Opinion
Gov. Brewer: Arrest This Woman!
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PIC of Brewer and Obama with
cutline: Arizona Gov. Jan
Brewer gets in President
Obama’s face. Whatever
happened to civility?
F ROM THE
P UBLISHER
Bernie Foster
P
olitics can be ugly. But
what happened on the
tarmac in Mesa last
Wednesday was simply a dis-
grace. Within minutes of Presi-
dent Obama exiting Air Force
One, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer
was pointing a wagging finger
at him, inches from his face.
Excuse me! This is the Presi-
dent of the United States of
America. Put the finger away,
lady.
Frankly, if I’d been in the pres-
ident’s shoes, I would have
been tempted to alert security
and have her arrested under
the Patriot Act if necessary.
President Obama was more
gracious. He ignored the insult
and moved on.
South Carolina Rep. Joe Wil-
son also should have known
better. In Sept. 2009, he dis-
rupted Obama’s health care
speech to Congress by yelling
out “You lie!” The leaders of his
own party made him apologize.
Wilson and Brewer are elect-
ed officials engaged in official
business. Their behavior should
set an example of respect for
the office of President of the
United States. That they failed
to do so is deeply disturbing.
tone of civility and respect for
one another, then who will?
Political
differences
don’t
excuse a bad attitude.
Like other presidents before
him, President Obama faces
real threats to his life every day.
Presidents Lincoln, Garfield,
McKinley and Kennedy all were
assassinated. Presidents Roo-
sevelt and Reagan narrowly
escaped. And these are just the
attempts that came closest to
succeeding.
The Secret Service reported
Frankly, if I’d been in the president’s
shoes, I would have been tempted to
alert security and have her arrested
under the Patriot Act if necessary
An atmosphere of disrespect
feeds sickness and hatred. An
atmosphere of hatred encour-
ages violence. Could Brewer
have learned nothing from the
shooting in her own state that
killed six people and wounded
13 others, including Rep.
Gabrielle Giffords?
If those who are supposed to
lead us cannot or will not set a
in 2009 that President Obama
faces 400 times more death
threats than President Bush.
He is threatened with death 30
times every day.
Just in the last few weeks we
note that:
Andrew Adler, owner and
publisher of the Atlanta Jewish
Times, suggested that Israel
should “order a hit” on Presi-
dent Obama. Now he says he
regrets it. But what was he
thinking in the first place?
Veteran police Sergeant Pat
Shearer of Peoria, Ariz., posted
a photo to his Facebook page
that showed six armed
teenagers holding an Obama
teeshirt riddled with bullets. He
called it a political statement.
Jules Manson, a 2011 city
council candidate in Carson
City Calif., made a death threat
toward the president and his
entire family – using the most
racist language imaginable. He
apologized – sort of.
Such behavior hurts all Amer-
icans. When our leaders disre-
spect the president, it sends a
message to our friends around
the world – and to our enemies.
Why should they respect the
President of the United States if
we don’t?
Was
Brewer’s
behavior
acceptable? Or should she
have been arrested?
What do you think?
You can post your comments
on www.theskanner.com
Obama Literally in Gun Sights
T
he bullet-riddled tee shirt of
President Obama posted
brazenly on Facebook by
seven semi-automatic gun toting
men among them a Peoria, Ariz.,
police sergeant was much more
than the by now standard non-stop
litany of racist cartoons, depic-
tions, web postings, and kooky
loose talk threats against President
Obama. The gun-toting men and
the police sergeant were taking
target practice on the president’s
likeness at an undisclosed desert
locale. This is Arizona. The state
where many legislators think it’s
ok to pack guns in the legislature,
and for citizens to openly pack
them in public. This is the state
where former Arizona congress-
woman Gabrielle Giffords was
nearly killed in an assassination
attempt, and where there’s a wide
body of respectable opinion start-
ing with a finger in the face of the
president by Governor Jan Brewer,
that openly loathes the president’s
policies and in many cases him
personally. The gun-toting men
made a virtual public call for the
gunning down of the president.
