Virginia Woman Says She Was Arrested For Facebook Thugging

A Virginia woman said she was arrested for "Facebook thugging" after posting a selfie with a gun on the social media site.

Kristin Holmes, 26, was arrested for harassment by computer after she got into an online dispute, she told NBC12.

Holmes said she posted the picture of her pointing the gun at the camera because someone had mistaken her for another woman and started arguing with her.

"So you know the difference when u (sic) come find me," the caption read.

"It wasn't a threat," Holmes, of Chesterfield, said. "I thought it was a funny picture, and then I realized later it was a little bit intimidating. So I took it down."

Before she did, someone reported the picture to Henrico police. Holmes now faces up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.

Holmes was arrested under a Virginia law, passed in 2000, that criminalizes obscene or threatening language online or in public.

Kevin Carroll, president of the Virginia Fraternal Order of Police, said he wasn't sure how common similar arrests are but said they usually result from arguments that get too personal.

"It's not a matter of free speech," he told the Daily News. "Free speech doesn't say you have the right to insult somebody else or threaten them in any form."

"Facebook thugging" is not a term used by police, Carroll said.

The phrase is often used online to describe feuds. It made headlines in 2012 when Towanda Kellam, the Massachusetts mother of a 15-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed by rivals, blamed the death on "Facebook thugging."

Holmes is not the first person to be arrested for holding a gun in a Facebook post.

Police around the country have started using similar posts to catch felons who are not allowed to be around firearms, the Associated Press reported. They also help police link gang members to crimes.

Even if posts aren't used to nab alleged criminals, they are often used against them at trial, experts said.

"Be careful what you put up on the internet," Holmes warned. "Facebook thugging is a crime."

"So you know the difference when u come find me"

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