Georgia Man Arrested For Posting ‘Kill White Cops’ On Facebook — Is It Protected Free Speech?
A Georgia man has been arrested for posting the words “Kill all white cops” on Facebook, the latest in a growing list of people who have been arrested for posting anti-police rhetoric on social media in recent weeks.
As the Macon Telegraph reports, Derrick Hudson, 19, posted a comment on the Facebook page of Macon TV station WGXA, where he and other users were responding to a video of Alton Sterling’s 15-year-old son speaking out about his father’s death. Alton Sterling was shot and killed by Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police on July 5 under questionable justification.
The #AltonSterling shooting raises some serious questions… https://t.co/Ph5U8lh0Of pic.twitter.com/fD9XO9DisO
— Cato Institute (@CatoInstitute) July 17, 2016
In response to the video, Hudson allegedly posted the following.
“Just kill all white cracker cops LLH” [laughing like hell]”
That was enough to convince the Bibb County Sheriff’s Department that Hudson was making threats against police. An officer took a screenshot of Hudson’s post, then obtained a warrant for his arrest, alleging that his words “constitut[ed] murdering law enforcement officers both locally and abroad by reaching out to the public on a social platform in a matter that requests, commands and importunes another person.”
He was arrested and taken to the Bibb County Jail.
Hudson is not the first person to be jailed for anti-cop rhetoric posted on social media. Back in 2014, Charles DiRosa of Chicopee, Massachusetts, was arrested and jailed for posting the words “put wings on pigs” on Facebook, according to CBS Boston. DiRosa was referencing a similar statement that Brooklyn cop killer Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley had posted on social media before he went on to murder two police officers in cold blood.
@KelticSC @TheRevAl Will let’s start with the two cops assassinated in NYC Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley, pic.twitter.com/PLaIyAW1PR
— Justin Cessna (@Capt_Kirk45) June 5, 2015
Similarly, on June 9 of this year, Kasheema Tachel Wadley of Swainsboro, Georgia, was arrested for allegedly threatening cops on social media, according to Emanuel County Live. Authorities aren’t revealing specifically what she allegedly posted, but they say that she advocated violence against cops during traffic stops and at the homes of police officers.
And in Detroit, according to the Intercept, at least four people have recently been arrested for allegedly making social media posts that appeared to threaten police. Detroit Police Chief James Craig made it clear that, in the wake of the killings of police officers in Dallas, appearing to threaten cops on social media will not be tolerated.
“I want these people charged with crimes.”
Whether or not making anti-cop posts on social media is actually a crime is a difficult issue. Ostensibly, the First Amendment protects free speech, although certain exceptions are made for inciting violence or making specific threats. And in 2015, the Supreme Court made it clear, in Elonis v. United States (a case in which a man was prosecuted for posting violent rap lyrics about his estranged wife), that a “reasonable person” would have to conclude to conclude that whatever was posted was actually a threat, and that his or her intent was to threaten.
Bruce Schneier, security technologist at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, warns that arresting people for social media posts is a dangerous game.
“Arresting people for speech is something we should be very careful about.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Larry Dubin of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
“Certainly, posting that kind of thing on social media is a bad thought. But having a bad thought isn’t necessarily a crime.”
Regardless of constitutional issues, police are playing it safe when it comes to perceived threats on social media, particularly in light of the murders of five police officers in Dallas, and at a time when tensions between cops and the general public are high. The arrest of Derrick Hudson for his anti-cop rhetoric on social media proves that cops prefer to err on the side of caution.
[Image via Bibb County Jail]