It comes against the backdrop of
Secret Service reports that the rate
of threats against the President
Obama has increased 400 percent
from the 3,000 a year or so under
President George W. Bush. He
receives dozens of assassination
threats continuously, and that
number has been steady before
and during the campaign and
increased after he took office. Fed-
eral law is very clear on Threaten-
ing the President of the United
States. It is a class D felony under
United States Code Title 18, Sec-
tion 871. It consists of knowingly
and willfully mailing or otherwise
making “any threat to take the life
of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily
Page 4 The Seattle Skanner February 1, 2012
T HE L AST
W ORD
Earl Ofari
Hutchinson
harm upon the President of the
United States.”
The Secret Service has taken the
threats against the president seri-
ously and has diligently investi-
gated every one of them. In a few
cases, prosecutors have brought
charges. But here is the problem,
in fact several problems. How
seriously do other public officials
take them, especially in places like
request the Secret Service was
understaffed and under-resourced.
The Service denied it and insisted
it had the resources and personnel
to meet any security issue involv-
ing the president. But the presi-
dent’s hands on meet the people
routine during his non-stop road
travels throughout the country is a
constant challenge to any protec-
tive and enforcement agency.
The concern over Obama’s safe-
ty has been intense since he
announced he would seek the pres-
idency in February 2007. He had
the dubious distinction of being
the earliest presidential contender
to be assigned Secret Service pro-
tection on the campaign trail. This
The concern over Obama’s safety has
been intense since he announced he
would seek the presidency in February
2007
Peoria, Arizona? Peoria, Arizona,
officials did not suspend the police
sergeant pending review and
investigation, let alone fire him or
call for a prosecution of him or his
gun toting pals. Their weak, duck
and dodge response was at worst
that he may have violated the
police department’s employee
conduct rules on the use of social
media. There was no immediate
response from Peoria, Arizona,
Mayor Bob Barrett or Peoria, city
council persons to calls for them to
take action against the officer and
men involved.
The Secret Service also has had
other worries, namely about
staffing. At one point, in 2010
there was a report that in a budget
didn’t ease the jitters over his safe-
ty. Several congressional members
even then demanded that Secret
Service officials provide all the
resources and personnel they
could to ensure Obama’s and the
other presidential candidates’
security. They heard the whispers
and nervous questions from his
constituents about Obama’s safety.
During the presidential cam-
paign in 2008, the flood of crank,
crackpot, and screwball threats
that promised murder and may-
hem toward Obama continued to
pour in. This prompted the Secret
Service to tighten security and
take even more elaborate meas-
ures to ensure his safety. This was
especially important given the
deep doubt and even paranoid sus-
picion that some blacks have that
shadowy government agencies
were complicit in the assassination
of Martin Luther King, Jr, and the
fervent belief of millions of other
Americans that the CIA or other
government agencies were deeply
complicit in the killing, if not out-
right murder of JFK.
There is nothing shadowy or
conspiratorial about what police
sergeant Pat Shearer and his gun-
packing friends in Peoria, Arizona,
did. It was brazen and very open.
The clueless Shearer for his part
saw nothing inappropriate, let
alone, dangerous, about what he
did. He chalked it up to much ado
about nothing or as he put it, he
didn’t think that shooting up a t-
shirt with President Obama’s face
on it “was that big a deal.” It was
more than a big deal. The target in
their in gun sights was not a regu-
lar bullseye, a likeness of Howdy
Dowdy, or a cactus plant. It was
President Obama. Federal prose-
cutors should see it as the “big
deal” that it is and bring charges.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an
author and political analyst. He is
a weekly co-host of the Al Sharp-
ton Show on American Urban
Radio Network. He is the author of
How Obama Governed: The Year
of Crisis and Challenge. He is an
associate editor of New America
Media. He is host of the weekly
Hutchinson Report Newsmaker
Hour heard weekly on the nation-
ally network broadcast Hutchin-
son
Newsmaker
Network.
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on
Twitter: http://twitter.com/earl-
hutchinson