{"id":36192,"date":"2017-08-16T11:10:27","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T15:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=36192"},"modified":"2017-08-16T16:43:13","modified_gmt":"2017-08-16T20:43:13","slug":"sheriff-under-fire-over-like-of-fb-post-defending-kkk-neo-nazi-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=36192","title":{"rendered":"Sheriff under fire over ‘like’ of FB post defending KKK, neo-Nazi groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated, 4:00 p.m.<\/strong> With expanded comments from Caln Commissioner Josh Young<\/em><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Chester County Sheriff Carolyn “Bunny” Welsh<\/p><\/div>\n

The Sheriff of Chester County is under fire from county Democrats, local elected officials and social media users after liking a Facebook post that suggested Klan members, Neo-Nazi\u2019s and White Supremacists offer less of threat to property and human life than members of Black Lives Matter and anti-fascists.<\/span><\/p>\n

While some local elected officials are calling for her resignation, Sheriff Carolyn \u201cBunny\u201d Welsh argued that it was all a misunderstanding. <\/span><\/p>\n

“It has been called to my attention that a reaction I had to someone else\u2019s Facebook post has been grossly misconstrued,\u201d Welsh said in a statement late Tuesday night. \u201cBy adding a \u2018like\u2019 to a statement by Kevin Martin, a young, conservative, black man, I was registering support for his commitment to expressing independent views, not specifically espousing those views. As someone who has always embraced a diversity of opinions, I am profoundly saddened by many recent headlines that suggest that some Americans have become so caught up in their own ideology that they can no longer listen to opposing information. During this divisive time in our country, I believe we need to find ways to encourage such individuals to promote peace rather than stir conflict, and I would welcome ideas on how to accomplish that.” <\/span><\/p>\n

The original post, by Kevin Martin, said:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason why the KKK, Neo-Nazis, and white supremacists are so freely called out and condemned by politicians, while Black Lives Matter and Antifa aren\u2019t, is because the KKK, Neo-Nazis and white supremacist (sic) pose no real imminent threat to property, and human life : Antifa, and BLM, Do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A screen capture of the original post, with the “Like” by Welsh.<\/p><\/div>\n

The local uproar \u2014 sparked after bloody confrontations in Charlottesville, Va., led to the apparent murder of a 32-year-old woman by a self-described White Nationalist \u2014 has been further amplified by comments by President Donald Trump equating the violence of the Neo-Nazis and KKK with that of leftist groups such as Black Lives Matter and Antifa. Those statements, especially after the President\u2019s press conference Tuesday, have largely been disavowed by Republican elected officials, although a couple of Chester County Congressman have remained silent on the issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

Democrats, though, argue that Trump \u2014 and by extension, Welsh\u2019s social media behavior \u2014 are symptoms of a greater problem within the Republican Party. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is time for the Republican Party\u00a0to admit it has a problem with racism and take steps to address it forcefully,\u201d said Brian McGinnis, Chair of the Chester County Democratic Committee.\u00a0\u201cRepublicans’ fear mongering and the targeting of voters of color\u00a0as a political wedge\u00a0is a tactic we condemn, especially in light of tepid Trump comments on Charlottesville, VA tragedy. They can no longer claim to be the party of Lincoln.\u00a0Our campaigns and our elections have got to be\u00a0free and fair, and represent American freedom, fairness and values. We will speak out when we see our citizens being intimidated, manipulated and humiliated for political gain.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While condemning the violence of both sides, local Republicans swatted back at Democrats for politicizing the events in Charlottesville.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe violent fringe-right and fringe-left groups that endanger lives and destroy property are despicable organizations that are hurting our country,\u201d said Shannon Royer, a senior advisor for the Chester County Republican Committee. \u201cThis was tragically the case in Charlottesville with the hateful actions of a white nationalist. Our hearts break for the family of Heather Heyer, the latest victim of deranged political hostility.<\/span><\/p>\n

