Kansas man charged in racist Snapchat threat to Black Derby high school student
A 20-year-old Cheney man has been indicted and arrested on federal charges that he made a racist threat online targeting an African-American Derby High school student.
Gage H. Clausen, 20, is accused of sending a social media message stating: “(Racial slur) id skin you like a (expletive) (other racial slur). Oh (expletive) no difference you’re a filthy farm animal maybe you’d be good probably just get whipped and burned run away marks.”
The message was sent to a 15-year-old high school student — a juvenile identified in court records only as SS.
The indictment alleges the message was sent through Snapchat. The social-media platform specializes in pictures and messages that appear on a user’s screen for a short time and then disappear and become inaccessible to the recipient.
The federal court indictment does not give any details on what prompted the alleged outburst. The indictment charged that the racist rant was sent on June 27.
The charges were brought under a section of the federal code dealing with extortion and kidnapping.
The relevant section 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 (up to $250,000) under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”
Although both parties in the case were in Kansas at the time of the incident, messages sent through Snapchat and other social-media platforms are considered interstate communications under federal law, because they are transmitted to and delivered through computer equipment situated in other states, said U.S. attorney’s spokesman Jim Cross.
This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 2:22 PM.
