According to KIRO, some dingus on 8chan, a public forum known to be populated by trolls, hurled threats and anti-Semitic slurs at Ari Hoffman, a city council candidate running in District 2.
On Monday the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) published screenshots of an anonymously written post on the forum. The original post read, “This fucker is running for Seattle city council [The individual] lives on my street, and has an isreali flag hanging out front. What is the move?”
One of the commenters replied with a death threat: “Kill [the individual]. Literally kill [the individual].”
Over the phone, Hoffman told me MEMRI sent the 8chan post to the FBI. Another FBI spokesperson, Special Agent Shelley Gryz, confirmed a source tipped off the agency but wouldn’t reveal the name.
Hoffman said he hasn’t experienced any more threats or harassment since the post.
In a statement, Jillian Voigt of the FBI Seattle Public Affairs office says, “We are aware of the situation and are in regular contact with local authorities, and will take appropriate action if information develops to suggest a potential federal violation.”
Sitting Seattle City Council members have also recently endured threats and harassment over email and on social media.
Though those threats were also serious, an FBI spokesperson says the bureau “has not recently been involved in threats directed at Seattle City Council members specifically.” They must not be reading Erica C. Barnett’s city hall reporting.
As Barnett reported back in April, council members received threats and harassment after not giving their full attention to a serial public commenter who often speaks off topic. Here’s a sample from Barnett’s story:
Writers also targeted council member Kshama Sawant with sexist and racist slurs, including ‘a truly revolting individual and a cancer that plagues the Jewel of the Pacific Northwest’; a ‘racist hypocrite against the usa [sic] worthless politician’; a ‘piece of shit’ ‘fucking Muslim’ who should ‘go back to your ducking [sic] country’; and, of course, a bitch. Callers to Gonzalez’s office left messages saying she ‘should honestly get the fuck out of this country because you don’t belong here’; that she should ‘go fuck yourself, you fucking piece of shit’; and calling her ‘a vile and disgusting load of shit, you fucking bitch.’
Public records reveal other examples, too. “You have about 2minutes left in office. Bitch,” read one email directed at Juarez. “People like you don’t deserve to be treated as human,” read another.
“Eat shit, all of you. Nothing but braindead anti American weak lame shit eating Communist fags, niggers , sand niggers and filthy Jews,” wrote another.
“Poor citizen who probably voted for you can’t even speak not one word. Because you bums are to good for him. I’m wasting my time writing this but your a disgrace and so is the council. You are ruining what once was a great city,” read another email directed at Sawant.
“I am appalled at your callous and arrogant demeanor toward the white male CITIZEN at the city council meeting last week,” read another.
Most of the 1,135 emails generally scold the council members for not looking up from their phones, but there’s plenty of straightforward threats and racist and sexist nonsense in there, too.
Public records also show that back in 2018, after publishing the home addresses of council members Rob Johnson and Debora Juarez, a commenter on Nextdoor proposed a pretty complex harassment scheme. “100% willing to raise money for a couple of ratty motorhomes to give to some druggies and park them in front of their homes. If you don’t want to be public in your participation, please PM me if you are interested,” the commenter wrote. City officials flagged the message and forwarded it to “SPD Intell.”
And let’s not forget that in the run-up to the 2018 elections, local and national Republican operatives distributed mailers featuring Jewish candidates holding bags of money or fanning out dollar bills, tapping into old stereotypes. The mailers were distributed only a week after a right-wing nutjob gunned down 11 Jews in Pittsburgh because the President told him George Soros was paying a caravan of migrants to “invade” the country.
