Police try to keep violent words from becoming violent deeds

A rapper in a music video looks angrily into the camera, warns someone that he's carrying a Glock pistol and tells them to "eat the lead up." Some of the men in the video carry what appear to be real guns.

This may look like other gangsta rap videos, but law enforcement officials say some of the men who appear in it broke the law. According to criminal charges filed earlier this year, four men in the video made terroristic threats. Three of the four men were charged with illegal weapons possession after police allegedly found the weapons on the men during a traffic stop shortly after they filmed the video.

Minneapolis police say the men are members of the Tre Tre Crips gang and they suspect the men were not making idle threats against their rivals in a gang called the Skitz Squad. According to the charges, police investigators say the group made several videos aimed at belittling rivals.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said as in similar cases, these men crossed the line between free speech and criminal activity.

"What we see in these videos again and again, is people making very specific threats to other individuals — often showing guns and with capacity to use those guns," said Freeman.

Police say there's a history of violence between the Tre Tre Crips and Skitz Squad as well as members of other north Minneapolis-based ally gangs. They say the conflict has helped push the number of non-fatal shootings on the north side up nearly 50 percent compared to the same period last year.

Attorney Emmett Donnelly is representing one of the four men charged with making terroristic threats and illegal gun possession. He declined to comment directly on the case, but said he's noticed a troubling trend.

"There is often a direct law enforcement response to expression — artistic expression — in rap music, now called hip-hop, that you don't see in other forms of artistic expression," he said.

Donnelly said it seems like African-Americans artists face more harsh criticism than whites when they exercise their free speech rights.

In the 1990s, rapper Ice-T, who is black, formed a rock band and sang the song "Cop Killer," which sparked a firestorm of controversy. But Donnelly says when Eric Clapton, who is white, covered the Bob Marley hit "I Shot the Sheriff," there was no outcry.

The Minneapolis Police Department is not alone in using social media to crack down on gang violence. Last year, four gang members in St. Paul were convicted of weapons charges after they appeared in an online video that featured the men pointing guns at the camera.

Minnesota ACLU legal director Teresa Nelson said it is illegal to threaten someone's life. However, she said before someone is locked up for something they say, the government has to prove that person had a subjective intent to threaten.

"Anytime you're talking about putting someone in jail or prison for simply things they are saying, you can't have sort of a negligent standard," said Nelson. "Because that would be too chilling on speech."

Nelson didn't have any data showing that African-Americans who post videos on social media are more likely than whites to be watched by law enforcement. However, she notes the disproportionate rates in which African-Americans are stopped and arrested by police compared to those for white people.

Law enforcement officials say they will continue to monitor social media to prevent violent words from inspiring violent behavior. And people in communities affected by the shootings continue to hope their prayers for peace will stop the violence.

On July 8, the Rev. Jerry McAfee of New Salem Baptist Church led a group of around 100 people in prayer and in song near the intersection of Penn and Lowry avenues where earlier that day, 2-year-old Le'Vonte Jones was fatally shot.

Jones was in a minivan with his father, 24-year-old Melvonte Peterson. Police say Peterson and another person engaged in a driving gun battle near the intersection. A bullet also struck Peterson's 15-month-old daughter in her leg. She survived.

Police have not said if Peterson had ties to any gang. But McAfee made a plea to gang members — whether their turf is the higher numbered avenues of north Minneapolis or the lower ones — to put down their guns.

"Whatever you're claiming," said McAfee. "High end, low end, YNT, Taliban, SUB. None of that makes any difference to us as a people."

Hennepin County prosecutors recently deferred murder charges against a man police believed killed the toddler Le'Vonte Jones due to what a spokesperson said was "insufficient evidence."