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Lib Activist Threatens to Dox Random Police Officers

Shaun King uses Twitter to demand name of officer involved in Kenosha shooting

Shaun King / Getty Images
August 26, 2020

Activist and commentator Shaun King on Tuesday threatened to release the personal information of police officers suspected to have shot Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, unless the Kenosha Police Department reveals the shooter's name.

"To the Kenosha Police Department, if you do not name the officer who brutally shot Jacob Blake on Sunday, we will simply begin naming officers from your department who may or may not be him," King tweeted to his over one million followers. "Your protection of his identity is unethical. What's his name?"

King followed up his tweet by posting names and photos of police officers he suspected might have shot Blake, without confirmation.

Twitter has policies against abusive behavior, interfering with civic processes, and the release of private or personal information, which such demands may run afoul of.

A spokesperson for Twitter told the Washington Free Beacon King's tweet doesn't violate their rules.

In controversial and highly public cases such as the shooting of Blake, names are typically withheld to protect the safety of the accused and their family and to deter vigilantism.

In the wake of the police shooting in Kenosha, protests and riots have broken out, and a gunman killed two people Tuesday night.

Critics from both sides of the aisle have accused King, a former Bernie Sanders surrogate, of profiting off of racial strife.

"Shaun King is a terror," Georgetown law professor Preston D. Mitchum wrote in 2019. "For far too long, he’s used bloodied Black bodies for retweets and calls it ‘information,’ he’s targeted journalists and young Black women attempting to hold him accountable. This is a disgrace."