterwards. Who's going to contradict the crazed armed murderers, not the dead guy I can tell you that, just ask Fred Hampton.

        • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
          ·
          1 year ago

          It all boils down to, there used to be subbed crazy idiot mouthing off to his phone. Then the cops came and now there's a dead body.

          This is what's on the table with cop interaction, they're going to kill you. They know the game better than you, they'll always find a way to justify it and you'll be too much of a rotting course to care.

    • temptest [any]
      ·
      1 year ago

      They're taking away his right to free dreams.

  • KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
    ·
    1 year ago

    Sounds like (purely speculation, since the details aren't available) he pulled a gun on or otherwise threatened the agents coming to arrest him, based on his other behavior. Told them to come back with a warrant, they did so, and he took issue?

    Either way, posting on the internet about assassinating government officials, regardless of whether it's serious or not, was probably not the smartest opening move.

    • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
      ·
      1 year ago

      He was posting over and over on how he'd kill the prez, the veep, and Alvin Bragg for months. The one that finally did him in was talking about sniping Diamond Joe. They paid him a visit, and he got squirrelly on 'em.

      • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Thats just the official story. What actually happened was that dark biden's Cyber-Brain picked up the threat, so he used his lazer vision while at a rally in New Mexico to vaporize him.

        The media is totally censoring the thousand mile long lazer beam the president shot out of his eyes. They have the footage, but they are too afraid to tell the truth, because then the Clinton Mutant Teenage Turtles will kill them.

        Read all about it on that guys truth social page.

    • rjs001@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      1 year ago

      No video, no proof that he threatened them. Innocent until proven guilty should be clear that this ought to be read as an extra-judicial killing

  • SoyViking [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Virgin Putin

    • Let's Prigo get away with an armed coup attempt
    • Everybody laughs at him

    Vs.

    Chad Biden

    • Has guy who wrote dumb threats against him online killed
    • Strikes fear in the hearts of his enemies
    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
      ·
      1 year ago

      Same, those fucking "right-wingers" advocating for universal healthcare, the overthrow of capitalism, and the uprising for the proletariat.

      Oh what's that? That isn't a right-wing thing? Well I just had the federal government murder you, and obviously the federal government would only murder "right-wingers" so I'm sure it's you who was mistaken.

        • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
          ·
          1 year ago

          No? But if it were politically convenient, he would be framed that way and he'd be dead no matter what. Bsically if you think that the government should murder "right-wingers" you are just a fascist.

          • FakeNewsForDogs [he/him]
            ·
            1 year ago

            I don’t know that I would call that fascism. I think leftist governments (which we do not have) killing right wingers (frequently actual fascists) has been an unfortunate but inevitable part of defending revolutions historically. But a right wing government killing right wingers is something else entirely.

            We can more or less expect our right wing government to kill leftists, because it has always done that, continues to, and would be doing a lot more of it now if there were actually more leftists wielding any sort of power. You can about count on one hand the number of right wingers the cops have murdered for political reasons, so I’m not sure the “what if they do it to us” hypothetical is all that illuminating. Because again, they always have been doing it to us.

            You might find it in poor taste, but I can understand somebody not being too broken up about the shoe being on the other foot for once. Also, if this guy was posting about shooting the “Marxist” joe Brandon, I’m pretty sure he’s exactly the type of person who would happily shoot as many actual marxists as possible given the right opportunity. So I guess I’m not all that broken up about it either.

            Though i do wonder if he had dementia. In which case it is in fact somewhat sad.

            • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
              ·
              1 year ago

              A leftwing government killing actual fascists can be fine. A right wing government deploying door-to-door death squads on people some of which happen to include actual fascists is never fine and the only people cheering that shit on are piece of shit cowards or just Liberals, for short.

              • FakeNewsForDogs [he/him]
                ·
                1 year ago

                Well, yes… but what does that have to do with any of this? Is that actually how you would characterize what happened to this guy? Or that the people laughing at the irony of his demise are “liberals cheering on door to door death squads?” That just seems like a deliberate misreading of both the events and the reaction to them.

                • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Look at the comments in this thread. People think that what happened to him is justified, correct, and expected.

                  Top voted comment is police apologia and giving them the benefit of the doubt, which if you've paid attention, should never be granted to the police.

                  Second comment is "what did he think would happen for threatening the life of a sitting president." As if posting on facebook should obviously result in the FBI coming to kill you in a predawn no-knock raid.

                  Tons more with similar sentiment that obviously the police are the good guys here and it was correct that this guy should have been killed by him.

          • temptest [any]
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            The police force shouldn't be summarily executing people like this, you're right about that.

            But this post conveys a very strange and counter-productive understanding of what fascism is and what makes someone a fascist. Might as well be saying 'if you think drinking water shouldn't be privatised you are just a stalinist'. If we want to stop fascism, we have to understand what it is, and that isn't it. If anything, a fascist furiously opposes governments murdering "right-wingers"... for pretty obvious reasons.

      • M68040 [they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        What's this soft-ass "oh, but what if they do it to you?" bullshit? I'll be mad about that a per-case basis when it happens but i'm not gonna be upset some dumbfuck I probably wanted clapped anyways gets clapped.

        • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
          ·
          1 year ago

          Hot Take. Cops killing people in no knock-raids is bad, even if you think "they deserved it."

  • halfpipe [they/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Reminds me of the guy who tried to break into a secure building with a gun , became frustrated by the bullet proof glass, and then hid in a field in the middle of his shoot-out with the cops to post some updates about his shoot-out.

    This kind of guy is just going to become a thing in American culture now, I guess.

    • Rom [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Honestly if there wasn't going to be innocent people caught in the crossfire, I'd be all for right-wing nutters starting shootouts with cops to be a thing. Hearing about a dead frothingfash or an officer-down on the news wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

    • SeizeToothbrush [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Not even a gun. It was a fucking nail gun. Half-assed approach to domestic terrorism these days.

    • library_napper@monyet.cc
      ·
      1 year ago

      Except that these are completely different. In this case the guys home was broken into by a bunch of uniformed gangsters

  • UnicodeHamSic [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    In bad country you can be punished or even jailed for talking about government officials. Not here in America though.

    • stephen01king@lemmy.zip
      ·
      1 year ago

      What country don't deal with violent threats against their politician seriously? Are you suggesting people should act as if threats are protected speech

      • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemm.ee
        ·
        1 year ago

        I'm gonna throw this out there: if we're gonna have freedom of speech, it has to include advocating for the violent overthrow of the government.

        The people are supposed to be in control, not the government and if the people have the rhetorical means to take their government down taken away in such a manner, they're not in control anymore. And we see where that kind of thinking leads us

        • M68040 [they/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          I honestly always thought free speech was a dumb idea that in execution almost solely benefits people who wanna use hate speech and shit anyhow. When was the last time someone actually said something that needed to be said and didn't get torn a new asshole for it?

          At the very least, the American conception's total trash and we're still expected to act like it's the best thing since sliced bread despite it mostly being used to stick up for people that'd get kicked off any self respecting IRC channel in minutes.

          • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemm.ee
            ·
            1 year ago

            Here's the problem: everyone is fundamentally misinterpreting free speech. It doesn't mean what people think it does: it's not about stopping government oppression, it's about enforcing fundamental respect for human beings, which means hate speech is banned regardless -- because bigotry and hate speech by its nature censors other human beings, because it creates an environment where people are discredited and shunned by their peers for stupid reasons, denying them their right to be respected and heard. Hate speech isn't speech, it's censorship, and needs to be treated as a censoring act and not as speech since it's not speech, it's an action done with intent.

            When people adopt that definition of free speech, we can go back to having our cake and eating it too and we'll start to get back on the right path.

            • silent_water [she/her]
              ·
              1 year ago

              this explicitly not the text of the first amendment, but that document is garbage anyway so it doesn't matter. I agree with you, but with an additional point: money is not speech and any attempt to use it as such must be squashed if democracy is to have any meaning.

      • Awoo [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Mate if I made violent threats about the king or prime minister here in the UK I'd get someone politely knocking on my door and giving me a solid talking to. lmao

        It is fucking wild that yanks just think this is normal behaviour. You live in a country that will kick down your door and execute you for posting something stupid on the internet and think that's what happens everywhere else?

        • stephen01king@lemmy.zip
          ·
          1 year ago

          Did the FBI came kicking down his door or did they come to talk to him only for him to refuse and demand a warrant. How would you be treated in the UK if you acted similarly?

          • Awoo [she/her]
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Are you out of your mind? They would go away and get a warrant, for a gun thing they wouldn't even show up without one.

            There have only been 80 fatal police shootings in the UK since 1990. In 32 years.

            In the USA there have been 8,694 since 2015.

            You live in a fascist jackbooted police state where the cops kick down people's doors and execute them mate. Your failure to recognise this is simply a matter of seeing it as normal when it is completely fucking INSANE by the standards of literally every other country in the world.

            • stephen01king@lemmy.zip
              ·
              1 year ago

              Just like they did here. For all we know, there was a shootout that resulted in his death. We don't have enough info to know what actually happened on during the raid.

              The fact that people in the US have more guns than the UK is a major reason there are more police shootings in the US. If more criminals possess a gun, of course it is more likely that they would start a shootout that results in death.

              Who's living in a police state? Why are you assuming I'm from the US? Can you not make baseless assumptions about other people when arguing. I feel like you're not even talking to me but to an imaginary strawman.

              Your last argument is literally useless since I also think the US is insane when it comes to police killings. I just don't assume everytime that it is simply police brutality because the US has more issues than just that. The amount of guns among the public also contribute to those stats.

              • Awoo [she/her]
                ·
                1 year ago

                "For all we know" is a cop out. You're giving american cops the benefit of the doubt when they have explicitly demonstrated that you should never ever do that.

      • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yes. Until the person takes an action like bringing a rifle to within range of the president and actually attempting to assassinate said president, then it's free speech and you should stop being a fascist.

        • jackalope@lemmy.ml
          ·
          1 year ago

          Making threats isn't a capital offense but it's also jot protected speech. It never has been.

          • Derproid@lemm.ee
            ·
            1 year ago

            Making threats with intent to carry them out and ability to do so is not protected speech. The tricky part is proving intent to actually carry out the threat like having written plans.