Should @KathyGriffin be arrested for her actions?

Just yesterday comedian Kathy Griffin published a horrific photograph of a bloodied President Donald J. Trump mask as if he was decapitated.  The photo hit the internet in a frenzied storm as people were shocked and outraged at the comedian’s offensive gesture. Griffin’s gory picture reminded me of the Daniel Pearl beheading video I watched late one night in 2002.

I was repulsed, incensed, and infuriated.

During my 25-year law enforcement career in the Baltimore County Police Department, I had the pleasure of working with the agency’s Dignitary Witness Protection Team for eight years as an ad hoc assignment. When I was first accepted into the unit, I underwent 40 hours of training, most of which was conducted by the United States Secret Service (USSS), where we engaged in practical exercises enhancing our knowledge of the defensive practices used to protect the President of the United States (POTUS).

@SecretService tweet.

The USSS assisted our agency in this training due primarily to the fact that our jurisdiction was relatively close to Washington D.C. and afford the POTUS the opportunity to make an appearance outside of DC and return with little interruption in their itinerary. During my duration of service in the DWPT, I helped supplement USSS protection details for several distinguished dignitaries, to include President William J. Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who visited Baltimore County, Maryland for various reasons.

The number of hours that goes into the preparation, facilitation, and assessment of each event is enormous. In anticipation of each detail, members of the USSS and the DWPT would work through known threats and assess their potential for bringing harm to an event. Due to the necessity to complete this task with our responsibilities, we were versed in the federal laws concerning threatening the POTUS.

According to the Cornell Law School website, threatening the POTUS is a class E felony, and defined under Title 18, U.S. Code § 871, paragraph (a) as:

(a) Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. [emphasis added]

In evaluating Kathy Griffin’s published photograph of a beheaded POTUS, her actions are tantamount to a violation of the federal statute. However, some would raise the flag of “Freedom of Speech” to Griffin’s defense. After all, early colonist hung politicians in effigy and still do today as recent news articles have accounted for George W. Bush and Barrack Obama hung in effigy.

While the debate remains if Griffin’s actions fall under her First Amendment right to speech, the USSS has indicated in a recent tweet that they are investigating the incident.

For me, Griffin’s actions were repulsive and crossed the criminal line.  SCOTUS has reviewed a myriad of cases through the decades defining the lines of our freedom speech.  In the infamous 1919 Schenck v. United States case, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. gives a summation of the concept that remains today. While people have the right to express themselves through their speech, shouting “fire” in a public place and inciting the potential to bring about harm to others is not protected speech.

This simple premise remains foundational today.

Kathy Griffin crossed a line, and for that, she should be held accountable. Whether through legal channels, our society, or both, Griffin needs to understand that the message conveyed through her fiery speech can never be taken back. They will forever resonate in our minds as hateful. We should recall the Proverb that says: “Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.”

Even with her apology, Griffin has forever left an indelible imprint on me that will cast her in a dark shadow. In the future, whenever I will hear her name or see her in the limelight, her accomplishments will be diminished by this one reckless indiscretion.

Perhaps some valuable words of advice I learned many years ago would be appropriate:

“Think before you speak.”