Cop’s Wife Reports Threat With Black Lives Matter Hashtag

Livonia, MI — The wife of a police officer told Livonia police Monday that she had received two threatening Facebook messages with the Black Lives Matter hashtag after she liked a post that was critical of the Black Panther party, according to reports.

The woman’s husband works at an unnamed police agency in Oakland County, according to the report on WXYZ-TV. One message reportedly included a graphic of a man in a black hood cutting an officer’s throat.

A second profanity-laced message was more specific, according to the screen capture the woman shared with the TV station. It read: “I hope the next one is in your family.”

» NEWSLETTER & REAL-TIME NEWS ALERTS: Get the Top Michigan Headlines from Patch Editor Beth Dalbey

The specific post the police officer’s wife liked was a Facebook meme that showed a robot and dynamite, a reference to the killing of sniper Micah Johnson with a robot armed with explosives, that carried the message: “I’m sorry I ruined your Black Panther party.”

Livonia police are investigating the threats, WWJ/CBS Detroit reported.

“We’re going to do the best we, we’ve got some pretty good computer guys here. … I know he’s got some leads,” Livonia Police Capt. Robert Nenciarini said.

A spate of threats has been directed at police officers, both in Metro Detroit and nationally, after a sniper killed five Dallas police officers and wounded seven others to avenge the shootings of two African-Americans by white police officers in Louisiana and Minnesota last week.

» SEE ALSO: 4 in Detroit Arrested in Social Media Threat to Kill Police

Whether charges can be filed for social media threats against police officers is largely uncharted legal ground. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that “true threats” are not protected speech, but how the exception applies in different circumstances is unclear. Some legal scholars say it applies in only a small range of cases.

“That’s going to be a good question, they’re going to have to decide if it’s a real threat or if it’s a free speech right, so we’ll see,” Nenciarini said.

On Sunday, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said four people who had made social media threats to kill white police officers had been arrested and that he was working with federal, state and local authorities to determine what, if any, charges might be filed.

Craig said the hostile environment police officers work in today should raise threats against their lives to the same level as threats against the president, which would result in arrests and prosecution.

“How is it any different when someone threatens to kill white cops?” he said.

“Social media is new territory, and while it’s been established that hate speech is protected by the First Amendment, we’re talking about people specifically saying on Facebook they want to kill white police officers,” Craig told The Detroit News.