Quote Originally Posted by Husar
Well, that one would go under hardly preventable, so what about me calling the local radio show and saying I want to mrder the president of the USA and that I'm really serious about it. Would noone care? Freedom of speech or would they at least arrest me and search my home? Also should they do that or shouldn't they?
It's hard to tell if someone's serious. I guess it would really depend on if they found out who you were and if you were reported to the Secret Service. Frankly, I don't think anything really needs to be done.

Repost ;)

1) you can arrest the preacher, doesn't have to be long, for calling for murder, that will show him it's not okay and prevent him from calling for more murders before the first one has been carried out.
It may also give you some time to investigate his organization without him doing any further harm.
If the suspect gets killed he is guilty anyway, isn't he?
Who says he's part of an organization? And "if the suspect gets killed he is guilty anyway" is precisely the kind of callous state-first destruction of rights that we want to avoid.

2) you can give a bodyguard or two to the person he wants murdered, at least for a certain amount of time, cannot protect them for life but you can at least try, if you got the info that the cleric was preaching this then there must be someone among his followers who doesn't seem to agree with him and thinks he is serious, that would at least make the effort somewhat worthwhile. The case needs an investigation and not just wait and see what happens.
That's not a violation of anyone's rights (unless the target refuses, I guess) so that's fine.