The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department took to social media on Tuesday to complain about alleged “hate speech” in the comments section of their Facebook page and stated they would hide comments they consider to be in violation of their community guidelines.
“There has been an increase in hate speech on our page recently. The purpose of this page is for productive community engagement, and instructive or educational information for Cumberland County residents. We hope that this page will continue to be that for everyone,” said the department on Facebook.
The post came with a reminder of the Facebook page’s “community guidelines,” urging respectful communication and condemning anything that the page administrators consider harassment, discrimination, vulgarity, or hate speech.
The department threatened to hide any posts that they believed violated their community guidelines.
The community did not appear pleased with the Sheriff’s Department’s post.
“Yes don’t encourage apprehension of crimes of all types. Especially not the ones from away, General Mills gets upset,” said one user.
“Please share the common definition of hate speech. Are you seriously pulling the victim card? You going to fake fainting next? Any other dramatics I should prepare for,” said another.
One user expressed concerns that the department could violate the First Amendment if it chooses to hide comments.
“Hey, Jabronis, you don’t reserve the right to hide or delete anything. Doing so is a First Amendment violation. Indeed, this is such well-established case law, the person or people who crafted this policy along with whoever actually hides or deletes comments will likely lose their court-invented qualified immunity,” he said.
There does appear to be some potential for legal issues, given the precedent set by Davison v. Randall. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in that case that a school board member’s official Facebook page constituted a public forum, and thus she could not legally bar people from commenting on her posts.
Notably, that ruling pertained to barring comments based on an opinion expressed rather than “harassment” or “hate speech,” making it unclear whether the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office could actually face legal liability for any posts they may hide.
Though the Cumberland Sheriff’s Department did not specify what had drawn the alleged “hate speech” that sparked their post, one recent post that celebrated a new corrections officer drew contentious comments.
That post prompted a series of replies suggesting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would soon be looking into the department.
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Those comments were likely spurred on after the ICE arrest of Old Orchard Beach police officer John Luke Evans in July for overstaying his visa.
