By Emilie Chi
A California man faces multiple federal charges for sending violent threats including a bomb threat to the employees of Merriam-Webster.
Jeremy David Hanson, 34, was charged with the count of interstate communication of threats to commit violence for threats sent to the company’s headquarters back in October.
Hanson, under his username “anonYmous,” posted cryptic messages on the comment section of Merriam Webster’s site for the definition of the words “Female,” “Girl,” and “Women.” He utilized the “Contact Us” section of the website allegedly threatening to “bomb [their] offices for lying.”
He proceeded to rant in Merriam Webster’s comment section for degrading the English language with their definition of “woman.” Merriam Webster’s definition is as follows: “an adult female person.” He then continued to comment that Merriam Webster was adhering to a “cultural Marxist, anti-science tranny agenda” for their definition of a “girl.” These threatening messages continued in the comment sections for a week.
After tracing them, the Feds were able to uncover Hanson’s identity. His post is as follows: “You (sic) headquarters should be shot up and bombed. It is sickening that you have caved to the cultural Marxist, anti-science [transgender] agenda and altered the definition of ‘female’ as part of the Left’s efforts to corrupt and degrade the English language and deny reality. You evil Marxists should all be killed. It would be poetic justice to have someone storm your offices and shoot up the place, leaving none of you commies alive.”
Hanson has frequently targeted the LGBTQ community as well, and much of his behavior was unsurprising to many prosecutors. According to ABC News, prosecutors claim that Hanson notably sent related threats to multiple companies, a multitude of non-profits, and individuals from a variety of organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, Land O’ Lakes, Hasbro, Inc., IGN Entertainment, the president of the University of North Texas, two professors at Loyola Marymount University and a New York City rabbi.
Joseph Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division, states, “Everyone has a right to express their opinion, but repeatedly threatening to kill people, as has been alleged, takes it to a new level. We are always going to pursue individuals who try to intimidate and isolate members of our community by inciting violent, hateful acts. Threats to life are most certainly not protected speech and they cause real fear in victims.”
Although currently released, Hanson is scheduled to appear in federal court on April 29th in the Central District of California.