Social media post’s racial link under investigation
Dublin police are reviewing a social media post by a man who circulated a photo of a 17yearold Dublin High School student and called for militia groups to turn out at a citybacked art installation event this weekend focused on racial justice.
In the public Facebook post, Mike Grant, who police described as a longtime Dublin resident, said a city elected leader “wants to let the black lives matter thugs put signs up promoting their agenda.” He called on members of the National Rifle Association, Oath Keepers and Three Percenters to show up at the Dublin City Hall parking lot Sunday morning “and get ready for a Fun couple hours.”
“Oath Keepers please bring your vests and helmets in case these BLM people start trouble,” Grant wrote. “Remember this group is known as a ‘ left wing’ anti government group. Take Dublin Back!!”
The Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters as parts of a broader “antigovernment militia movement” in the United States.
Grant’s post attached a photo of a smiling 17yearold Dublin High School student, Denel
McMahan, and said, “Patriots This is the TriValley BLM leader. A Dublin High School kid.”
It’s unclear when the post was published, but Denel said he was first alerted to the post on Nov. 7. The post no longer appeared on Facebook.
Denel, a senior, is president of his school’s Black Student Union and a member of the TriValley for Black Lives group, which spearheaded the art installation — the Sign Garden for Justice project. City Council members voted unanimously last week to support the temporary “Citycurated installation of public art at the Civic Center to honor the community’s fight for racial justice and equality.” The traveling installation has made stops at Livermore and Pleasanton, and will spend one week at Dublin Civic Center.
Dublin Police Chief Garrett Holmes told The Chronicle on Thursday that police have “taken a report from the ( McMahan) family and are reviewing the facts to determine if any of the content of Mr. Grant’s post are criminal in nature.”
Holmes said police are reviewing Penal Codes 422, 415, and 404 to determine whether Grant’s social media post falls into any of the code sections.
Penal Code 422 refers to making criminal threats, Penal Code 415 refers to crimes against public peace — such as fighting or challenging another person to fight in a public space, or a person who uses “offensive words in a public place which are inherently likely to provoke an immediate violent reaction” — and Penal Code 404 refers to crimes against the public peace, such as “Any use of force or violence, disturbing the public peace, or any threat to use force or violence, if accompanied by immediate power of execution, by two or more persons acting together, and without authority of law, is a riot.”
“The question will be is the content of the post protected by the First Amendment or criminal in nature,” Holmes said. “We will discuss our report with the District Attorney’s Office so they can determine if the case meets the threshold for charging.”
Dublin police will be in attendance Sunday, and Holmes said “we do not anticipate any problems at this time.”
Denel, the student, said he was in Las Vegas with family when a friend sent him screenshots of the Facebook post on Nov. 7.
“I was super nervous. I couldn’t even think properly. I was literally just emailing people, like, to know what to do,” Denel said. “It was pretty crazy. I couldn’t process it really, for like an hour.”
He logged onto Facebook to see the post himself, and saw that 30 people had already shared the post with his photograph.
“That’s when I got scared. I was like, ‘ That’s 30 people that could be looking out for me, seeing me as some radical thug,’ which I’m not,” Denel said.
He immediately stripped his photograph from his social media accounts, and changed the privacy settings to make his accounts inaccessible to strangers.
When he said he told his parents that he “was being targeted by a racist on Facebook,” his mother, an attorney, started to track down Grant, filed a police report with Dublin police and a report with the FBI.
Mike Grant could not be reached for comment on Thursday, but he told other news organizations that he did not advocate for violence in his social media posts.
Denel said his father reached Grant by phone, who apologized and wants to make amends in person during the week of Thanksgiving. Denel said despite the temporary “emotional cycle” the post caused shortly after its posting, he said he is willing to speak one on one with Grant.
“I was willing to do it because one of my goals is to educate people. Just because something happened to me — that I was done wrong — doesn’t mean that I’m going to be wrong to him,” Denel said. “If he wants to come out and be educated, I’m more than fine with that.”
“I want to be able to show people that real unity can bring change, especially the problems of racism, which are centuries old,” Denel said.
Dublin Unified School District Superintendent Daniel R. Moirao condemned the post in a message to the school community Monday.
“Regardless of anyone’s position on temporary art installations, or the BLM movement, there is absolutely no justifiable reason to post a photo of a child in our community, or any community, in an effort to stir up division and further a cause,” Moirao said. “This is wrong. I’m simply aghast that someone would do such a thing, and in the process, potentially put one of our children in danger.”