Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Racist Tweets at CNN's Don Lemon Investigated as a Hate Crime, Police Say

By  Ben Fractenberg and Maya Rajamani | October 27, 2017 1:19pm | Updated on October 30, 2017 7:21am

 The NYPD was investigating threatening messages sent to CNN host Don Lemon on Twitter.
The NYPD was investigating threatening messages sent to CNN host Don Lemon on Twitter.
View Full Caption
Twitter/Don Lemon

CIVIC CENTER — The NYPD was investigating threatening, racist Twitter messages sent to CNN host Don Lemon, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said Friday.

Lemon, 51, received the messages after he spoke on Oct. 23 about President Donald Trump’s conversation with a Gold Star widow, according to police and reports.

One message said, “U r a pile of rotting dogs--t ,racist,communist,socialist, Liberal moron a--h--e.i will find u U will pay.ill see u real soon,” The Hill reported, adding the Lemon was also called the n-word. 

“We have taken the case to the Hate Crimes Task Force,” Boyce said during an unrelated press conference Friday. “He has a threat and many ethnic slurs on his Twitter account.” 

Boyce added investigators have been “in contact with [Lemon’s] agents and representatives.”

Lemon reported the harassing tweets Wednesday after he received “numerous anti-black messages,” an NYPD spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman did not have information on what specific threats were made. 

The tweets reportedly came from a since-deleted profile of a self-described “white nationalist conservative.”

A representative for Lemon said he was not commenting on the messages.