ICE, immigration and local response
Reporting on the reach and impact of immigration enforcement in Pittsburgh and across Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Days after arresting a public speaker at the council meeting podium, Springdale Borough Police charged another resident Friday with 11 misdemeanors stemming from a February protest and recent Facebook posts allegedly threatening police.
Police brought two separate cases against Ian Patrick Hill, 40, when they arrested him Friday. The first, for which he’s charged with simple assault and terroristic threats, dates back to a Feb. 14 demonstration protesting the ICE-led arrest of a local Peruvian man in which local police assisted. The second, tallying nine terroristic threats counts, involves a string of recent social media posts which police state amount to direct threats to police and borough officials.
Hill has spoken critically of the police department during public meetings, resulting in at least one heated exchange with Chief Derek Dayoub.
William “Danny” Rosenmund, another frequent critic of the Springdale police and their cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was arrested at the Tuesday borough council meeting and charged with two counts of aggravated assault against police officers and five misdemeanors.
The arrests come in a borough that has become a regional hotspot for debate over whether local law enforcement should join President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown or keep it at arm’s length. It resurfaced questions of the borough’s response to speech contrary to its pro-ICE stance.
Matt Lang, a Springdale resident and frequent commenter, said he plans to keep raising his concerns about policing accountability, but noted the two arrests could have a chilling effect on some in the community.
“If the community wants change, how are they supposed to reach it if protests aren’t working and if petitions aren’t working?” he said. “I feel like people’s voices aren’t being heard.”
After Rosenmund’s arrest, Hill posted on social media, encouraging residents to attend meetings in groups of five or more and also to practice “de-arrest techniques.”
It concluded with a call for residents to “arm yourselves” and “let [police and council members] know that they too are touchable. They have addresses. Loved ones. Kids, pets. All of which are entirely within the scope of tragedy when they force violence upon you.”
Threat or ‘provocative statement?’
Brennan VanderVeen, an attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said Hill’s post amounted to a “very heated, very provocative statement“ but did not clear the legal threshold for a “true threat.”
“As I read it, it’s implying people maybe should threaten cops, but I don’t think it crosses the threshold,” he said.
VanderVeen referred to a landmark 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Watts v. United States, that set precedent by ruling that an objector to the draft did not make a true threat to the president when he said: “If they ever make me carry a rifle the first man I want to get in my sights is L.B.J.”
“In that case, he literally threatened the president, but it wasn’t construed as a true threat,” Brennan said. He noted that a parent who tells their child “I will kill you” out of frustration won’t be understood to truly threaten the child in the absence of other escalatory signs.
Dayoub did not respond to a request for comment.
Springdale’s mayor and council issued a statement late Thursday defending the arrest of Rosenmund as “a professional and controlled effort to manage a dynamic situation while ensuring the safety of all individuals involved.”
The statement also said borough officials and police had received “documented threats … in recent times,” though it did not specify whether they are the ones for which Hill was charged.
Charges filed 10 weeks after protest
Hill is among a handful of residents who have spoken out against Springdale police since it inked an agreement with ICE in November.
Police allege Hill was the aggressor during a Feb. 14 protest branded by organizers as a “day of love” in response to the arrest of Randy Cordova Flores, a man in the asylum process with no criminal history and whose children attend the Allegheny Valley School District.
Todd Lovic, a Springdale man, drove by the protest shouting his support of Trump. Hill raised a stick at Lovic and threatened to kill him, according to the police report. Lovic stopped his car to inspect for possible damage, according to the complaint.
William Loar, of Shaler, told Public Source on Feb. 14 that the Trump supporter began shouting obscenities and death threats at protesters, before stopping and getting out of the car.
Loar said then that the counterprotester “threatened a man who looks like he is of Latino descent,” who turned out to be Hill, who was there with his daughters.
A photo taken by Public Source shows Lovic extending his hand toward Hill and a video posted by TribLive shows him striking a man holding a camera.
The police report describes Lovic, who has not been charged, as the victim.
VanderVeen said that if the police report is largely factual, there could be a “plausible” case for a true threat.
“This is one that will really be fact-specific,” he said.
Nearly 10 weeks elapsed between the protest and the filing of charges against Hill.
Sara Rose, deputy legal director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said the lapse in time between the protest and the filing of charges Friday could support a case that the charges were filed out of retaliation but would require proof of other factors.
“The timing could indicate retaliation if they decided to file the charges related to the protest because they didn’t like what they posted on Facebook,” Rose said. “But it’s also possible the police learned more information during the course of an investigation.”
Council podium arrest called ‘egregious’
Hill’s arrest came days after police forcefully detained Rosenmund of Springdale while delivering a speech during public comment.
The initial arrest was not captured on video, but later footage posted by TribLive shows him screaming for help as four officers pinned him down.
Rosenmund’s attorney, Interim Chief Public Defender Andy Howard, said in a statement the charges are “inappropriate” and vowed to push for dismissal.
Rose described the arrest as “pretty egregious,” based on her reading of the circulating video.
“I’ve never heard of police tackling someone at the podium of a public meeting,” she said. “It’s pretty unusual.”
Bruce Antkowiak, a law professor at St. Vincent University and former federal prosecutor, said the government has the right to set reasonable limits – such as speaker time limits – on protected speech.
“As a general matter, there’s always a conflict between the idea of free speech and whatever government restrictions can lawfully be put on speech,” he said, noting the burden falls on the government to prove that restrictions are warranted and appropriately executed.
Antkowiak said he didn’t know the details of either case, but suggested they could hinge on this question: “Was this person prosecuted based on what they said or was it the time, place and manner in which they said it — and if it was the time, place and manner, was that based on reasonable restrictions?”
Jamie Wiggan is deputy editor at Pittsburgh’s Public Source and can be reached at jamie@publicsource.org.
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