James Patrick Reardon has been charged with aggravated menacing and telecommunications harassment.
James Patrick Reardon of New Middletown, Ohio has been charged with aggravated menacing and telecommunications harassment for threatening a Jewish community center.[/tweetit] Reardon is currently being held in the Mahoning County Jail. The bail amount to free him from police custody has been fixed at $250,000.
White Nationalist Arrested for Posting Hate Video Threatening a Jewish Center [/tweetthis]
Police attention was caught after Reardon posted a video to Instagram on July 11. In the video, he tagged a Jewish community center and identified himself as a white nationalist and fired a semi-automatic rifle.
WYTV reported that the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force found anti-Semitic and White nationalist propaganda in addition to semi-automatic weapons, dozens of rounds of ammunition and a bulletproof vest – all of which they seized when they raided Reardon’s home on Friday.
Vincent D’Egidio, Chief of Police for New Middletown said they arrested Reardon based on his declaration of being a white nationalist. He further said with the steep rise in incidences of hate crimes currently, they did not want to take any chances.
D’Egidio gathered ample proof to support his actions. He told the news outlet that Reardon had participated in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 in which he declared himself a white nationalist for a documentary that was being filmed.
Instagram suspended Reardon’s account Sunday morning. Instagram cited a violation of its web app policies as the reason behind the deactivation of his account. A spokesperson for the company stated that hateful, violent and extremist content would not be tolerated on the platform. However, they refused to comment on whether any of Reardon’s content had been flagged before his account was officially suspended.
Cleveland Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League, James Pasch, considers Reardon’s arrest to be a continued reminder of the violent extremism and white nationalism still growing in America. He said their organization pledges support to the law enforcement to work alongside them to de-arm white supremacists looking to spread hatred and prevent potential attacks.
This is the most NJB looking antisemite I have ever seen.
James Reardon Jr., 20, was arrested after threatening to shoot up a Jewish community center in Ohio https://t.co/CdNXEzfxft via @MailOnline
— ShidduchCrisis (@ShidduchC) August 18, 2019
CNN reported that Reardon was among three men to be arrested recently on the suspicion of carrying out mass homicide.