Jailed Facebook commenter accused of writing ‘kill all white cops’ is freed

A day after he was released from the Bibb County jail, 19-year-old Derrick Hudson sat outside his apartment expressing remorse — and resentment — for the almost two weeks he’d spent behind bars.

“I feel like it was crazy, unnecessary,” said Hudson, who was jailed July 13 after allegedly posting “Just kill all white cracker cops LLH” (laughing like hell) on the Facebook page of a Macon TV station. “It was really just a debate that just went real bad. Other people commented, too, but I guess they wasn’t worried about them.”

Hudson was released from the Bibb County jail on Tuesday, said David Cooke, district attorney for the Macon Judicial Circuit.

“The charges were dropped because we don't have jurisdiction,” Cooke wrote in an email to The Telegraph. “The venue is in Houston County.”

Houston County District Attorney George Hartwig said he hasn’t seen the case file yet, but he expects to review it soon.

“I’m assuming at some point somebody made a decision or concluded that whatever happened may have happened here (in Houston County) instead of there,” Hartwig said, adding that charges in Houston County are possible, but not certain.

Hudson’s alleged comment was made under a post by WGXA-TV that linked to a video showing Alton Sterling’s 15-year-old son speaking out about his father’s death. Sterling was killed by police in Louisiana on July 5 in an incident that was captured on video and widely circulated online.

A Bibb County sheriff’s sergeant took a screen shot of the comments. A few hours later, Hudson was jailed on a charge of criminal solicitation to commit murder.

On the porch of his Roosevelt Avenue apartment in the Pleasant Hill neighborhood Wednesday afternoon, Hudson said the comments weren’t a reflection of his true feelings.

It was “just anger,” he said. “They know I ain’t mean that. … Stuff just happens. I know I shouldn’t have said it, you know. (Being arrested) really wasn’t necessary, but I understand why they did it. It’s just Facebook — talking on Facebook.”

Hudson, a former Southwest High School student, said he’d just gotten his first paycheck from working at the Kohl’s distribution center in south Bibb County when he was arrested.

“I think I lost my job now,” he said.

According to the arrest warrant, the comments were “constituting murdering law enforcement officers both locally and abroad by reaching out to the public on a social platform in a manner that requests, commands and importunes another person” to kill.

“How could they come get me for some junk and just posting on Facebook and just speaking my opinion?” Hudson asked. “I ain’t heard of anybody else getting locked up but me.”

This story was originally published July 27, 2016 at 1:57 PM with the headline "Jailed Facebook commenter accused of writing ‘kill all white cops’ is freed."