A Maryland man will spend more than a year in federal prison after a judge handed down a 15-month sentence for making violent, hate-filled threats online, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.
U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson sentenced Raymond Pumphrey, 47, to the prison term, which will be followed by three years of supervised release, according to a DOJ statement.
As part of his guilty plea, Pumphrey admitted to posting a string of threatening messages on YouTube and other social media platforms. The posts were aimed at spreading hateful messages, with Black and Muslim communities being primary targets, the DOJ said.
Prosecutors say Pumphrey called for and threatened to personally take part in the killing of Black people across numerous major American cities. He also made explicit threats against several politicians and members of their families, according to the DOJ.
The case comes amid longstanding concerns from civil rights advocates about online racism directed at Black Americans, which they have linked to factors including white supremacy and insufficient content moderation on social media platforms.
Advocates have also pointed to a years-long rise in Islamophobia, tracing its roots to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and, more recently, to anti-immigration policies, white supremacist ideology, and tensions surrounding Israel’s war in Gaza.
Political analysts have separately raised alarms about the growing threat of political violence as polarization continues to intensify across the United States.
