(WWJ) – A Michigan man has pleaded guilty to two hate crime charges for threatening and intimidating Starbucks employees who showed support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Kenneth Pilon, 61, pleaded guilty to willfully intimidating and attempting to intimidate citizens from engaging in lawful speech and protests in support of the BLM movement, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.
Pilon, an optometrist in the Saginaw area, admitted to calling nine Starbucks stores across Michigan and telling the employees answering his calls “to relay specifically racial threats to Starbucks employees wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts.”
The DOJ says Pilon threatened to kill Black people, using a racial slur to refer to his intended victims.
He also pleaded guilty to placing a noose inside a vehicle owned by two victims. Attached to the noose was a handwritten note, reading: “An accessory to be worn with your ‘BLM’ t-shirt. Happy protesting!”
“The defendant levied racially-motivated death threats against multiple Black people wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, per a press release. “The defendant also used a noose, a vile symbol of hatred and violence that harkens back to the Jim Crow era, to convey a threat of racial violence. Racially-driven threats of violence simply have no place in our society today, and the Department of Justice will continue to prosecute any individual who engages in this type of threatening conduct.”
Dawn Ison, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, called Pilon’s crimes “threatening to an entire community.”
“We hope this conviction sends the message that this type of activity is criminal, and that we will take the necessary action to protect the people of our district,” Ison said.
The case was investigated by the FBI. Pilon will be sentenced on March 23, 2023.
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