Stochastic terrorism is alive and well thanks to the Trump Administration:
(CNN)Authorities arrested a Michigan man last week after he allegedly called CNN several times, threatening to kill employees at the network's Atlanta, Georgia, headquarters, according to a federal affidavit.
CNN Received the first threatening call from Brandon Griesemer on January 9th, at around 3 pm:
"Fake news. I'm coming to gun you all down," said the caller, who cursed and used an expletive directed at African-Americans, the affidavit said.
"I am on my way right now to gun the f****** CNN cast down .... I am coming to kill you," the caller said a second call to CNN, according to affidavit.
Griesemer also disparaged Jews in several of his twenty-two calls to the network. When by an operator at CNN to identify himself, he replied “Fuck you, I am coming to kill you.”
Griesemer, 19, was already being watched by law enforcement officials after threatening a mosque last September. Evidently emboldened by Trump’s election and obeying Trump’s explicit and implicit suggestions that journalists critical of him should be harmed, Griesemer emphasized his superior intelligence in his calls as well as the cache of arms he intended to use to murder the news agencies’ employees:
"I'm smarter than you, More powerful than you. I have more guns than you. More manpower. Your cast is about to get gunned down in a matter of hours," he said.
Griesemer isn’t the first Trump-spewing terrorist to act out the hatred encouraged and egged on by Trump and his Administration:
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Aggression toward journalists and news organizations has been on the rise since Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and has continued well into his first term in office.
Trump in the past has castigated news outlets and reporters — at times singling them out individually during public speeches and on social media.
Media watchdogs and ethics experts have criticized Trump and allies of the president who parrot his attacks — at best, saying they are unbecoming of a US president, and at worst, characterizing them as a threat to democracy.
He faces five years in a federal prison. Here’s hoping he gets the max.