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Pennsylvania State Constable Under Fire For Disturbing Social Media Posts Targeting Trump and Conservatives

An elected official in Pennsylvania has ignited a firestorm on social media after posting  a series of disturbing messages targeting former President Donald Trump and his supporters.

Matt Croyle, a State Constable and the founder of the Oil Valley Film Festival in Venango County, Pennsylvania, posted the alarming comments on X and Facebook earlier this week. Republican activist Scott Presler, Human Events Editor Jack Posobiec and other conservative influencers brought the comments to light on social media, Wednesday.

“If you have friends and family members who support Trump—if it comes down to it, you may have to kill them before they kill you,” Constable Croyle wrote on X on July 3rd. “This is where this is headed. This is a fifty-alarm f-cking fire.”

 

Croyle later expressed glee on Facebook that a “Punch Nazis” post he had shared “triggered the Nazis on Twitter.”

 

On July 1, Croyle wrote on Facebook that he hoped “some pissed-off far-left whackadoodles start taking pot shots at Trump.”

 

In a separate Facebook post, Croyle appeared to suggest that Trump should be put to death or assassinated.

“Remember when political assassinations used to happen a lot?” he wrote.

“I’m not saying one should happen here, but am saying one COULD happen here and most folks wouldn’t cry about it,” the state constable wrote, adding that the assassination idea was “viable” if it “prolongs our Democracy.”

Croyle went on to suggest that the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity gave Joe Biden the authority to order hits on his political opponent, a common misconception on the left.

“I mean. If Presidents are immune …” he said.

Croyle wore a mask as he was sworn in as a state constable in Oil City’s Ward 1 on Dec. 27, 2023.

In a post on social media, Croyle said he brought the Kurt Vonnegut novel “Hocus Pocus” to his swearing in ceremony so he could place his hand on that book rather than the bible, if needed.

 

Croyle, who is serving a six-year term as a state constable, has scrubbed much of his social media content so it’s difficult to determine the context of his posts.

For instance, earlier this week, he wrote “This week could very well be the last Independence Day you’ll ever celebrate.”

 

In another disturbing post, he wrote simply, “Get ready to die.”

Using language very similar to that used by Croyle in his social media rants, the Oil Valley Film Festival put out a statement defending the constable after his posts caused an uproar on social media. Calling his critics “far-right extremists,” the Oil Valley Film Festival made a point of condemning Nazism, fascism, and white supremacism.

“… across multiple platforms, our film festival director was attacked viscously(sic) by far-right extremists,” the post says. “Mr. Croyle is a well respected individual in many circles.”

Croyle’s Oil Valley Film Festival accused “far right extremists” of “doxxing” Croyle—even though he posts on social media under his real name—and claimed that his words were taken out of context by “dangerous” right-wing extremists like Jack Posobiec.

“Despite the far-right extremist doxxing of Mr. Croyle, he would never condone violence in any way,” the post asserted.

“What anyone saw on Twitter was merely a hypothetical tweet, completely taken out of context, a tweet that was part of a larger series of tweets which were mysteriously not included, that was then used by Mr. Posobiec and multiple others to attack Mr. Croyle’s character in order to push a far-right extremist agenda and ultimately threaten Mr. Croyle via the far right base,” the post continued.

The Oil Valley Film Festival said it was looking into taking “powerful legal action as there was malicious intent across the board.”

 

Croyle put out a somewhat chastened statement on Facebook on the 4th of July amid a report that his posts were being investigated by the Secret Service and Pennsylvania State Police.

The constable wished everyone a happy Independence Day and claimed that his posts had been misinterpreted, blaming the misunderstanding on peoples’ “reading comprehension skills.” Insisting that he was taken out of context, Croyle explained that his post about killing Trump-supporting friends and family members was part of a larger thread about a “hypothetical situation” during a second civil war.

“I did not and would not advocate for the killing of, or threaten, anyone. Period,” he wrote. Rather then describing Trump supporters as “Nazis,” he added cloyingly, “we’re all human” and “were all Americans and we don’t have to be enemies.”

Croyle also said that his life had been threatened “a multitude of times” and his film organization “attacked,” so he had contacted both local law enforcement and the FBI to investigate the threats because “actually threatening peoples’ lives isn’t acceptable.”

Continuing the sharp pivot in tone from his earlier posts, he wrote: “We all want the same thing for our lives. Safety, a roof over our heads, food and water, a sense of community. We just see different routes to get there. We’re not as different as we want to pretend we are. We all know what it’s like to love and to cry, to hurt and to mourn. We’re all good people. I just hope we can start to find a way to see in each other what we see in ourselves.”

Croyle apologized for the “confusion” caused by his provocative posts—which appeared to advocate for Trump’s assassination and described his supporters as Nazis who may have to be killed— and said he should have made them more “contextual.”

American Greatness reached out to the PA State Police and the Secret Service and was not able to independently verify that the constable is under investigation.

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About Debra Heine

Debra Heine is a conservative Catholic mom of six and longtime political pundit. She has written for several conservative news websites over the years, including Breitbart and PJ Media.

Photo: (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Notable Replies

  1. The projection is strong with this one. What is it about the useful idiots on the left that make them think this kind of unhinged behavior is acceptable? And why is he still allowed to hold a public office? First Amendment protections do not extend to yelling “fire” in a crowded theater, they should not extend to incitement of violence.

  2. Types like this human detritus often use violent language or even advocate the use of violence. But as is typical, if violence comes for him, he’ll squeal like a seven year-old girl and cry for help.

    The left is full of types like this; wanna-be tough guys who are anything but tough. They are nothing but cowards and braggarts.

  3. Makes me wonder how, exactly, one becomes a State Constable? Clearly the bar is set much too low.

  4. The difference between the left and the right in this country regarding speech advocating violence is that the left IS violent. Have we not witnessed just how violent these people are or are willing to become over the past 7-8 years? They riot over a dead drug addict causing billions in property damage and even deaths. They use vehicles to run over attendees of Christmas parades. They disfigure public statues or topple them. They hold illegal “protests” barring others from legitimate access to universities and academic endeavors merely for their religious affiliations or perceived religious affiliations. They beat up anyone they perceive as opposition to their aggressive abortion beliefs. They ARE violent.

    On the right, meh, not so much. Is it perhaps cognitive dissonance in so many of them that makes them violent? They support all manner of policies they believe will create utopia. When their policies create the opposite: chaos, poverty, misery, crime, fractious discourse, they become desperate and that desperation leads to physical violence against the people they believe are halting “progress”? Just a thought.

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