Facebook Obama Death Poll No Threat, Kid Behind It: Secret Service

WASHINGTON — The Secret Service has determined that a juvenile was behind the online survey that asked whether people thought President Barack Obama should be assassinated, an agency spokesman said Thursday.

No criminal charges will be filed against the juvenile or the juvenile's parents, spokesman Edwin Donovan said. Donovan would not identify the names of the child or parents or say where they are from.

The poll, posted Saturday on Facebook, was taken off the popular social networking site quickly after company officials were alerted to its existence. But, like any threat against the president, Secret Service agents took no chances.

The poll asked respondents "Should Obama be killed?" The choices: No, Maybe, Yes, and Yes if he cuts my health care.

After Secret Service agents met with the child and the child's parents, they determined there was no intent to harm the president.

"Case closed," Donovan said. "I guess you could characterize it as a mistake."

The poll was not created by Facebook, but by an independent person using an add-on application that had been suspended from the site, Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said earlier this week.

Comments

[bulindir]

09:42 AM on 11/27/2009

Thanks!..
ismail yk facebook

[robman1]

02:32 AM on 10/03/2009

I bet the respondents weren’t a kid. How about the bloggers and Yahoo news saying take guns to town halls and kill acorn and union people were those kids. Kids or not the parents at least deserve 10,000 in court cost hiring lawyer’s etc and straiten their “kid” out. Imagine if this was done to Bush the “kid would be in Guantanimo

[InYourWorld]

12:26 PM on 10/06/2009

Actually no

I girl was questioned and let go for kill bush posters on her myspace..... Sorry you cant defend you president by talking about how horrible out last one was...... 2 wrongs dont make a right

[juhar]

12:42 PM on 10/02/2009

This is not believable.

No juvenile would have the third category - "if he cuts my healthcare."

Its OK that the Secret Service and the White House don't want us to dwell on this Obama Death Poll just as long as the Secret Service and the White House are doing its due diligence.

This could have been done for publicity - Everybody wants their 15 minutes of fame - But -

Keep this family on a terrorist list or something similar and watch that damn kid and his or her parents (24/7).

[hjo4]

11:45 AM on 10/02/2009

Kids kill people all the time. But he's no threat. Ok.

[AlwaysFair]

11:00 AM on 10/02/2009

This juvenile probably saw how Beck, Limbaugh and maybe even there parents disrespected the President so why couldn't they? This type of behavior is taught and I won't be surprised if more "juveniles" start copying the actions of adults. Hate begets hate..

[JFaye]

10:57 AM on 10/02/2009

Children learn what they live and what is placed before them....

What's going on in this kids life that he would do something like this? Parents are responsible for their children and because there is less and less accountability kids play is no longer kid's play.

I hope at minimal, this kid and his parents are being watched...

[AnnfromCA]

10:49 AM on 10/02/2009

I figured it was some kid.

[4real]

10:09 AM on 10/02/2009

Yeah sure....when you get caught blame the kid.

[tripper69z]

09:26 AM on 10/02/2009

Good points...good homework. The videos were captivating and new to me. We'll have to wait and see how this one turns out.

[OliverTwist]

08:37 AM on 10/02/2009

Now the FBI can get on the case of sedition by Newsmax columnist John Perry writing an article calling for a military overthrow of the government.

[dhfsfc]

08:27 AM on 10/02/2009

Just give out the name.

No school or college will want him!

This is beyond inappropriate!

[Validusername]

11:16 AM on 10/02/2009

How old is this kid? He sounds pretty smart to me and unless there is some underlying mental concern, I can't believe he didn't realize that there would be repercussions. In otherwords, why was he so motivated to do something that would most likely turn out badly? Well, I guess I have to admit that it didn't really turn out that bad, at least for him.

[Imzadi]

08:07 AM on 10/02/2009

I'm disappointed this was swept under the rug and no repercussions for the kid or parents.

[luebla]

10:38 AM on 10/02/2009

You know all of the "birthers", deathers, becks, limbaughs and the "crazies"-were once teenagers! He will just grow up and be the same!!!

[ZombyWoof]

07:53 AM on 10/02/2009

The Secret Service has absolutely no sense of humor when it comes to threats against the president. If they determined that this child and his parents present no threat to Obama you can assume that every conceivable intrusion into this family's life to determine intent as well as a history of political activism, was exhausted before publically releasing this statement.

One can easily imagine that with all the hateful rhetoric targeted at Obama on TV, and especially the internet floating around, his parent’s are not necessarily the source of this kid’s innocent dopiness. Who knows what blogs or chat rooms this internet savvy kid was frequenting.

You want proof? Go to AOL.com, read any AOL generated article no matter how far removed from politics, even if it’s a fluff piece about fuzzy baby animals and read the comments. Eventually all the haters will find a way to twist the subject and find a reason to bash Obama and many of them are not too shy about exhibiting their racism., anonymously of course

[Rjchinook]

08:13 AM on 10/02/2009

I know, I've been a member of AOL for years, I didn't start reading AOL Political news & comments until Obama began running for President. I stop reading any AOL news, etc., when I noticed all the hate being spewed by its members.

[Wallysmom]

07:01 AM on 10/02/2009

If a juvenile uploads the latest film release or downloads illegally copyrighted music on the internet, his/her parents are legally responsible and can be prosecuted. Why is this incident exempt? Something like this was not a harmful prank like toilet papering mailboxes on Mischief Night. I am sure that his political view was encouraged by Mom and Dad. It is an adult act done by a juvenile who I hope shat his pants when the guys in the sunglasses and black cars showed up on his doorstep.

[Watain]

04:00 AM on 10/02/2009

Classic hippie kid thing to do.