Daniel Barber of San Francisco was recently arrested for allegedly threatening Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after he sent his honest opinion of the agency to Acting Director Todd Lyons. The email of Barber's opinions released following his arrest stops short of containing "true threats" under the law despite his stated homicidal wishes. Barber also clearly stated "that is not a threat" before explaining "but simply my opinion" which no reasonable person would interpret as an intention to engage homicidal violence himself.
The first opinion Barker is accused of sending to Lyons was "YOUR GESTAPO NAZI MAGGOT ICE AGENTS SHOULD BE TERRIFIED." Of course they "should be terrified" because they've pissed off most of the country. That is clearly a statement of opinion. To qualify as a threat he would have to say something indicating imminent bodily harm like "agents should be terrified because I am going to put an end to them once and for all." That kind of statement which I am only using as an example is the kind of thing the government typically needs to obtain a valid threat conviction. Simply calling them maggots and saying they "should be terrified" does not meet the threshold of a criminal threat under federal law.
The next opinion Barber is accused of sending to Lyons was "EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM DESERVES TO BE ARRESTED BY ARMED AMERICAN CITIZENS, FROGMARCHED INTO THE STREETS, SUMMARILY TRIED AND CONVICTED OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY THERE IN PUBLIC, AND SUBSEQUENTLY EXECUTED RIGHT THERE AS WELL WITH TWO FKING BULLETS TO THE BACK OF THEIR MAGGOT NAZI HEADS!" That is also a statement of opinion. He is not saying that he or any other American citizen is going to arrest ICE agents, hold a trial, and execute them. He is simply expressing his true honest opinion that ICE agents should be rounded up and shot.
I said the same thing about all federal agents years ago because in my opinion every federal law enforcement officer deserved to be rounded up, put on trial as traitors for violating their oath to the Constitution, and executed so that they may swiftly be replaced by people loyal to the Constitution until proven otherwise in which case the process repeats. My logical opinion was that the current government is so far gone that we're best hitting the reset button. I had a First Amendment right to say that and if I feel like saying it again in the future I reserve the right to do so.