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. (More Arizona stories.)