RISING RHETORIC FEEDS INTO
Superheated partisan rhetoric spilled over into criminal charges as the feds targeted a Cambridge man they say tweeted a $500 hit bid for the killing of an ICE agent — prompting the GOP’s Geoff Diehl to accuse U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of encouraging violence with her own anti-ICE message.
Brandon James Ziobrowski, 33, of Cambridge, was arrested in New York City yesterday and will be arraigned in federal court in Boston next Wednesday on a charge of making threats in a tweet that called for the murder of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. He was freed on $50,000 unsecured bond and on a GPS bracelet until he turns his passport in.
“I am broke but I will scrounge and literally give $500 to anyone who kills an ice agent. @me seriously who else can pledge get in on this let’s make it work,” Ziobrowski tweeted on July 2, according to the indictment.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said the tweet represented an escalation of Ziobrowski’s anti-ICE, anti-police messages.
“There is a rising trend upward in threats against the lives of law enforcement officers, especially those who are involved in enforcing federal immigration laws,” Lelling said yesterday, flanked by Boston FBI Special Agent in Charge Harold Shaw and Boston Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Peter Fitzhugh as they announced the arrest.
“There is a point in which rhetoric veers into irresponsible and sometimes criminal acts,” Lelling said.
Authorities say Ziobrowski tweeted under the handle @Vine_ II and name “adobe_flash_player. dmg.”
Lelling said there’s no evidence to suggest anyone tried to take him up on the offer, but the U.S. attorney did note that two people “liked” the tweet and Ziobrowski had about 400 followers at the time before Twitter suspended his account.
Diehl, a Republican state representative who is running for Warren’s seat, told the Herald inflammatory rhetoric plays a role in incidents such as this.
“This is exactly why I made the comments I made the other day about Elizabeth Warren being so dangerous,” said Diehl, who made waves in a Boston Herald Radio debate Tuesday by saying the senior Bay State senator is more dangerous than Russia and followed that by doubling down the next day. “You incite the kind of violence that this person wanted to carry out.”
Diehl also tweeted, “Abolish ICE? Calling our law enforcement officers racist? It’s time for Elizabeth Warren to retract and apologize.”
Both U.S. senators from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey, have joined the left’s rallying call to “abolish ICE,” with Markey calling it a “deportation army.”
When asked about Diehl’s accusation, Warren’s Senate office said in a statement yesterday: “We do not condone violence. We can have respectful discussions and civil dis-