Tag Archives: Charlotte protests

Don’t judge him by social media posts? C’mon, man!

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Almost no one outside of Seattle, Wash., likely had heard of Steve Clevenger until this week.

Then he decided to spew some racially insensitive-sounding messages on social media. He blasted the Black Lives Matter Movement, implying that President Obama is somehow linked to it, labeling a shooting victim as a “thug.” He said the protesters should be “locked up like animals.”

That, ladies and gents, is how you become a household name these days in America.

He wanted to make a statement about the Charlotte, N.C., protests.

It didn’t go well.

But here’s the best part. The Seattle Mariners’ part-time baseball player apologized to “those I offended” and then urged his critics to “not judge” him on his social media posts.

As someone who before this week had never before even knew this guy existed, how else am I supposed to “judge” an individual?

These ridiculous social media posts are all we have, young man!

http://www.si.com/mlb/2016/09/22/steve-clevenger-mariners-racially-insensitive-twitter-posts

Now he’s known across the nation for something other than his athletic ability.

Protesters ‘hate white people’?

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Robert Pettinger must have the most astonishing mind-reading skills imaginable.

The Republican congressman from North Carolina has asserted — rather stupidly, I suggest — that Charlotte residents who are protesting against the police “hate white people.”

Hmmm. Is that so?

I won’t go too far with this idiotic statement. Pettinger is commenting on those who are protesting an incident in Charlotte that resulted in the shooting death of an African-American man.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/297372-gop-rep-charlotte-protesters-hate-white-people

Of course, Pettinger said later he regrets making the statement. He said he was responding to what he thought he had heard from protesters.

This kind of utter thoughtlessness, though, cannot be allowed to stand.

The congressman’s initial statement also included a negative opinion of welfare and of those who receive government benefits. “I mean, yes, it is a welfare state. We have spent trillions on welfare — we have put people in bondage, so that they can’t be all that they’re capable of being,” he said.

Goodness. May we begin to engage our brains before we let loose with our mouths?