Today, Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff released a statement regarding a threat made on Facebook against Senator Gary Winfield, the Senate Chair of the Judiciary Committee.
The comment was made on post by Senator Rob Sampson by “Greg Tubby” and stated “Or we can take justice in our own hands. Hopefully the sanitation system will pick up the carcass.”
In response, Senator Looney and Senator Duff stated:
“We’ve always known that violent words lead to violent action. After the violent attempt to overthrow the government at the U.S. Capitol last week where supporters of President Trump sought out elected officials for assassination and caused the death of two U.S. Capitol Police Officers, this fact should be obvious to everyone.
“When violent words of the public are met with silence from our leaders we are implicitly saying that these words and the actions for which they advocate are within accepted norms. Senator Rob Sampson’s recent social media post highlights the public policy choices of Senator Gary Winfield who as a father of young children, a Navy veteran, and one of the preeminent African American legislators in the Connecticut General Assembly, speaks at length in the article about racial and social justice. That an article about Senator Winfield propelled this talk of violence is no coincidence.
“Senator Sampson said that the recently enacted police accountability bill and other criminal justice legislation ‘undermined the rule of law’ and led to a ‘crime wave.’ This is the kind of incendiary, alarmist, reckless fear mongering that leads to what we saw at the U.S. Capitol last week. It is essential to remember that the public was well aware of the content of the police accountability bill when it rewarded the Democratic Party with additional seats in the General Assembly in the November election.
“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. 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.”