The first letter was opened at a New York City mail center in Lower Manhattan on Friday, the police said. Although staff members at the mail center do not appear to have become ill, several police officers who came into contact with the letter’s contents “indicated some mild symptoms the next day, including diarrhea,” and they are being treated in hospitals, the New York Police Department’s spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said on Wednesday afternoon. “They’re being checked out as a precaution.”The second letter, which was opened on Sunday in Washington, was addressed to Mark Glaze, the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group Mr. Bloomberg helps run and finances, officials said. Mr. Glaze opened the letter, an official said. No injuries were reported, Mr. Browne said.Both letters were identical in content, bore references to the debate over gun regulation and contained written threats to Mayor Bloomberg, Mr. Browne said. “It’s threatening, and it’s very clearly about one issue,” one official said of the letters.Both letters had a Louisiana postmark, said one official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.Ricin can be made from castor beans, and a quantity as small as a grain of salt can be lethal if ingested.In April, a former taekwondo instructor from Tupelo, Miss., was arrested on charges of sending ricin-laced letters to the president, a United States senator and a local judge. The letters sent to Washington were intercepted in mail sorting facilities serving the White House and the Capitol.
Louisiana and Mississippi, always Louisiana and Mississippi.
The only surprising thing is that this doesn't happen more often. I mean, Bloomberg is a threat, right?. The policies he proposes are nothing short of a lethal threat which true gun-rights supporters have a moral obligation to resist by any means.
What do you think? Please leave a comment.
1. There was no mention of the identity of the person who sent the letter, which is not surprising, considering the screwup about who sent the last one. But we have no way of knowing if the letter writer is a gun nut or not. You've seen evidence here on your own blog that wackos will present all manner of beliefs just to gain attention--I'm talking to you, E.N.
ReplyDelete2. You blithely skipped over the incident in Spokane, Washington named at the end of the article. Last time I checked, Washington state is somewhat distant from either Louisiana or Mississippi.
"no way of knowing if the letter writer is a gun nut or not"
DeleteGreg, have just a shred of honesty when you comment, will you please?
I am honest in every comment I make. As I said, there are troublemakers in this world who do things like sending this letter just to get attention without holding any firm beliefs on any subject. Could the person be a "gun nut," whatever that means? Yes. But unlike you, I try not to jump to conclusions in the absence of evidence.
DeleteAfter all, the last Ricin attack was by someone pretending to have certain views in order to frame his local rival. What Greg said isn't so far out there at all.
DeleteGreg, have just a shred of honesty when you comment, will you please?
DeleteHow about you having a shred of honor when you comment?
Sorry--I know that's an unfair burden to impose on you.
Kurt, that's enough of turning every thread you can into a personal attack against me. That's enough.
DeleteAh, rebuilding that straw man version of us as insurrectionists eh?
ReplyDeleteForget that we have told you what we really think countless times. Forget that we condemn people like this right along side of you. Forget all of that.
After all, it's easier to scare people with this scarecrow and then beat it down than to actually discuss political and moral theory and the application thereof.
T., Greg did not condemn this guy, he denied the fact that the guy's a gun nut.
DeleteI condemn sending a letter of that nature. But that wasn't the point of your title or comments.
DeleteWeak ass attempt, Mike.
DeleteMike B wrote, "The policies he [Bloomberg] proposes are nothing short of a lethal threat which true gun-rights supporters have a moral obligation to resist by any means."
ReplyDeleteNo one, not even the "ruling class" that you worship Mike B, has legitimate authority to interfere with the liberty of citizens. Every infringement of liberty is a serious crime against citizens.
The difficult question to answer is this: what is a moral response when the "ruling class" (government in this case) interferes with a citizen's liberty?
Make no mistake: every assertion of authority from the government is a lethal threat. Consider any infraction that a citizen could allegedly commit, no matter how small. Government (police) will show up to arrest the citizen for prosecution. If the citizen refuses to cooperate, the police will escalate force up to and including lethal force if necessary -- every time.
Why aren't you out there doing the 2A solution then? Like most of the tough-talking gun-rights fanatics, what you do is preach inflammatory bullshit in the hope that others will take action.
DeleteI answered that below.
Delete"Bloomberg is a threat, right?."
ReplyDeleteCurrently Mayor Bloomberg is an elected official, though how he got a majority of citizens in the city doesnt speak well of its average IQ. Having been a member of both parties at one point of other, the good Mayor seems to be a walking, talking example of the belief that individuals cant be trusted and need to be controlled. Hence his popular nickname "Nanny" Bloomberg. The government bureaucracy of NYC, and Chicago for that matter takes complicated structure can be compared to many video games, to include the need for "cheat" codes to keep the upper hand.
One but needs look at the Mayor's record to see what his philosophy is. We apparently cant be trusted to even feed ourselves properly, thereby requiring intervention for our own good. Heaven forbid letting his charges have any control over their physical well being by being able to defend themselves. We even need to have our pockets checked at times to make sure we arent misbehaving.
At present, Bloomingbutt is the responsibility of the people of the City of New York. They elected him--three times. They're suffering for their own sins. He may be considering a run for the presidency, but he'll discover that the majority of Americans won't tolerate his tyranny.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few moral cesspools in this nation. There are a few places where cowards concentrate themselves together. Most of the country isn't like that. As long as the good people have that to their advantage, the political process works well enough.
There is an important update to this story. The Secret Service had been on the lookout for a similar letter addressed to the president. This morning the S.S. announced that a similar letter with traces of ricin addressed to the president was intercepted in a mail center in Maryland. The envelope and postage were similar in appearance to the letter to Bloomberg so that the employees of the mail processing center did not have to actually open the letter. So far, no one has experienced any ill effects from the poison.
ReplyDeleteThe S.S. did not wish to publicly read the content of the letter, but stated that it was generally against gun control. The author of the letter stated that, "Anyone who comes to take my guns will be shot in the face."
I submit that this hysteria about Obama sending goons to "take away our guns," is nothing more than a product of the machinations of the insane NRA propaganda monster.
Agreed.
DeleteSince speculation is the rule around here, let's consider whether this is an invented situation designed to make it appear that the government's security theater is working.
DeleteBefore you call me paranoid, remember two things:
1. I did say that it's speculation, and I know the difference between that and actual proof.
2. The FBI, for example, engages in sting (read entrapment) operations all the time. Is faking a crime so different?
Hi Mike,
ReplyDeleteI'm just hearing that a woman has been arrested in connection with the ricin laced letters. As with the last incident, it looks like someone was set up as a fall guy for the letters and that is seems to be linked to the guy planning on divorcing the woman. No word yet on whether the woman is a gun nut.
http://news.yahoo.com/ap-sources-texas-actress-arrested-ricin-case-180740850.html
"DALLAS (AP) — A pregnant Texas actress who told FBI agents her husband had sent ricin-tainted letters to President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been arrested for orchestrating the scheme herself, law enforcement officials said Friday."
"John Delk, who represents Nathaniel Richardson, told the AP on Thursday that his client had filed for divorce and may have been set up by his wife. He said his client was cooperating with authorities investigating the letters, which were sent last month to Bloomberg, his Washington gun-control group and the White House threatening violence against gun-control advocates.
"There are a lot of factors I'm aware of that indicate (Nathaniel Richardson) was set up in this deal by her," Delk said.
Delk said his client, a 33-year-old Army veteran, came to him to discuss a potential divorce a year ago and finally hired him on May 6, weeks before the ricin incident came to light."