Police Care About Online Threats—When They're Directed at Police

Four Detroit men were arrested over the past week for social media posts that Police Chief James Craig characterized as "threatening." The Intercept reports that none of the men have been named or charged so far.

The arrests follow the shooting deaths of five police officers in Dallas on July 7; one of the men arrested in Detroit over his social media comments had reportedly tweeted that the Dallas attacker, Micah Johnson, was a hero.

It is unclear how the police will choose to bring charges. In June, the Supreme Court reversed the conviction of a Pennsylvania man who threatened his wife on Facebook, ruling that "prosecutors must do more than prove that reasonable people would view statements as threats." The decision makes it more difficult to prosecute people for statements made on social media.

The issue of internet harassment and accountability—and the way in which it interacts with freedom of speech—has been a hotly debated subject for years. In a landmark 2014 Pacific Standard article, Amanda Hess described her difficulty in getting law enforcement to seriously respond to numerous rape and death threats she'd received on Twitter. "The first time I reported an online rape threat to police, in 2009, the officer dispatched to my home asked, 'Why would anyone bother to do something like that?' and declined to file a report," she wrote. Many other women have shared similar accounts of police indifference or general confusion in years since.

Dr. Sameer Hinduja, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Florida Atlantic University and co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, speculates that police chiefs and other supervising officers making these arrests are acting out of an emotional and visceral impulse following the Dallas killings. But he tells Broadly that current harassment laws often do not apply to social media.

Data from a 2015 survey conducted by the Cyberbullying Research Center show that more than a third of respondents had been victims of online harassment, with adolescent girls at the most significant risk. However, Hinduja has found that complexities and conflicts within written case law make it difficult to define and prosecute online behavior.

Recent cases of arrests related to online threats against police officers in Connecticut, Illinois, and New Jersey have resulted in charges that include public intimidation and disorderly conduct. Hinduja says it is unclear whether convictions will result from these charges, or if courts will see them as non-viable threats made during a time of inflamed emotions.

"We live in a very reactive time," says Hinduja. "When there is a suicide in the news related to cyberbullying or sexting, the politicians and legislators are clamoring for a solution. But once it is out of the headlines, some of the actions related to prevention and response die down."

According to him, police are "not being strategic" in these recent cases; however, he hopes that the recent spate of arrests inspires more thought about the issue of online harassment. "Hopefully we'll get more clarity and consistency in the way that laws are applied to online speech," he says.