VIDEO: Threatening An Elected Official

LEE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)-Elected officials spend much of their time in the public eye, and it’s not uncommon for them to receive threats and backlash for the job they’re elected to do.

Many people look at them as easy targets because of the position they hold.

However, in the end, they’re still human beings and receiving threats is something they don’t take lightly.

“It’s scary to think that there are people out there, and it seems to be more prevalent today, that people are exercising their hatred towards you,” said Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson.

Scary and aggravating, that’s how Sheriff Johnson said it feels to be threatened for doing his job.

“In my 14 years as an elected sheriff, we prosecuted two individuals that have personally targeted me,” said Sheriff Johnson. “Who sent threats, who actually did a hiring to have me killed.”

Johnson’s job is high profile and keeps him in the public eye.

He’s received multiple threats in the 14 years he’s been in office.

They’ve been in the form of face to face, email, and social media. In fact, just last summer, the sheriff was threatened on Facebook.

“The post says, Jim Johnson needs to die,” Sheriff Johnson recalled. “They specifically named me, they specifically named what needed to happen to me.”

Johnson said social media has become a popular avenue many people use to express their hatred towards elected officials.

Sheriff Johnson acknowledges these types of things do come with job of being an elected official, but he also admits, the threats will sometimes go too far.

“It’s aggravating when your kids come home, and they say daddy did you see what somebody wrote about you, or things of that nature,” said Johnson. “It’s a little unsettling, but it’s not going to stop us from doing what’s right.”

Many times people will make a threat towards elected officials, but then say their expressing their right to freedom of speech.

However, Johnson wants to see new laws passed that would protected officials from these types of threats.

“There’s going to have to be some consequences at some point in time for people that claim to have freedom of speech, but it’s really geared towards hatred and threats,” he explained. “I think they’re definitely going to have to look at some legislation to see that could possibly change.”

When it comes to threatening a public official, there could be a price to pay.

Sheriff Johnson said a person can face felony charges and spend up to five years behind bars.