Charges dropped against man accused of ‘kill all cops’ Facebook comment

Charges have been dropped against a 19-year-old man accused of encouraging people to “kill all cops” in a July Facebook comment on the page of a Macon TV station.

Derrick “De De” Hudson was jailed by Bibb County sheriff’s deputies July 13 and charged with criminal solicitation to commit murder in connection with a comment he’d allegedly made hours earlier on a story story posted to WGXA TV’s Facebook page. The comment said “Just kill all white cracker cops LLH” (laughing like hell).

Hudson was released from jail July 26 and charges were dropped “because we don’t have jurisdiction,” David Cooke, district attorney for the Macon Judicial Circuit, said in an email to The Telegraph.

The case was passed from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office to the Houston County Sheriff’s Office before being reviewed by Houston County District Attorney George Hartwig.

“Mr. Hudson is not going to be facing any charges here in Houston County,” Hartwig said Thursday, adding that he’d gone to Hudson’s house to inform him personally. “In reviewing some of the code sections … I just don’t believe that what he did fits the elements of those crimes.”

Hudson’s alleged comment “wasn’t a specific threat directed at any individual” and he didn’t have any intentions of carrying it out, Hartwig said.

“There was no imminent danger to any person,” Hartwig said. “I don’t see where what he did would constitute a crime under the laws that I looked at.”

Hartwig said the alleged comment was supposedly posted while Hudson was on a lunch break at work.

Hudson told The Telegraph he worked at the Kohl’s distribution center in south Bibb County, close to the Houston County line.

If he did it while near work, “that’s still not in Houston County,” Hartwig said. “Even if there was (a crime committed), I don’t think it happened in Houston County, based on my review of it. Why (the case) was sent down here and whatnot, I don’t know.”

When visited at his home in Pleasant Hill neighborhood Thursday, Hudson seemed remorseful, Hartwig said, and “I think he realizes what he did was probably not the wisest thing to do.”

This story was originally published August 11, 2016 at 7:48 PM with the headline "Charges dropped against man accused of ‘kill all cops’ Facebook comment."