Dems decry ‘alarmist’ rhetoric after Facebook comment to GOP senator
Reply to Sampson post suggested to ‘take justice into our own hands’
Senate Democratic leaders Tuesday condemned the “alarmist” rhetoric of one of their GOP colleagues after a Facebook commenter made a threat of violence in response to a posting by Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, asking his followers to “create public pressure” on Democrats to entertain changes to the police accountability law that passed last summer.
Sampson linked to a CTNewsJunkie story in his Jan. 8 post that prominently featured Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, and said Democrats should have a conversation about the police bill “whether they want to or not.”
One commenter responded, “Or we can take justice into our own hands. Hopefully the sanitation system will pick up the carcass.”
Sampson, in a subsequent post on Monday responding to the issue, wrote that “there is no way we can track every comment that is made on our posts, particularly if they are shared in multiple places by multiple people.”
“I am happy to ‘repudiate’ the hateful and threatening comment but in the end, we are all only responsible for our own
actions,” he said. “We are fully responsible for those actions, but only those actions.”
Winfield responded by stating that Sampson should address the violent comment.
“I’ve had death threats, been stalked, run off the road and confronted ... none of that involved another legislator in any way,” Winfield wrote on Twitter. “I would expect that even if the comment were missed when brought to a colleagues attention the action would be condemned.”
Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff in a joint statement Tuesday called Sampson’s rhetoric “incendiary, alarmist, reckless fear mongering that leads to what we saw at the U.S. Capitol last week” where a pro-Trump mob overtook the building and temporarily delayed certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
“Soon to be former President Donald Trump and elected officials who stand by him are supporting violence, white nationalism, anti-democratic measures, and outright fascism,” they said. “We cannot just condemn and move on. These actions are indicative of a larger rot in our political system, one that we must urgently expose and confront.”
The police bill mandated all officers wear body cameras, banned the use of chokeholds in most cases and created a new independent inspector general to investigate deadly use of force by police. It passed the House with the support of just one Republican; no Senate Republicans backed the measure.
Sampson, in the Jan. 8 post, said he planned to propose legislation “to reverse many of the bad laws that have been enacted over the last decade, culminating with the so-called ‘police accountability bill’ from last year.”
“Added together, these misguided laws have undermined the rule of law in our state and emboldened criminals, particularly juvenile car thieves,” he said.
Senate Republican Leader Kevin Kelly issued a statement on Tuesday accusing Looney and Duff of trying to “score political points.”
“Now more than ever, our state and our nation need healing and unity, not more division,” Kelly said. “Words matter. That is why, as Senate Republican Leader, I find it so disappointing that Senators Looney and Duff are now using their own incendiary language in reference to a Republican state senator to score political points. Directing that type of incendiary language at our colleague is, quite frankly, uncalled for. Connecticut’s Senate Democrat leadership should be ashamed.”
“The Connecticut Senate Republican caucus condemns violence in all its forms and will not tolerate threats or hateful social media comments,” Kelly continued. “That is why our caucus brought those comments to the attention of the State Capitol Police. I would remind Senate Democrat leadership that as lawmakers, we all work in the marketplace of ideas. We are the voices of all people. A policy such as Connecticut’s new police accountability law is worthy of review, criticism and debate. Let us all recommit ourselves to elevating that debate moving forward.”