With police departments in San Francisco and around the country still working out how to best respond to the July 7 mass shooting in Dallas, some officers have taken to proactively arresting people who have spoken ill of police on social media. The Intercept reports that these arrests are usually for speech the police consider to be threatening, and may challenge basic First Amendment rights.

“Arresting people for speech is something we should be very careful about,” security technologist at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University Bruce Schneier told the publication.

The arrests are taking place all over the country, and follow a similar pattern. Four unnamed men were arrested in Detroit after at least one of them called the Dallas shooter a hero, Detroit News reports. The paper further details the posts of the men who, despite being arrested, were not initially charged with a crime.

One reportedly wrote on Facebook, "This needs to happen more often," and accompanied his comment with video of police officers being shot. Another allegedly posted to Facebook that "[The Dallas shooter] inspired me to do the exact same thing.”

“I know this is a new issue, but I want these people charged with crimes,” Detroit Police Chief James Craig told the paper on Sunday. “I’ve directed my officers to prepare warrants for these four individuals, and we’ll see which venue is the best to pursue charges.”

The Intercept notes that this response from police is not limited to Detroit, and highlights similar cases in Connecticut, Illinois, and New Jersey.

“Certainly, posting that kind of thing on social media is a bad thought,” professor Larry Dubin of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law told the Detroit News. “But having a bad thought isn’t necessarily a crime. There are a lot of issues at play here, and I think a lot would depend on what exactly was said.”

Putting aside the First Amendment question, a reporter at The Globe and Mail was quick to point out what appears to be a glaring discrepancy in the justification for the recent arrests.

And Karen Ho wasn't the only one.

Craig, meanwhile, gives us Californians a little heads up that we may soon see similar arrests on the West Coast. "Especially now, in this current climate,” he told the Detroit News. “I don’t think that’s protected speech. In California, if you threaten to kill someone, the state statute says that’s a terrorist threat.”

“When I was in L.A., I personally arrested people for that," he added. "But with social media threats, it’s a new issue that needs to be clarified. So let’s clarify it now.”

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