A longtime Saratoga resident is accused of threatening to assassinate President Obama on the White House website message board. The Times Union reports that Brent G. Dickinson, 33, used a computer in the Saisselin Art Building on February 17 to make the threat. He also used a public computer at the Saratoga Public Library on Friday to write that he would take schoolchildren hostage and kill them.
According to the Saratogian:
The Secret Service had reached out to Skidmore Campus Security, which [District Attorney James A. Murphy III] said co-operated with the investigation into the first e-mail. When the second e-mail targeting children was sent, [SSPD Lt. John Catone] said the Secret Service notified the police department, which found him less than 30 minutes later at the Saratoga Springs Public Library.
Dickinson lived at the Gateway Motel on Maple Avenue. He was arrested on Friday and is currently being held in Saratoga County Jail on $50,000 bail, with a grand jury set to hear his case on March 21. Murphy said that the U.S. Attorney’s Office will prosecute Dickinson on the charge related to the threat against President Obama, while his office will handle the second email in which Dickinson threatened children.
Via the Saratogian and the Times Union
Sheldon Solomon is interviewed in this months Scientific American about his research in Terror Management Theory (TMT) and how it applies to the upcoming election. Solomon’s TMT shows that “in times of crisis, when fears of death are aroused, people are more likely to embrace leaders who provide psychological security by making their citizens feel like they are valued contributors to a great mission to eradicate evil.” The political effects of which can be seen in George’s popularity after 9/11 and Obama’s popularity now.
