A North Las Vegas man is facing a hate crime charge after allegedly bombarding Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford's personal Instagram account with racial slurs and a warning to watch his surroundings outside his own house. Daniel Galarza was taken into custody near his residence on September 3, and police say the messages left Ford fearing for his family's safety.
According to an arrest report cited by KTNV Las Vegas, Galarza called Ford an anti-Black racial slur three times and made a comment referencing slavery as a way of degrading him. The report says Galarza told Ford to be aware of his surroundings outside his house, a line investigators found alarming because it implicated both his physical safety and his private residence. Galarza reportedly said he did not want to hurt Ford or his family, but told investigators he was frustrated over Ford's political advertisements on television.
Police were concerned that the warning about Ford's surroundings followed the hostile and racially derogatory statements, treating the combination as escalating risk rather than idle venting. Ford reported feeling intimidated and fearful for his and his family's safety, and he requested that Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers conduct checks of his residence. He later thanked LVMPD and his own Office of the Attorney General investigators for quickly keeping him and his family safe.
Arrest Turned Physical Near Galarza's Home
When officers moved to take Galarza into custody near his residence, he resisted arrest and disobeyed police commands, at one point balling his fist into a fighting stance, according to the arrest report. He was charged with resisting a public officer in addition to the hate crime charge tied to the threats against Ford. The arrest report also described a message in which Galarza asked Ford why he was trying to raise taxes, a remark investigators noted alongside his stated anger over Ford's campaign ads.
A Historic Office Amid a Heated Governor's Race
Ford, who is the Democratic candidate for governor, was sworn in as Nevada's 34th Attorney General in January 2019, becoming the first Black person to hold the office in state history, according to Wikipedia. He was reelected in 2022 before winning the Democratic nomination for governor in June 2026, setting up a general-election matchup against Republican incumbent Governor Joe Lombardo, per Ballotpedia. Before his statewide runs, Ford spent years in the Nevada Senate representing District 11 in Clark County, rising to Majority Leader from 2017 to 2019.
The alleged threats arrive as Ford and Lombardo have been trading dueling public safety proposals on the campaign trail. Earlier this month, Ford pitched faster state funding for domestic violence shelters and a statewide case-tracking system, while Lombardo pushed AI-generated incident summaries for responding officers, with both candidates addressing the ideas at forums hosted by SafeNest in Las Vegas, Hoodline previously reported. Ford's public profile has also drawn separate scrutiny this year after a state ethics panel advanced complaints against him in February over outside-paid travel and his official social media activity, a case Hoodline detailed in its earlier coverage.
What Nevada Law Allows in Hate Crime Cases
Nevada law gives courts room to stack additional prison time onto certain offenses when a victim is targeted because of their actual or perceived race or color. Under NRS 193.1675, judges can tack on an extra 1 to 20 years in state prison for qualifying crimes motivated by that kind of bias, according to the Nevada Legislature. Separately, the state has also moved to shield public officials and election workers more broadly: Governor Lombardo signed Senate Bill 406 into law in May 2023, making it a felony punishable by 1 to 4 years in prison to use force, threats, or intimidation to interfere with or retaliate against them, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported at the time, noting the law also faced a legal challenge in federal court from election observers.
Part of a Nationwide Surge in Threats to Officials
The episode fits into a much larger national pattern of rising hostility directed at elected officials. The U.S. Capitol Police Threat Assessment Section investigated 14,938 concerning statements and direct threats against public officials and lawmakers in 2025, a nearly 58 percent jump from the 9,474 cases logged in 2024. A February 2026 study from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which analyzed 800,000 public social media posts, found that violent online threats against U.S. public officials surged 241 percent between late 2021 and late 2025, fueled heavily by partisan rhetoric across major platforms.
That climate has translated into real dollars for campaigns and officeholders trying to protect themselves. Federal campaign security spending has climbed fivefold over the past decade, topping $40 million during the 2023-2024 election cycle, as candidates and officials increasingly hire private security or lean on law enforcement for protection, according to disclosures reviewed by Spotlight PA. Ford requested LVMPD checks on his own residence after receiving threats.
