An Albuquerque, New Mexico, man was caught on camera stuffing rags into gas pump nozzles and threatening to set them on fire, all while ranting against America and praising terrorists.
Footage from a police lapel camera was recently released of the incident, which occurred in April, according to KRQE. Police responded to a report from a gas station near I-40 and arrived with bean-bag shotguns, the outlet reported. The Circle K clerk told police the man threatened to kill everyone, so the clerk “hit the emergency pump shut off button” while others called local law enforcement.
Suspect Steven Gulley immediately “threw his hands in the air and laid on the ground” once police arrived, KRQE reported.
Instead of giving his legal name when asked, Gulley responded by saying, “I’ve been known by the devil.” In custody, he told police, “I was born, raised to be a f***ing terrorist. El Diablo.”
He also told police, “I’m going to nuke this f***ing country. Red, white and blue is a b****.” In addition, he said, “Washington, DC is going to get the first prize, motherf*****. Nuclear bombs at the f***ing White House.”
Gulley also made threats against President Donald Trump and “Navy seals.”
Gulley, according to KRQE, was previously arrested last August after threatening to set fire to a Conoco station. The case was dismissed, oddly, because witnesses didn’t appear in court.
In another oddity, a judge in Gulley’s current case has allowed him to be released to pre-trial services. State prosecutors wanted him locked up until trial.
While the media predictably focuses only on death threats against Democrats (or focuses more heavily and demands Republicans change their behavior), Trump has received his share of threats.
In 2016, during a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, Michael Steven Sandford attempted to grab a police officer’s firearm in order to assassinate the then-candidate.
Quartz reported in March that prosecutions for death threats against U.S. politicians rose in 2018, including “23 prosecutions for threats against Donald Trump or those in the presidential line of succession last year, a 130% increase over 2017, when there were 10, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).”
Quartz also reported that 75% of the threats against U.S. politicians since 1990 have “come from the ideological right” primarily targeting Democrats. This could indicate members of the Right are more prone to making threats, or it could signify that they are more prone to prosecution when they do so than when left-wing zealots make threats. Media outlets also hype threats made against Democrats, especially from the Right, and downplay threats made against Republicans.
One major example is the coverage of the mass assassination attempt of Republican lawmakers on a baseball field in 2017. Though Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) nearly died from his injuries, the story lasted all of two days on the major networks. Even then, coverage turned toward blaming Republican’s for their own near-deaths.
Compare that to coverage of the Christchurch Mosque shooter in New Zealand: Nearly a week of coverage and the media tried to portray the shooter as a “right-wing extremist” even though his manifesto contained indications he was no such thing.