For a series of offensive rants
More Trump dragging us all down down down: a California prosecutor calls Representative Maxine Waters a cunt and a bitch and says she should be killed.
The lead hard-core gang prosecutor in the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office is under investigation for a series of offensive rants on social media, triggering demands for his dismissal.
Deputy District Attorney Michael Selyem, who joined the D.A.’s Office 12 years ago, targeted outspoken U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, former first lady Michelle Obama, Mexican immigrants and the victim of a police shooting in Facebook and Instagram posts labeled by one critic as “hateful rhetoric.”
Of Waters, Selyem said: “Being a loud-mouthed c#nt in the ghetto you would think someone would have shot this bitch by now …”
Free speech, first amendment, yadda yadda, but do D.A.s generally want their offices brought into disrepute by prosecutors who barf out misogynist racist insults and death-hopes on social media?
In an online argument with someone over the police shooting of a civilian, Selyem wrote, “That shitbag got exactly what he deserved. … You reap what you sow. And by the way go fuck yourself you liberal shitbag.” [I filled in the redactions]
Selyem also posted a doctored picture of Michelle Obama holding a sign saying, “Trump grabbed my penis.”
Some already have called for Selyem’s termination, saying the posts were not only offensive, unprofessional and beneath the dignity of a public prosecutor, but that anyone who publicly espouses such sentiments cannot impartially administer justice.
“It is disgusting that a public official sworn to protect the public would have these ugly viewpoints,” said Zeke Hernandez, president of the Santa Ana League of United Latin American Citizens No. 147. “The district attorney needs to take any and all appropriate action to let the public know that it does not agree with Selyem’s hateful rhetoric.”
That includes Selyem’s dismissal, Hernandez said.
Fair?
I suppose a compromise could be moving Selyem to a less fraught branch of prosecution – bank fraud type of thing. But really? Yes, I think a guy like that shouldn’t be working in law enforcement.
A woman, black, a liberal Democrat – she pushes all the buttons of Trumpworld.
“labeled by one critic as “hateful rhetoric.””
Here’s a prime example of how that super-passive newspaper voice can minimize criticism even when that criticism would otherwise seem obvious. ‘Well ya know, there was this one person who thinks it’s kind of hateful to call someone a cunt and a bitch, but what do they know?’
Did Congresswoman Maxine Waters really call for the public harassment of Trump administration officials? If true, it’s a rather sinister development given Americans’ obsession with guns.
Terrifying for me is the fact that I assumed this was a rhetorical question.
@RJW:
No. She called for accountability. She very definitely did not – as Trump claimed – call for violence of any sort. And she clarified this point in subsequent interviews.