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GOP Lawmaker: Lynch Anyone Who Takes Down Confederate Monuments

None of the state’s Republican leaders have condemned Karl Oliver’s comments.

By Ed Mazza
A Republican mem­ber of the Mississippi House of Representatives has called for lynch­ing any­one who removes a Confederate mon­u­ment, includ­ing law­mak­ers in a neigh­bor­ing state.

On Saturday, state Rep. Karl Oliver ® described the “destruc­tion” of Confederate mon­u­ments in Louisiana as “heinous and hor­rif­ic” and com­pared lead­ers in that state to Nazis.

“They should be LYNCHED!” Oliver wrote in com­ments post­ed on his Facebook page.

KARL OLIVER

The mes­sage drew “likes” from two of Oliver’s fel­low Republican law­mak­ers, state Rep. John Read and state Rep. Doug McLeod, the Jackson Free Press reported.

Oliver’s post came a day after a stat­ue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was removed in New Orleans. It was the city’s fourth Confederate memo­r­i­al to be dis­man­tled in recent days.

Although no state Republican lead­ers have con­demned Oliver’s com­ments, Democrats in the state blast­ed Oliver’s call for the vio­lent killing of peo­ple he dis­agrees with, Mississippi Today reported.

“I am offend­ed and out­raged that a pub­lic offi­cial in 2017 would, with an obvi­ous con­vic­tion and clear con­science, call for and pro­mote one of the most cru­el, vicious and wicked acts in American his­to­ry,” Mississippi state Sen. Derrick Simmons, a Democrat, told The Root.

Rep Jeramey Anderson

✔@jerameyanderson

I strong­ly con­demn the state­ment by my col­league Rep. Karl Oliver — it’s hate­ful, offen­sive and igno­rant. In 2017, it’s a shame.

· Mississippi, USA

MS Democratic Trust @MSDemTrust

A state­ment from Mississippi Democratic Trust Executive Director, David McDowell:

State Rep. Sonya Williams-Barnes, a Democratic mem­ber of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus, decried Oliver’s “shame­ful, but seem­ing­ly extreme­ly com­fort­able, choice of words.” In an email to Jackson-based CBS sta­tion WJTV, Barnes said Oliver’s com­ments “were offen­sive to me as the act of lynch­ing was com­mon­ly used and most tar­get­ed toward African-American men, women and chil­dren in the south and espe­cial­ly in our state.”

She also com­mend­ed Louisiana for remov­ing a num­ber of Confederate memo­ri­als and urged her state to do the same.

Oliver made head­lines ear­li­er this year for dis­miss­ing the con­cerns of a res­i­dent because she wasn’t born in Mississippi, and urged her to leave the state. Oliver, who describes him­self as a Christian and has referred to Jesus Christ as the “Prince of Peace,” was elect­ed to a four-year term in 2015 with near­ly 57 per­cent of the vote in his dis­trict, accord­ing to Ballotpedia. http://​www​.huff​in​g​ton​post​.com/​e​n​t​r​y​/​k​a​r​l​-​o​l​i​v​e​r​-​c​o​n​f​e​d​e​r​a​t​e​-​l​y​n​c​h​_​u​s​_​5​9​2​2​4​8​6​6​e​4​b​0​9​4​c​d​b​a​5​4​e​e​c​e​?​n​c​i​d​=​i​n​b​l​n​k​u​s​h​p​m​g​0​0​0​0​0​009