Question

Kenneth Wheeler was angry at certain police officers in Grand Junction, Colorado, because of a driving-under-the-influence arrest that he viewed as unjust. While in Italy, Wheeler posted a statement to his Facebook page urging his "religious followers" to "kill cops, drown them in the blood of their children, hunt them down and kill their entire bloodlines" and provided names. Later, Wheeler added a post to "commit a massacre in the Stepping Stones preschool and day care, just walk in and kill everybody." Could a reasonable person conclude that Wheeler's posts were true threats? How might law enforcement officers use Wheeler's posts? Explain.

Answer 1

Yes, any reasonable person would conclude that Kenneth Wheelers' posts were true threats. The Law Enforcement also makes use of social media in order to detect and prosecute the criminals that they are able to locate. The law enforcement officers also use various social media outlets in order to determine the location of certain suspects and in some cases, in order to determine or verify a suspect/criminal's identity.

In this case, Kenneth Wheeler believed that he was being set-up by police officers in Grand Junction, Colorado and that the driving-under-the-influence arrest was unjust. Wheeler then posted all of the mentioned statements on his Facebook page. When a prosecuting court has to determine if a 'true' threat has actually been made, they ask whether the ones who actually heard or read the threat believe that an actual threat has been made. The exhortations made by Wheeler to a large number of unspecified individuals to commit violence amounts to a true threat, more so since any reasonable person will believe that the individuals being urged and coerced to take extremely violent action are acting on the will and orders of the threatening person or persons. As such, law enforcement officers may use Wheelers' posts in order to detect and catch any related crimes happening, and then also use the posts in order to find Wheelers' location.