Free speech violation or not?

I don't think it was a threat. I think in order to charge anyone for making threats, it needs to be clear, like this:

I'ma gonna kill you with a Kaiser blade....MMmHm
Some folks call it a sling blade, but I call it a Kaiser blade..Mmmm. Got any biscuits and mustard?

a reply to: theyknowwhoyouare

That was a direct threat...directed specifically at/to someone. It wasnt vague at all. There are those times where its a fine line between the freedom to say something, and the freedom make make veiled or obvious threats that cant be construed to mean anything else.

Well here is more of the story. They did not just show up and arrest him they showed up to talk to him about the threat. His reactions and his history no doubt lead them to then take the threat much more seriously. In this case if they had not acted and this nutter had shot somebody people who would be demanding to know why they had not done something when they had the chance.
Redners background arrest

n arguing against pretrial release, prosecutors outlined the history of Redner’s arrest. On Jan. 14 at about 7 p.m., two police detectives went to 11024 Brass Kettle Road, the North Raleigh home where Redner lived with his mother.

The investigators were there for a “knock and talk” session with Redner about comments posted to McFarlane’s website that troubled the mayor and police. A woman peered through a window, and investigators said they heard a man using profanity including a slur against the mayor.

The investigators left, according to the court documents, out of concern for their safety and that of the defendant’s mother. Officers knew that Redner had fled from police previously and at one time had an assault rifle.

A Minnesota native who also lived in North Dakota before Raleigh, Redner has had several skirmishes with the law.

On May 6, 2010, N.C. law enforcement authorities have said, Redner avoided a DWI checkpoint and led deputies on a car chase. When the deputies apprehended Redner, they found an AR-15 assault rifle and “anti-government documents and literature related to the Aryan Nation” in his car, court records show.

He was convicted of driving while intoxicated, speeding to elude arrest and reckless driving and was sentenced to five months in prison. He was also ordered to undergo a mental health assessment and treatment while in custody, according to state corrections officials.

Read more here: www.newsobserver.com...=cpy

In the January incident, a larger group of officers returned to the home later than evening, according to the documents, and Redner fled through the back door. Law enforcement officers explained to Redner’s mother that they had come to look into the message posted on the mayor’s website.

Redner’s mother and a male friend of hers were handcuffed, according to prosecutors, after the mother cursed at officers and called them “Nazi storm troopers” who were “working for criminals.”
The search, according to the federal court documents, uncovered several laptops, but none that contained the message to the mayor’s website. Investigators also found a shotgun that belonged to the friend of the mother and multiple rounds of ammunition in Redner’s room, according to court documents.

Prosecutors contend that nearly a month later, he sent his mother a letter from Wake County jail, asking her to destroy a laptop that he allegedly hid in a crawl space at the house.