An irate Kentucky house owner has been accused of constructing terroristic threats for placing out a weird Halloween show displaying native officers in physique luggage.
Stephan Marcum, 58, was charged Saturday over the macabre show, which confirmed 5 effigies with indicators suggesting they have been officers — together with the mayor, county legal professional and zoning supervisor for his hometown of Stanton, about 45 miles southeast of Lexington.
“The one hanging was labeled ‘district choose.’ There was a rope across the neck of the physique,” police wrote within the arrest quotation obtained by Lex18.
Marcum was taken into custody after refusing to take down the show or speak to cops.
Simply days earlier, he ranted on-line a few beef with native officers after studying in court docket that he “violated quite a lot of Metropolis Ordinances” at his house.
He talked about in that rant a few of the similar included in his show — thirty ninth District Decide Gary Salyers, County Lawyer Robert King, Zoning Supervisor Ann Snowden, Stanton Mayor Willie Means and the mayor’s sister.
“That is one thing you simply don’t see day by day,” Powell County Decide Govt Eddie Barnes, who was not a type of named within the show, instructed WKYT.
Barnes mentioned he’s identified Marcum for years and is aware of he selected an inappropriate approach to specific his frustration.
Stephen Voss, a political science professor on the College of Kentucky, emphasised that whereas free speech is protected by the First Modification, threats should not.
“In case you’re actively threatening somebody in a terrorizing approach, that will not be coated by the overall proper to free expression,” Voss instructed WKYT.
Voss added that within the present political local weather, particularly within the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination, “we’re seeing somewhat bit much less tolerance for violent communication or violent imagery as a result of there appears to be a larger danger individuals will enact it or carry it out.”
What up to now could have been considered as “considerably tongue-and-cheek … will not be seen as humorous or as harmless as of late,” Voss mentioned.
