Cop's Wife Threatened On Facebook By Pic Of Officer With Throat Cut, Tagged 'Black Lives Matter'
LIVONIA (CBS Detroit) Police are investigating after the wife of one of their own says frightening and threatening messages were sent to her on Facebook after she liked a photo that cast aspersion at the Black Panther party.
The officer's wife says she received two messages on Facebook. One was a graphic that showed a man in a black hood slicing an officer's throat. It included the hashtag Black Lives Matter.
Another message was rife with expletives and threatened harm, saying they hope the next killing is "in her family."
Livonia police said the woman filed a report Monday night and they're looking into it. Her husband works for a nearby police department.
"We're going to do the best we can, we've got some pretty good computer guys here ... I know he's got some leads," said Livonia Police Captain Robert Nenciarini.
The wife admitted on WXYZ-TV before she received the threats she had clicked like on a Facebook meme that showed a robot with dynamite and included the message "I'm sorry I ruined your Black Panther party." The meme referenced the fact a robot armed with explosives killed Micah Johnson, the black sniper who had killed five white Dallas police officers at a Black Lives Matter rally last week.
The rally was in response to police killings of two black men last week, one in Baton Rouge and another in Minnesota. The Baton Rouge man, Alton Sterling, was face down on the ground with a gun allegedly in his pocket when officers shot him in the course of an arrest; The Minnesota man, Philando Castile, was shot to death while reaching into his pocket for identification after allegedly informing officers he had a concealed weapons permit when police pulled him over for a traffic stop. His girlfriend and 4-year-old daughter witnessed his death.
"The robot picture on your page shows the kind of **** you are," reads one of the messages sent to the cop's wife.
She told WXYZ she hasn't slept in days.
If a culprit is caught, what repercussion could they face?
"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.