Governor Walker Target of Online Death Threat

MacIver News Service | November 7, 2011 | UPDATED 3:39 pm

[Madison, Wisc…] A death threat against Governor Walker was removed from Facebook on Monday, almost three full days after it was initially posted.

“Earlier this morning, Capitol Police became aware of an online death threat directed towards Governor Walker,” said Chief Charles Tubbs in a statement issued this afternoon. “Capitol Police takes any threat directed towards those who visit or work in the Capitol seriously, and Capitol Police investigators have identified and interviewed the responsible individual. Capitol Police does not generally comment on specific security issues.”

Tubbs issued the statement after an inquiry made by a MacIver News Service reporter.

“Rather than recall him… Can we kill him instead? Just curious,” wrote Regan Cowan on the Recall Walker Kick Off Rally event page on Facebook Friday afternoon.

When someone responded with “He’s signed a bill allowing conceal to carry IN the capitol…..Someone just might get away with it!!!” Cowan then posted: “I’m game.”

The effort to recall Governor Scott Walker is underway and is highly-organized, with dozens of employees set to work out of more than 20 planned regional offices.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin laid out its initial plan to recall Governor Scott Walker at a volunteer training meeting in Madison last month. DPW is working with a coalition of labor groups under the United Wisconsin umbrella and has divided the state into eight regions and is prepared to have 44 field officers operating out of 22 offices.

During the Senate recall elections in August, state Democrats’ goal was to recall at least three Republican Senators. While they failed to achieve that objective, organizers hope to use the lessons learned from that effort to help them collect the more than half a million signatures needed to trigger a recall election of the Governor.

The death threat was posted on the Facebook page promoting a rally by We Are Wisconsin, the labor union mega PAC that spent more than $18 million on the State Senate recalls earlier this month. We Are Wisconsin is one of the groups helping to organize a Recall Kickoff Rally on Saturday November 19.

Moments after the MacIver News Service contacted the page’s administrators for comments about the threats, the offending post was removed.

Screenshot of the threat at  12:35pm Monday:

Screenshot of the page as of 1:35pm Monday: