OMAHA, Nebraska. — “Delay, deny, depose.”
According to reports, such words were found on bullet casings from the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last month in New York City.
However, the mood has spread throughout the country, and the Omaha area is no exception.
Brianna Boston appeared in a Florida court charged with threatening to commit a mass massacre or an act of terrorism after Blue Cross and Blue Shield allegedly denied her recent medical claim.
Boston, 42, is accused of stating “delay, deny, and depose.” During a verbal fight with a corporate official last week, he stated, “You are going to be next.”
However, local police are on high alert when graffiti defending Brianna Boston was discovered on streets near the Blue Cross and Blue Shield facility in Omaha.
“Our law enforcement partners want to be aware of situations like this,” Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson said. “It’s a highly pressurized environment right now after the brutal murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, but there is still that line between First Amendment freedom of conduct and criminal activity or criminal speech.”
One line scrawled on the sidewalk says, “DELAY DENY DEPOSE IS FREE SPEECH.”
According to Hanson, First Amendment action can rapidly become illegal if someone does not know that line or has ill intentions, but he feels that in this case, they are familiar with the person who they believe scribbled the comments on the pavement outside the Blue Cross and Blue Shield building.
“In this case, this individual is a known provocateur in the City of Omaha,” Hanson said the crowd. “They want to elicit an emotional response from the people they focus their chalk graffiti on.
That’s why I contacted a leadership team in that area and told them, ‘Hey, we’re here for you, it’s on our radar, and there’s nothing to worry about at this time.'”
The rain will wash away the graffiti, but law enforcement in the Omaha metro will take any perceived threat very seriously.
“We also want our business people to know that just like any citizen in Douglas County, our collective law enforcement partners are here to keep you safe, and we’re going to investigate every single potential case where you feel threatened,” according to the sheriff.
Agencies across the country are on high alert following Thompson’s murder in New York and the subsequent arrest of alleged perpetrator Luigi Mangione.
The slaying has sparked divided reactions on social media, with some hailing Mangione as a hero and others branding him a cold-blooded killer.