Malia Obama was photographed dancing and smoking at a rock concert, like thousands of other kids.
I am a firm believer on leaving politician’s kids alone, but now that she is eighteen, out of high school, and in public, not at a private function, I’m not as bothered by it as I would be if her sister were being photographed.
My question. If a Chicago cop in uniform decided to write her a citation, how close would he be allowed to get before the Secret Service sent him away? She doesn’t seem like the type to say, “Do you know who I am?” but she has the Secret Service to say it for her.
As an example, Jenna and Barbara Bush, daughters of former President George W Bush, were cited for possessing alcohol while underage in 2001. I’m quite sure they’re not the only presidential children to be caught for the same thing.
Personal use in Illinois is punishable by a 100 dollar fine. Hardly seems worth the SS trying to strong-arm cops away to prevent it, even if they did that sort of thing in other cases (and I don’t think they do).
Eh, I guess its inevitable, but I find it kinda ooky. She didn’t volunteer to be a public figure and she isn’t doing anything particularly news worthy.
Certainly I’m glad I didn’t have a bunch of tabloids taking pictures of the dumb stuff I did at 18.
I don’t know how the Secret Service would handle this situation. And I don’t have strong feelings one way or the other on her smoking marijuana. I just had two thoughts on the linked article.
1: I haven’t seen a tube top in years. They still make those? Are they coming back in style? If so, that’s unfortunate.
2: I never tire of that picture of Obama in the white hat, smoking a joint. That’s an awesome picture.
I’m happy they aren’t taking pictures of the dumb stuff I do now. Wandering around the parking lot looking for my car. Wandering around the store trying to figure out where they moved the pens. Getting my mail in my sweats and an old t-shirt.
When I was little I thought it would be nice to be married to Prince Charles and be a princess. I know now it would be hell. I would not be able to go near the windows of my house in my pajamas. I would be too fat or too thin, wear too much makeup or not enough, wear my favorite clothes too often or be a spendthrift by wearing new clothes too often, be a lazy stay-at-home or be away from the children too often to be a good mother. Absolute hell.
I would think her parents would have set some standards. Like: You see my daughter smoking pot, you get her the fuck home!!!
Not that I care, personally. She’s 18, and pot should be legal anyway. But unless you’re president Trump, you need to set some standards of behavior, starting with: don’t do anytime illegal.
Also, it’s really hard to protect someone’s life if they’re deliberately trying to avoid you, which an 18 year old is likely to do if her security detail is hassling her about smoking a joint.
As to the video, it’s hard to tell, but I think I see a filter on that thing. I call cigarette.
It looks like her and she is distinctive. What’s odd is it looks like there’s others around her but no sign of the Secret Service. I wouldn’t think they would let her mingle to that extent.
I was thinking the same thing about the SS, but I don’t know how much latitude the SS has in trying to restrict the activities of a legal adult. Also, how do we know that at least some of those around her aren’t SS? It would be smart for at least some of them to fit in with the local crowd, rather than all matching the cliched men in dark suits with earpieces.
And, while it could be her, I’m still not totally convinced that it is. How many pictures have we seen of political figures that have been debunked as someone similar in appearance?
I’d suggest otherwise. It’s like when people say “I’m not one to say” and then say it or “I don’t like to tell other people what to do” and then go ahead and tell someone what to do. If you’re a firm believer in leaving politician’s kids alone, all you had to do was slightly rewrite this question " If a Chicago cop in uniform decided to write her a citation, how close would he be allowed to get before the Secret Service sent him away?", perhaps "If a president’s kid was doing something illegal, could they be given a citation/arrest them or would the SS prevent them from getting doing so?
@UDS, that really wasn’t the point of the question, though. I, regular citizen couldn’t get anywhere near Malia Obama, the SS would be all over me, I mean, I see she’s with a group of people in those pictures, but I’d be willing to be those are (vetted) friends. Furthermore, I’d guess, that all she has to do is say the word and any one of them (or myself) would quickly be escorted away. The question is, could an LEO write her a ticket in the presence of the SS? Could she have them removed? Could she say she felt in danger and have the SS drag them off like they would for anyone else? In fact, was the SS even there, I know she has protection, but I don’t know that it’s ever present like it is for Barack. IIRC, we saw her playing beer pong a few years ago (under age) and there wasn’t bunch of guys in suits and sunglasses standing in the background (though there may have been mention of them some of the tweets surrounding it.
How about this: Could a random city LEO write and hand president Obama a ticket if, say, they saw him hanging out behind a building getting high or hiding out inside a building before a a public speech smoking a cigarette? Don’t get me wrong, I think he has the integrity to take his lumps, but could he, as the OP asked, ask his SS guys to remove the officers (and, I suppose, hope they don’t just mail him the ticket with a mandatory court date on it).
The Obamas are vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard.
How did she get to Chicago? No publicity (intended or not) for that kind of trip with the press hanging around?
Malia Obama isn’t in their line of command. She’s the subject of their protective efforts, not the controller of them, and they’re not accountable to her. They’ll listen to what she has to say, of course, and take it seriously but in the end it’s they, not she, who will decide what action needs to be taken to protect her.
Would they stop an LEO from approaching her? If they had any reason to think that an approach by the LEO would pose a threat to her life or safety, yes. Otherwise, no. Would they strong-arm her back to Mom and Pop if she was seen to be smoking a joint? If not doing so posed a threat to her life or safety, yes. Otherwise, no.
The mission is the mission. They wouldn’t be much use if they subordinated the mission to, or allowed themselves to be distracted from it by, other people’s irrelevant concerns.
I don’t know their vacation style (and I don’t understand your last sentence) however, Lalapalooza, in Chicago was early last week.
Actually, looking it all up, the pictures were taken on Thursday and the Obama’s arrived in MV on Saturday, so the schedule wouldn’t be a problem, but even if it overlapped, she’s old enough to travel from DC back home/Chicago and then to meet her parents “Alone” (with SS watching her while she travels).
That brings up an interesting question: What if she did something that warranted arrest and resisted or worse, resisted violently enough that an LEO drew his weapon. Would SS step in? Ignoring size difference between her and just about any officer as well as racial tensions going on at the moment, if an officer tried to arrest me and I started punching him, I’d probably have a gun pointed at me. Would the SS stop that? Technically, if whatever she did warranted arrested and she was resisting arrest, ISTM (and I’m inferring from you) the SS should stand down, however, it would behoove them to ‘break it up’ even if it’s to tell the cops ‘just give us a few minutes to calm her down and we’ll bring her back to you’.
Granted, this is a hypothetical that isn’t likely to happen, I’m just running with it.
As far as everything else, if she wants to keep the public at bay, is it just the the SS will back them off if they feel she’s in danger and other than that she would need a bodyguard/handler?
Kids grow up. Once you’re an adult, I may call you a kid because anybody under 40 seems like a kid to me, but then I think you don’t get the protection from the press that someone like Barron Trump should get. If it were Ivanka Trump doing the same thing, I’d still think of her as a kid, but would expect her to be photographed and discussed.