The day after a deadly mass shooting at Covenant School in Nashville, 34-year-old Adam Michael Nettina of West Friendship, Maryland left a voicemail for the Human Rights Campaign. Because the perpetrator of the shooting was a transgender man, Nettina was eager to hurl death threats. His reaction comes in light of Republican politicians spewing anti-transgender rhetoric; indeed, Nettina worked for several GOP politicians.
You guys going to shoot up our schools now? Is that how it’s going to be? You just gonna to kill little kids. You’re just going to slaughter fucking little kids. Let me tell you something, we’re waiting, we’re waiting. And if you want a war, we’ll have a war. And we’ll fucking slaughter you back. We’ll cut your throats. We’ll put a bullet in your head. We’re not going to give a fuck. You started this bullshit. You’re going to kill us? We’re going to kill you ten times more in full.
Federal officials were able to trace the threatening phone call to Adam Michael Nettina’s mobile phone number and charge Nettina himself. Nettina is detained until a detention hearing that will take place on 7 April. If convicted, Nettina faces a maximum of five years in federal prison for “interstate communications with a threat to injure”.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland and Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski of the FBI Baltimore Field Office made the announcement.
The FBI Baltimore Field Office investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul E. Budlow for the District of Maryland and Deputy Chief Bobbi Bernstein of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section are prosecuting the case.
HRC spokesperson Elizabeth Bibi has linked the threat to fervent anti-LGBTQ sentiment in state legislatures nationwide.
HRC spokesperson Elizabeth Bibi put the threat in context of other attacks on LGBTQ+ Americans. “The LGBTQ+ community is under attack in statehouses across the country and on social media platforms,” she told The Advocate via email. “This violent, hateful rhetoric leads to stigma, and stigma leads to physical violence. As we see radical politicians sow hate and fear with anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, we have seen the physical threats to our community multiply — from armed men at Pride parades, to threats of violence against local drag shows at libraries, to bomb threats at children’s hospitals, to the continued rise in fatal violence against members of our community, especially Black transgender women.
“Late last month, HRC received two threatening voicemails. These threats were referred to law enforcement, who have since confirmed that they have made an arrest. We are grateful to law enforcement for acting so quickly to keep our community safe, and we condemn any and all violent words or deeds. We will continue our work to call out those who spread violence, fear, and disinformation.”
The Religious Right have nothing to apologise for. Or do they?
"CatholicVote is deeply saddened to learn of this troubling incident,” CatholicVote told WUSA9 in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “We have zero tolerance for threats of violence from any employee or independent contractor. We have terminated this individual’s independent contractor agreement and the few articles that he produced have been removed from our website."