Man Gets Prison Time for Targeting Journalists

This is disturbing….

HuffPo reports that an Arizona man has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for plotting with a neo-Nazi group to threaten and intimidate Journalists.

Johnny Roman Garza was sentenced Wednesday by a Seattle judge after pleading guilty in September to conspiring with other members of the terroristic hate group Atomwaffen Division to carry out threats in Washington, Arizona and Florida.

Garza was one of four people arrested by the FBI in February and indicted by federal prosecutors.

“While this defendant did not hatch this disturbing plot, he enthusiastically embraced it, researching addresses for journalists and those who oppose hate in our communities,” said U.S. Attorney Brian Moran.

In his plea agreement, Garza admitted to helping identify various journalists for targeting and admitted to having left a threatening poster outside the home of an editor of a Jewish magazine.

“Your actions have consequences. Our patience has its limits. ... You have been visited by your local Nazis,” read the poster, which listed some of the victim’s personal information and depicted a figure holding a Molotov cocktail in front of a burning home.

Garza said he had intended to leave a similar poster outside a Phoenix apartment where a member of the Arizona Association of Black Journalists lived but said he was not able to find a suitable place for it during his visit.

Prison time was necessary, the judge said, “given the severity of this conduct and the horrible impact it had on people that are important in our society.”

The judge further took a moment to admonish top U.S. officials who refer to journalists as “enemies of the people,” saying it makes people, particularly vulnerable youth, think that such conduct is appropriate. Coughenour did not refer to President Donald Trump by name, the AP reported.