Man regrets jab at Moore

Jason Fries learned the power of social media the hard way, and said if he could undo what he did, he would in a second.

After what he felt was unfair treatment from law enforcement over a reckless driving incident last year, Fries put a window sticker with the popular comic strip character Calvin urinating on a K27 sticker.

The K27 sticker is a decal that was printed locally to support the family of Sgt. Greg Moore, who was shot in the line of duty earlier this year.

In less than a day someone had taken a picture of the decal and posted it on several popular Facebook pages, and it wasn't long until Fries was identified. That's when the death threats started coming in.

"I really didn't think that through all of the way," Fries said Friday afternoon after removing the sticker from his window. "I meant no disrespect to him or his family."

Fries said the point he was trying to make is that while other civilians and law enforcement officers are being shot and harassed across the country, he felt it was unfair that Sgt. Moore got so much support and the others saw little to no support.

"Nobody knew who Sgt. Moore was before he got shot," he said. "But after he got shot everyone in the world knew who he was."

Meanwhile, Fries said another person was shot a day later in Spokane and nobody did anything for him.

"Why did he get all of the attention? What about everyone else?" Fries said that was his mindset at the time he was putting the sticker on his back window. "The words that came out of my mouth when I was putting it on there was that I would probably get shot for doing it."

He admits that his experience with the reckless driving incident probably skewed his judgement.

"If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't do anything to make people this angry," he said. "I would find another way to make my point. I should have done it a different way."

Fries said he has received death threats against him and his family. Some have even sent him messages saying they should kill one of his family members and make a sticker to put in their windows.

"We do not support any threats of violence toward individuals," said Coeur d'Alene Police Sgt. Christie Wood. "We encourage citizens to accept this young man's apology and move forward."

She said Fries' action appears to stem from immaturity rather than any threat to law enforcement.

"He has touched a nerve in a community that mourns the tragic loss of Greg," she said. "Law enforcement supports the First Amendment even when the message is repugnant. It is what keeps us all free from oppression."

Sgt. Stu Miller of the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office said people have posted pictures of Fries' car on the KCSO Facebook page, alerting police to the decal.

"It was a very insensitive thing to do, but it's not against the law," Miller said. "There is a lot of sympathy for Greg in this community, and this was a very insensitive thing to do."

But, Miller said, it is not shocking "by any sense of the imagination" for law enforcement officers to hear this sort of derogatory statement.

"You have to have pretty thick skin to be law enforcement," he said, adding officers are subjected to obscene gestures and comments on a regular basis.

Post Falls Police Capt. Scot Haug said his department's Facebook page also had posts from citizens who were angered by Fries' sticker.

"As disgusting as it is to see someone take advantage of such a tragedy, there are protections in place for those kinds of comments," Haug said. "There is no crime in that. All we can do is express our displeasure in that."

Haug said with everything that is happening with police violence and shootings on the national scale, he said it is fortunate that kind of violence isn't taking place locally.

"It's unfortunate that we have a hero like Sgt. Moore killed in the line of duty and someone takes advantage of that," he said. "But the death threats against this man are not appropriate."

Fries said if he had an opportunity to talk with Moore's family about the incident, he would apologize.

"I would tell them it wasn't directed toward them because that was a real sad thing," he said. "I never realized how this would get out of hand like this. People are sharing this overseas."