Missouri pol calls for Dixie statue vandals to be ‘hung from a tree.’ It does not go well.
One great aspect of social media is that it is an effective way for stupid people to reveal that they are not merely jerks but bigots who support extrajudicial revenge Klan-style:
What is it about Missouri state legislators on social media?
Weeks after a state senator got into hot water for openly wishing on Facebook for President Donald Trump‘s assassination, State Rep. Warren Love (R-Osceola) seemed to call for a vandal of a Confederate monument to be lynched.
Sharing an article about a Confederate statue being vandalized in Springfield National Cemetery, Love posted the following to Facebook:
As shown above, Love wrote: “This is totally against the law. I hope they are found & hung from a tall tree with a long rope.”
After seeing the post, one of Love’s colleagues — State Rep. Shamed Dogan (R-Ballwin), the only black Republican in the Missouri House — took to Twitter to express his disgust.
Vandalizing property is wrong, but hoping for people to be hung/lynched over it?? Way over the line!! What is wrong with us #moleg? pic.twitter.com/b0ulohvatQ
— Shamed Dogan (@Dogan4Rep) August 30, 2017
Dogan was not the only pol to weigh in:
This is a call for lynching by a sitting State Representative. Calls for poltical violence are unacceptable. He needs to resign. #moleg pic.twitter.com/FZCNmsLLY7
— Stephen Webber (@s_webber) August 30, 2017
Damn Warren that’s how you feel? pic.twitter.com/DfSBGkYVzM
— Bruce Franks Jr (@brucefranksjr) August 30, 2017
House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty of Kansas City said that while vandalism is a crime, “its punishment is not extra-judicial murder.”
“In calling for the lynching of those who vandalized a Confederate statute in Springfield, state Rep. Warren Love invoked a form of political violence used throughout the South to keep African-Americans subjugated for generations following the fall of the Confederacy, and for that he must resign,” she added.
Love represents the 125th District in rural western Missouri and was first elected in 2012. When reached by the Post-Dispatch, he confirmed the Facebook post, and said he was not calling for a lynching.
“Oh no,” he said. “Hell no!”
Oh, yes, Rep. Love. Hell, yes. Because we don’t believe you.
Now we don’t endorse vandalizing statues “honoring” politicians or military officers who served in the treasonous slaver regime of Jefferson Davis – they should be removed by legal means, and that has started to happen wherever they have been placed (mostly, it turns out, during the Jim Crow era). But we do endorse removal of racists from office – including this lynching loudmouth Warren Love. It’s time for this small-minded hatemonger to leave politics and find another line of work. Maybe something that doesn’t involve wearing a white sheet and hood. Just sayin’…
