The Secret Service is investigating an online image of Arizona men showing off an Obama T-shirt full of bullet holes, it said yesterday. The seven young men in the picture are holding guns as one displays a T-shirt bearing President Obama's face and the word "hope." The image appeared on an Arizona police officer's Facebook page last week; the picture was taken down yesterday, the New York Times reports. "We’re aware of it, and we’re conducting the appropriate follow-up steps," says a Secret Service rep.
Police in Peoria, outside Phoenix, say they're investigating "any possible policy violations on the part of our employee." The picture also appeared on the Facebook page of a high school student shown in the image, and the school district is looking into the matter. "Individuals certainly have a right to free speech, but we certainly have a right to speak to individuals to see what their intent is," says the spokesman for the Secret Service, which has an Internet Threat Desk to look into concerns like this.