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Sheriff Michael Bouchard
A Michigan man who posted an antisemitic meme of Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard has been arrested in Wisconsin on an outstanding warrant out of Livingston County involving crimes against women, Fox 2 reports.
Fox 2 reports that the two outstanding warrants are for felony stalking, allegedly terrorizing two women for at least a year. The man is accused of threatening to kill them and eat one of their corpses. He allegedly emailed them thousands of times. His name has not been publicly disclosed.
The antisemitic meme
Fox 2 reports that last week, during a press conference on the terrorist attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield and Jewish hate, Bouchard displayed the meme, which shows a photo of himself with the Star of David on his forehead, sidelocks worn by Orthodox Jewish men, and a Jewish skullcap called a yarmulke.
"I give you this by way of example, some pond scum felt empowered and emboldened to put this picture of me up to intimidate me, which he didn’t because I signed up for this," Bouchard said.
At the press conference, Bouchard condemned the antisemitic meme and said the man had been arrested in Wisconsin, sparking outrage on social media from people who said the meme was protected by the First Amendment and the right to free speech.
On Tuesday, the sheriff's department clarified that the man was arrested for an outstanding warrant, not for posting the meme.
"For people that are whining that someone was arrested for posting a meme; sorry to disappoint," the sheriff's department said on X. "Not even for threatening, racist, AND anti-Semitic comments. He had a prior outstanding felony stalking warrant on something completely unrelated, which drew local police attention to him when someone complained."
The Oakland County and Livingston County sheriff's offices were unable to provide information to Deadline Detroit on the stalking case. The Livingston County 53rd District Court said no arraignment had been scheduled in the stalking case.
