North Texas man with neo-Nazi ties accused of threatening to lynch and kill Nashville DA

A North Texas man who is a member of an anti-Semitic neo-Nazi group is accused of threatening to lynch and kill the Nashville district attorney.

The US Department of Justice alleged in a criminal complaint that David Bloyed, 59, posted numerous threats against District Attorney Glenn Funk on the social media platform Telegram.

Bloyed, who lives about an hour south of Dallas in Frost, was in Nashville in July for a protest with the neo-Nazi group Goyim Defense League when an argument broke out between a member of their group and an employee of a bar in Nashville, the Department of Justice said in a press release.

During the July 14 protest, an unnamed member of the neo-Nazi group was arrested for alleged aggravated assault for repeatedly striking the employee with a metal pole attached to a swastika, according to the criminal complaint.

Following that meeting, a Telegram account posted threats against the district attorney, the Justice Department said. One included a photo of DA with the caption “Getting the rope” and a finger emoji pointing at Funk. Another showed a person hanging by the neck from a gallows with the phrases: ‘Rope list’ raised by some Jews in Nashville today’ and ‘Will you survive rope day?’

“Rope Day” is a white supremacist concept taken from Turner’s Journals, a 1978 novel about a white supremacist revolution. In the book, white supremacist rebels overthrow the US government, then carry out mass lynchings of alleged “race traitors” such as journalists, politicians and white women in relationships with non-white men.

Authorities later identified a social media account on Gab with an almost identical username, Schwettyballs. A subpoena from Gab revealed that the account belonged to him to Bloyed. The accounts contained nearly identical threats, the Justice Department said.

Both Telegram and Gab have emerged as popular social networks among the far right, and Gab in particular has come under fire for allowing racist and hateful speech.

Bloyed did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Dallas Morning News. In 2023, he told her Fort Worth Star-Telegram that his actions were not offensive or harmful because he was not physically combative during any demonstration.

If convicted, Bloyed faces up to five years in federal prison, according to federal prosecutors.

Bloyed and his group were previously cited for distributing anti-Semitic fliers in Fort Worth, including outside Dickies Arena and Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum in 2023, according to Star-Telegram. Bloyed received a trespass warning and a citation for disorderly conduct.

Speaking under a false name, Bloyed later spoke at a Fort Worth City Council meeting that year to argue that distributing the flyers was protected by the First Amendment, the Star-Telegram reported.

In an interview with the newspaper, Bloyed described his group’s protests as “the most peaceful activism ever.”