Royer defended Welsh \u2014 noting her years of service and deep commitment to the Chester County community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSheriff Welsh is a nationally-recognized law enforcement official who is committed to protecting our county,\u201d Royer said. \u201cShe is also a deeply compassionate person who has a history of helping local families. Anyone who knows Sheriff Welsh also knows that she has no patience for hate groups and political violence. Only dishonest, hyper-partisan opponents would believe otherwise. It is disappointing that some are using the Charlottesville tragedy to manufacture a local controversy. As we continue to absorb the shock of recent events, we hope that the cheap political shots will stop.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At least two local elected officials, Caln Township Commissioner Josh Young and Coatesville City Council Member Marie Lawson, expressed anger at Welsh on Facebook Tuesday. Young asked whether the Chester County Democratic Executive Committee could hold a vote calling for Welsh\u2019s resignation, saying she no could no longer serve in the office.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I believe strongly that Sheriff Welsh has lost the moral authority to continue to serve as an elected official and a law enforcement official that entrusted with ensuring everyone’s rights,” Young said. “I hope she does the right thing and resigns.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Lawson questioned how Welsh could possibly continue in her job:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe is the top ranking official for the Sheriff\u2019s Department, who supports white supremacy in one of the most diverse counties in Pennsylvania,\u201d Lawson wrote in a post Tuesday. \u201cHow can you be fair an unbiased in that position when you are so strongly supportive of hatred on social media?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile county Democrats are also calling out state (and long-time county) GOP chair Val DiGiorgio over fliers distributed in South Philadelphia as part of the campaign for city District Attorney over the weekend highlighting corruption charges against various city Democrats. The issue, Democrats say, is that the flier highlights only African-American and Latina officials and ignores white officials who also faced charges. Citing a story in Monday\u2019s Philadelphia Inquirer, Democrats argued that it was another example of GOP insensitivity to racial issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday\u2019s Philadelphia Inquirer<\/i> article pointed out accurately that campaign flyers for the District Attorney\u2019s race in Philadelphia had attacked only minority — African American and Latina — politicians for corruption,”\u00a0the DCCC\u2019s McGinnis said in a statement issued late Tuesday night. “The flyer – distributed in predominantly white South Philadelphia – clearly seeks to make race an issue in the DA campaign.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

DiGiorgio, though, as did Royer on the Welsh issue, suggested that Democrats were looking to exploit race for political reasons and questioned The Inquirer\u2019s motives for running the story.<\/span><\/p>\n

“As someone who is the husband of a Honduran immigrant, the father of hispanic children and who fought tirelessly to elect Chester County’s only African-American state legislator, Harry Lewis, I take great offense at any suggestion that I acted with racist motives,\u201d DiGiorgio said in a statement issues Wednesday. \u201cThe Philadelphia Inquirer article is nothing more than race baiting during a very sensitive time in our nation. They should act more responsibly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McGinnis denied that, arguing the opposite, that it was Republicans playing to the baser instincts of a minority of the party to raise support and dollars, and claimed DiGiorgio and state Republicans were using the Inquirer story to fund raise.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNow PA State (and Chester County) GOP Chair Val DiGiorgio is fundraising off of this article, blasting the media for writing about it,\u201d McGinnis said.<\/span> \u201cRepublicans’ fear mongering and the targeting of people of color as a political wedge is a tactic we condemn. Especially in light of Trump comments on the Charlottesville, VA tragedy. How quickly the state Republicans have forgotten about their own political corruption — John Perzel, Ernie Preate, Bob Asher or Frank Serafini to name-drop a few, as well as overwhelming amounts of outside money buying influence in the current state legislature.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, elected officials from both parties reacted strongly to comments made by Trump during Tuesday afternoon\u2019s impromptu press conference, where he appeared to equate Neo-Nazis and Klan members with Black Lives Matter and Antifa.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-16) \u2014 ironically just back from a Congressional Delegation trip to Israel \u2014 tweeted his disapproval of Trump\u2019s comments Tuesday afternoon:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThose who march under Nazi flags or with KKK-affiliated groups are not \u2018fine people.\u2019 \u201c<\/span><\/p>\n

At this writing, no formal comment has appeared from either U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello (R-6) or U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-7).<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey issued a statement mid-day Wednesday, taking issue with Trump’s comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no moral equivalency between neo-Nazis, bigots, and white supremacists, and those who oppose them,” Toomey said. “Our country has no room for corrupt ideology or violent acts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania\u2019s Democrats uniformly condemned the comments, with the strongest denunciation coming from Gov. Tom Wolf in a string of Twitter posts, Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, he quoted and called out President Trump:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMr. President \u2013 an innocent woman died because a terrorist drove into a crowd of peaceful protesters. She deserves better than this,\u201d in reply to this comment from Trump:<\/span><\/p>\n

“I think there’s blame on both sides and I have no doubt about it,\u201d Trump said during his press conference, Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

A feisty Wolf would have none of that:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne side had torches, confederate & swastika flags, Nazi slogans and bigoted chants,\u201d he Tweeted.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans died to defeat hate like this. They deserve better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And finally:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans deserve to know that in the face of hatred, bigotry and violence, all of their leaders will condemn these un-American values,\u201d Wolf Tweeted.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Updated, 4:00 p.m. With expanded comments from Caln Commissioner Josh Young By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times The Sheriff of Chester County is under fire from county Democrats, local elected officials and social media users after liking a Facebook post that suggested Klan members, Neo-Nazi\u2019s and White Supremacists offer less of threat to property and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1496,10228,29,8137,7426,10250,10230,9135,5815],"class_list":["post-36192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-carolyn-bunny-welsh","tag-charlottesville","tag-chester-county","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-featured","tag-kkk","tag-nazi","tag-racism","tag-sheriffs-office"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36192"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36196,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36192\/revisions\/36196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}