NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Texas man could face up to five years in prison after prosecutors charged him with threatening to kill Nashville's elected District Attorney General on a hate group's social media channels, while the group marched through the city.
A release said David Aaron Bloyed, 59, from Texas, threatened to "lynch and kill Glenn Funk," the District Attorney General. It said he posted the threats on the Goyim Defense League's social media channels, a recognized hate group that routinely engages in antisemitic hate speech. Authorities said its members got into a fight and hit a Nashville bar employee with a metal flagpole bearing a swastika in July.
A hate group member was arrested and charged with aggravated assault after the fight. Following the assault, prosecutors said Bloyed started posting photographs of Funk on the hate group's Telegram channels. The photographs included threats to hang Funk.
“In a functioning democracy, we simply cannot tolerate threats of violence against elected officials,” said Henry C. Leventis in a release, a United States Attorney. “The charges announced today are just the latest illustration of the Department’s commitment to protecting public servants and upholding the rule of law.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Nashville Resident Agency, Memphis Field Office and the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department are investigating the incident.
Nashville was the site of several hate group demonstrations over the summer. Neo-Nazis live-streamed antisemitic antics for shack value in the city, waving swastika flags through crowded streets and singing hate songs. Hate groups also disrupted a Metro Council meeting with jeers. Several also peppered neighborhoods with propaganda leaflets — a tactic the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League noted to be common with the GDM hate group.
The SPLC also said leaders of the group faced legal charges in September 2023 for antisemitic activities in Florida and Georgia, including its founder.
