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Posted on 02/14/2004 5:15:19 PM PST by RightFighter
Okay, I need some advice from some of you about what "my friend" should do regarding a situation that happened at work yesterday. Here's the scenario:
First, my "friend" lives near Daytona Beach. Of course, you all know that President Bush is going to be there tomorrow for the Daytona 500 race. My friend was at work yesterday at one of our locations, and he noticed a couple of our vendor support reps were on site. He went back to greet them and chat for a minute. One of them was getting ready to leave, so my friend suggested that he find an alternate route to drive home because the traffic on the Interstate was pretty bad heading south from that office. He said he would.
At this point, one of my friend's co-workers, having overheard this discussion about the traffic, said something like "Oh, is the traffic bad because of the races?" The vendor rep said that he didn't think it was bad due to the races this particular time, but rather due to the construction that is happening on I-95 right now. The employee then said "Oh, I thought it might be for the races. President Bush is coming to town for that. I bought a gun for the occasion."
My friend did a double-take and said "You'd better be careful saying something like that." It had clearly made everyone in the room uncomfortable. He looked at my friend and said "Why? Are you going to turn me in for it?" My friend said "I might." The vendor rep then made a positive comment about Bush, in an obvious attempt to try to give this guy some hint that he wasn't talking to anyone that was sympathetic to any hostile feelings he has toward the President. The employee then started arguing with this vendor rep about tax policy. Pathetic!!!
Feeling thoroughly uncomfortable at this point, and not wanting to associate with him any longer, my friend left the room and went to another area. He talked with one of the girls that works there and mentioned it to her, and another girl who overheard them talking said "Oh, he said that to me earlier too." So now my friend has heard that he's said this multiple times in one day. Needless to say, he was very concerned, not so much that he thinks he's serious in any way, but it's just one of those things that you don't joke about. It's the equivalent of getting on an airplane and saying to the stewardess, "What would you say if I told you there's a bomb in my bag?"
My friend wasn't sure what to do. Part of him wanted to just call the police and narc on the guy, knowing full well that he would probably spend a night in jail, at a minimum, for what he said. The Secret Service doesn't play around with that kind of stuff. However, he doesn't want to ruin the guy's life for what is most likely just a stupid comment by a stupid liberal. So, he waited around until after hours and talked with the manager of that location and let him know what had happened. He was shocked and said he would deal with it, and my friend told him that he would take it no further, but that he wanted him, as this guy's boss, to know the kinds of things he is saying at work, and also that he didn't care if the guy knew it was him that reported it.
The question is - did my friend do the right thing?
prisoner6
Watch for the first talking-head tomorrow to use the expression "Galvanized Viet Cong".
That person will have thoroughly read this evening's FR threads. I even had Hillary Clinton bring a bunch of the White House china she was going to steal back from the warehouse to use at a dinner in honor of the President of Italy. She still follows FR. That's because it's informative, a tad on the cutting edge of things, and the writers here are top knotch!
Excellent. Good job. *saluts*
That's why we're all here isn't it ?? :)
Still, would rather see someone do the right thing rather than report "track a thread on FR."
The SS simply is not as large as the FBI and has always had a "duty officer" problem since as far back as I can remember.
Now if this were during the normal workweek, in the morning, I'd agree with you, but it's Saturday evening! The correct route is to ALSO contact the FBI.
Here on FR a few years ago Freeper, GrassonTop, made an off hand comment about President Clinton and the Secret Service was on it quickly. In fact, it was amazing. Either Echelon was real and up and functioning, or they had agents watching FR. I don't know which.
ANyhow, GrassonTop posted a thread called "When the Secret Service comes a knock, knock knockin" as I recall, or something like it. They interviewed him and basically told him to not make such comments because they are all taken seriously and that he should know better.
So...same applies here. Let these dedicated prfessionals do their duty.
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