Will Frank James be charged with hate crimes? Social media reveals years of racist rants
30 hours after launching a hail of gunfire at a crowded Brooklyn subway station, Frank James is finally in custody. The subway shooter has been slapped with a charge of committing a terrorist attack, but it may not be the only one he faces. Digging into James' social media accounts, it has been discovered that for years now, he has been posting hateful and violent content that could possibly be considered a hate crime.
James was nabbed on April 13, 2022, after being spotted by Zach Tahhan, a security technician in the East Village. The arrest came moments after James called the NYPD and said "you're looking for me," and claimed he would wait for them at a McDonald's. His arrest has finally put New York at ease, coming after a citywide manhunt by the NYPD and FBI. Now, we are learning a lot more about James.
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James claimed to have long-term mental health problems, but what exactly they are is not known. Along with that, it appears James also had a history of violent and racist thoughts, channeled into his social media accounts, revealing that he is indeed a Black nationalist.
Will Frank James be charged with hate crimes?
The question arises from a review of James' social media accounts, where years of hateful and hurtful comments are visible. Much of his content can be linked to Black extremist ideologies like the Nation of Islam, Black Panthers, Black Liberation Army, and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Amongst the concerning posts he made include memes like "O black Jesus, please kill all the whiteys."
On his YouTube channel, James ranted that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is married to a White man, whom he calls an "enemy." At another time, he claimed that Americans only cared about Ukraine because its citizens are "White and largely Christian." About the Ukraine war, he also said, "These white m-----------s, this is what they do... Ultimately at the end of the day, they kill and commit genocide against each other. What do you think they gonna do to your black a-s?"
He also once griped, "I don’t know how well-intentioned they (White people) can be because if you look at the history of black people in this country . . . how many really stood with us or were there for us when we really needed it . . . They didn’t go on our side until we started to rise up." At another time, he slammed New York's Mayor Eric Adams as "you’re there to serve these m-----------s."
Much of the content is likely to constitute a hate crime, especially given that similar gripes about Black and Asian people have been prosecuted by the DoJ. However, so far, the FBI has refused to acknowledge whether James will also face hate crime charges. The bureau refuted claims that James was being watched or had been previously investigated, indicating that for years, his hateful social media content was allowed to go on unchecked.
It was an oversight even Adams noted. "I cannot play a song on a social media channel that belongs to someone else without them identifying that. Why aren’t we identifying these dangerous threats," the Mayor said in an interview, adding, "We must lean into why we’re watching these postings and these threats every day, and no one is giving an early warning sign to law enforcement."
Ultimately, it seems James' hateful content won't be a legal issue for him. There's no indication yet he will be charged, but that could change with sufficient public pressure. For now, though, he faces one charge of terrorist attacks or other violence against a mass transportation system, which carries the maximum sentence of life in prison.