Source: Leo Hohmann, by Leo Hohmann, February 2018
Nheru Littleton, a 41-year-old Detroit man charged with making online death threats against Detroit police officers, pleaded guilty Feb. 7 to one count of making a terrorist threat.
Another charge against him, using a computer to commit a crime, was dismissed.
In one of his posts, Littleton said: “All lives can’t matter until Black Lives matter!!! Kill all white cops!!!”
Yet, according to Wayne County’s top prosecutor, there is no evidence Littleton intended to commit any violent act or spur others to do so.
After reviewing the cases, Wayne Prosecutor Kym Worthy declined to prosecute Littleton. Worthy acknowledged that the statements were disturbing, but concluded they were not a “true threat” as required for criminal prosecution under Michigan law and the First Amendment.
The U.S. Department of Justice also declined to file any hate-crime charges against Littleton.
Compare this lackadaisical response to that of former Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the wake of the San Bernardino terrorist attack in December 2015, when she famously threatened to “aggressively prosecute” anyone whose speech “edged toward violence” against Muslims. Similar threats to prosecute Americans who spoke critically about Islam or Muslims were made during high-profile terrorist trials in Minnesota, by former Obama-appointed U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, and in Idaho by former Obama-appointed U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson.
But in Michigan justice still prevailed, thanks to Detroit Police Chief James Craig, who would not let the case fall through the cracks after Worthy dropped the ball.
Craig appealed to the state attorney general’s office. A few weeks later AG Bill Schuette held a joint press conference with Craig to announce his office would directly prosecute Littleton for the Facebook posts.
“This is a fight worth fighting, we cannot allow it to be open season on police,” Schutte said.
Littleton’s plea was made before Judge Vonda Evans of Third Circuit Court in Detroit. He is due back on April 10 for sentencing, the Detroit News reported.
The plea comes more than a year after Michigan Attorney General Schuette announced the charges against Littleton. He was arraigned in October 2017.
Littleton made the threats in nine online posts on July 8 and July 9, 2016, threats which included statements such as “To those sniper’s (sic) in Texas, I commend your bravery and actions!! #blacklivesmatter” and “Kill all white cops!!!”
His Facebook posts came exactly one year after Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan was exhorting his followers to kill white cops. In a July 2015 sermon before a packed Mount Zion Baptist Church in Miami, Florida, Farrakhan urged his followers to “stalk them and kill them and make them feel the pain that we are feeling.” A rash of ambush attacks on cops across America ensued.
But Worthy, a Democrat, declined to charge Littleton, citing “substandard” police work that failed to prove Littleton was in Wayne County when he made the threats.
Said Worthy at the time: “The statement is vague. He did not indicate that he was the one who was going to kill all white cops, and never said that his Facebook friends should kill all white cops. Further, he did not indicate when all white officers should be killed or which white officers should be killed.
“There is no evidence the suspect took any action himself, or did anything to facilitate the killing of white officers.”
Worthy added Littleton was in Puerto Rico when he wrote the post, which is out of her office’s jurisdiction.
Schuette’s office felt otherwise.
“These charges are solid and substantive. I stand with the cops,” he said at the time. “These threats are serious. They provoke violence. We filed these charges; they’re solid, and this is a fight worth fighting for.”
Littleton’s defense team attempted to get the charges dismissed at a March 14 hearing, but failed.
With his trial set to begin on June 5, the Michigan Supreme Court ordered a stay in the proceedings, until the stay was overturned in November.
Leo Hohmann is a veteran journalist and author of the 2017 book “Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest through Immigration and Resettlement Jihad.” If you appreciate this type of original, fact-based reporting on topics others are afraid to investigate, please consider a donation of any size to this website.
