A girl from IDK what fandom got an embarrassing visit from the Secret Service in 2004 after making a jokey post on LiveJournal “praying” for God to smite the President in an embarrassing or scandalous way. Nothing came of it but a stern lecture, but it’s good to know the rules on this depending on dangerous it is for you to come into contact with law enforcement.
For US security purposes, always assume criminal death threats include:
-Jokes, even really obvious jokes about movies, memes, etc.
-Anything that starts “I hope/wish someone…” or “When is someone going to…” or “Someone should really…” These are treated the same as “I am going to…” This applies even to fictional characters, like “I hope Darth Vader…”
-Fantasies/stories about assassination or the aftermath of an assassination.
-Things like “We could really use a [name of famous assassin]” or “Anyone know when the President is going to [location of previous assassination]?”
Don’t come into contact with law enforcement if you don’t have to.