Democratic members of Congress have been the victims of vandalism and pronounced death threats due to their votes in support of the recent health care bill. This severe elevation of threatened violence has caused at least 10 House members to raise concerns about their personal security, causing the FBI to monitor the cases and take them very seriously.
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D- NY) received a phone message threatening sniper attacks against Democratic lawmakers and their families, and reported that a brick was thrown through her office window in Niagara Falls. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D- AZ) reported that her Tucson office was vandalized after the vote, and Rep. James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest-ranking African-American lawmaker in the House, said he received an anonymous fax showing the image of a noose.
Sarah Palin published on her Facebook page a list of 20 Democrats who voted for health insurance reform and referenced their locations on a map with crosshairs — a symbol that clearly refers to target practice and violence. Former militia leader Mike Vanderboegh posted a “call for action” on his blog, saying “We can break their windows. Break them NOW. And if we do a proper job, if we break the windows of hundreds, thousands, of Democrat party headquarters across this country, we might just wake up enough of them to make defending ourselves at the muzzle of a rifle unnecessary.” And conservative blogger “Solly” Forell is being investigated by the US Secret Service for this threatening post he made toward President Obama on the website Twitter: “ASSASSINATION America, we survived the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy. We’ll surely get over a bullet 2 #BarackObama’s head.”
This extremely dark and personal backlash from the health debate, which includes a tense weekend of racial and homophobic slurs hurled at Democrats and one incident of a Tea Party protester spitting on a congressman, has left many Democrats shaken. But the end result could complicate Republican efforts to continue their threatened attacks on the legislation if they are seen as inciting elevated levels of outrage and breaching the boundaries of civility.
As Democrats prepared to leave Washington for a two-week recess, they met with Capitol Police and the FBI to get advice on security issues, and pressed Republicans to join them in renouncing threats and violence. “What we want to be sure is that people know that these threats have no place in our country,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. “We have a legitimate disagreement. We have passed landmark legislation, and there are strong differences of opinion about it. Our Constitution allows us to have a lively debate in that regard, and that does not include threats to violence.”
This is outrageous. You don't threaten people simple because you disagree with them. That is childish and foolish. I am lost for words.