Sergeant Anthony Edenfield of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) has been decommissioned and suspended for social media posts blasting protesters with derogatory names and foul language. A screenshot of one of his posts reads as follows:
"This **** has moved on from being about George Floyd. These idiots want to act like animals, block the road and start a checkpoint asking people if they are police officers? I am running them over, and shooting if lethal force were my only way out. The ****** under the truck got what he deserved." - Anthony Edenfield
We believe that this post violated Title 18 United States Code Section 875(c) which reads "Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both." The courts have ruled that online transmissions take place in interstate and foreign commerce because the internet is a network computers in different states and countries. When someone in Louisiana posts on Facebook they are not just communicating in Louisiana even if the only people that read the post are in Louisiana. That is because the message itself is transmitted to Facebook's servers in California and elsewhere. That gives the Federal Bureau of Investigation the jurisdiction to charge Edenfield in federal court for making a clear and imminent threat that would cause alarm to a reasonable person.
According to public records, Edenfield can be reached at the following email addresses aedenfield[at]cityofno.com, taz3943[at]cox.net, and taz3[at]cox.net