I Was Warned That Law Enforcement Wants to Hurt Me. Harrison County — Answer for This.

Tonight I received a message I cannot ignore, and I'm doing with it what I always do with a threat: I'm putting it on the record — and this time I'm calling for accountability.

Someone reached out to warn me. I am not going to tell you who, and I've removed their name, their photo, and anything that could identify them, because they came to me to help me — not to hurt me — and I will not put a person who tried to protect me in harm's way. Here is what they said, word for word:

"I have a friend who's in law enforcement, he is credible.. I don't generally like cops but this one he saved my life.. he's told me that there's members of law enforcement that want to hurt you.. like beat you up.. he didn't tell me who they are, but we can narrow it down to Harrison Marion County area.."

Let me be careful and clear about exactly what this is and what it is not.

This is a warning, relayed to me. A person I trust says someone they trust — who is in law enforcement — told them that there are members of law enforcement who want to physically hurt me. The words used were "beat you up." They could not name the individuals. What they could narrow it to was the Harrison / Marion County area.

I am not naming anyone. I don't know who they are, and I will not accuse a specific person of something I cannot prove. That is not what this is. This is me documenting a credible warning about a threat to my safety, from a source with law-enforcement contacts, and refusing to sit on it quietly.

They said "beat you up." Given everything that has already been done to me, and given where it reportedly comes from, I treat any of it as a threat to my safety and to my life. You do not get the benefit of the doubt when you are talking about putting hands on a man who has already been through what I have been through.

Why I take this seriously

I have spent months documenting, in public, what has been done to me out of Harrison County — the deadly-conduct charge where the gun never left the holster, the weaponized lawfare, the harassment I called the county itself to report. I have already had to ask a court for a protective order. So when someone with a law-enforcement source tells me officers want to put their hands on me, and it points back to the exact county that has been coming after me, I don't get to pretend I didn't hear it.

Harrison County. Marion County. This one is on you.

I'm not going to whisper this. I'm going to say it in public, with my name on it:

If there are members of law enforcement in the Harrison / Marion County area talking about physically harming me, that is your problem to answer for — out loud.

• To the sheriffs, the chiefs, the constables, and every official with a badge and authority in this area: disavow this, and find out who in your ranks is saying it. Someone is. A credible source inside law enforcement said so.
• To the district attorneys and the officials who are supposed to hold law enforcement accountable: a threat of violence against a pro se defendant — by officers — is not a small thing. It is the whole ballgame for whether anyone can trust the system here.
• I am asking for this on the record, in the open, because the people who want to hurt me count on it staying in the dark. Not this time.

I am not anti-police. I am anti-corruption. There is a difference, and the good officers in this area know it. The warning I got even came through law enforcement — a cop who, I'm told, "saved a life." Good people exist inside these institutions. I'm asking them to be louder than the ones who want to hurt me.

If you've heard a threat against me, tell me.

This is a direct ask to anyone watching:

If you have heard a credible threat against me — from inside law enforcement, or anywhere else — come forward. You can stay completely anonymous. The more daylight there is on this, the safer I am, and the harder it is for anyone to act in the shadows.

• Send a tip — anonymous, no account needed: realryannichols.com/submit
• Reach me privately — for anything sensitive or source-protection-related: private contact

If you saw something, heard something, or were asked to do something, you can tell me without your name ever going public. I protect my sources. The message above is proof of that.

What I'm doing about it

• Putting it on the public record. A threat everyone can see is harder to act on than one made in the dark. If something happens to me, this is here — time-stamped, in my own words.
• Preserving the evidence and getting it in front of my counsel and the people who need to see it.
• Protecting the person who warned me. Their name and face are gone. Do not go looking for them. They did the right thing.

Documentation is the only armor I have left, and I'm going to keep wearing it in public. The most dangerous thing for anyone who wants to hurt me is a record they cannot bury.

So here's the record. And if you are one of the people this warning is about — it's written down now, in public, with my name on it.

— Ryan