An Alabama senator is filing a new bill that creates a new offense for those interfering with first responders. State Senator April Weaver announced the new criminal offense on Monday, which happens when a person "remains 25-feet of a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or emergency services personnel after being told to vacate the area." An individual would also be charged if they threaten a first responder with physical harm or physically harm the personnel. It would be classified as a Class A misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to six-thousand-dollars.
The issue of interfering with, or threatening, law officers has become a hot button issue with the ICE presence in Minnesota. A Minneapolis man was arrested after federal prosecutors said he made online threats against Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and against a person who supported ICE during the federal crackdown in Minnesota.
Kyle Wagner, 37, is charged in a criminal complaint with violating cyberstalking and interstate communications laws for allegedly using his Instagram account to dox a “pro-ICE individual” by publishing a phone number, birth month and year, and suburban Detroit address. The complaint says Wagner later admitted that he doxed the victim’s parents’ house.
The complaint also details several online posts in which prosecutors say Wagner threatened immigration officers. Court records in Detroit, Michigan, where the case was filed, did not list an attorney who could speak on Wagner’s behalf. The complaint was filed on Feb. 3, and unsealed Thursday.
When Trump administration border czar Tom Homan announced that about 700 federal officers deployed to Minnesota would be withdrawn immediately, he said a larger pullout would occur only after there’s more cooperation and protesters stop interfering with federal personnel.
According to prosecutors, Wagner repeatedly posted on Facebook and Instagram encouraging his followers to “forcibly confront, assault, impede, oppose, and resist federal officers” whom he referred to as the “gestapo” and “murderers.”
The complaint alleges Wagner posted a video last month that directly threatened ICE officers with an obscenity-laden rant. “I’ve already bled for this city, I’ve already fought for this city, this is nothing new, we’re ready this time," he said, concluding that he was “coming for” ICE.
The complaint further alleges that Wagner advocated for physical confrontation in another post, stating: “Anywhere we have an opportunity to get our hands on them, we need to put our hands on them.”
Federal prosecutors didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on why the case was filed in Michigan instead of Minnesota. The alleged doxing was the only Michigan connection listed in the complaint.
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Minnesota has been hit by the resignations of several prosecutors in recent weeks amid frustrations with the surge and its handling of the shooting deaths of two people by government officers. One lawyer, who told a judge that her job “sucks,” was removed from her post.
Trump’s chief federal prosecutor for Minnesota, Dan Rosen, told a federal appeals court in a recent filing that his office is facing a “flood of new litigation” and is struggling to keep up just with immigration cases, while his division that handles civil cases is down 50%.
Rosen wrote that his office has canceled other civil enforcement work “and is operating in a reactive mode.” He also said his attorneys are “appearing daily for hearings on contempt motions. The Court is setting deadlines within hours, including weekends and holidays. Paralegals are continuously working overtime. Lawyers are continuously working overtime.”
