Posted on 07/01/2011 1:04:17 PM PDT by NoLibZone
Comments posted by a Ventura County Democratic Party official on his Twitter account last week in which he wrote that some east county Republicans who testified at a hearing in Oxnard should "just put your white hoods on already" do not represent the views of the county party, Chairman Richard Carter said Wednesday.
Carter said he has spoken with David Atkins, the county Democratic Party's vice chairman, about that and other Twitter posts last week, and believes Atkins "now regrets those comments." That acknowledgment, Carter said, is good enough for him, and he does not anticipate the county party taking any formal action to censure Atkins.
"The only rebuke I have is to say that his comments do not represent the views of the Ventura County Democratic Party," Carter said. "They were posted on an individual's Twitter account."
Carter said Atkins' comments were not discussed at a Democratic Central Committee meeting held Tuesday evening.
County Republican Party Chairman Mike Osborn said if a local GOP officer had made similar comments, such a passive rebuke would not be good enough.
"If it was one of my officers, I wouldn't tolerate it," he said. "I'd ask for his resignation. How the Democratic Party of Ventura County deals with this is going to say a lot about them."
Atkins' comments were posted during and immediately after a public hearing in Oxnard conducted by the Citizens Redistricting Commission. Several individuals testified they did not want their communities placed in political districts with parts of Los Angeles County or coastal portions of Ventura County, with some saying they had moved away from those areas because they did not like living there.
Atkins interpreted some of the remarks as "racial code words," and noted in one Twitter post that, "It's so clear that most of these old white people from East Ventura are terribly afraid of brown people in Oxnard/LA."
Carter said he had heard complaints from at least two Latinos who were at the hearing and felt intimidated by what they perceived as racially tinged remarks. "If there was a perception of racism in that room, we should call it out," he said. "But I would never condone that language."
Carter, 50, is a resident of Simi Valley and a native of Tennessee.
"I've seen a cross burn... It's something very real and very evil," he said. "The Ku Klux Klan is not a joke to me. References to it should not be taken lightly."
Atkins' Twitter posts were criticized last week by blogger Eric Ingemunson, who blogs for The Star and also the conservative political blog Red County.
"Citizens respectfully voicing their opinions to the Redistricting Commission are not racists, Mr. Atkins," Ingemunson wrote in his Star blog, "IngeMusings." "People who use racial epithets in hate-filled rants, on the other hand, are."
In an email to The Star on Wednesday, Atkins acknowledged that some of those who testified last week were "simply concerned about civic unity," but he did not back down from assertions that some of the testimony was racially motivated.
The only rebuke I have is to say that his comments do not represent the views of the Ventura County Democratic Party.
Richard Carter
"I am proud of calling out the obvious racism that was on display," he wrote. "While in retrospect I might have used different language, I have received more supportive feedback than negative feedback because it's time someone had the courage to take a stand and call it what it is. A cursory scan of the comments section of The Star shows the virulent underbelly of right-wing racism in Ventura County, and the Oxnard hearing was no exception."
Osborn said because of Atkins' position as a party officer, it is not credible for county Democrats to assert his comments were purely an individual matter.
"Regardless of where I am or what I say, I am always the chairman," he said. "Nobody is forced to be an officer of a party, so you have a certain responsibility to carry it out in a way that's going to reflect well on your party."
Osborn said he saw no parallel between the controversy over Atkins' Twitter posts and the recent incident in Orange County in which a member of the Republican Central Committee circulated an email containing a fake photograph that depicted President Barack Obama as a chimpanzee.
In that case, the party member was censured but was not forced to resign, although several GOP officials publicly called for her resignation.
That incident, Osborn said, was "a stupid attempt at humor and in horribly bad taste," whereas Atkins comments constituted a deliberate instance of calling Republicans "not only racist, but dangerous and racist."
The original version of this story had an incorrect quote by Richard Carter.
Read more: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/jun/29/county-democratic-chairman-distances-party-from/#ixzz1QsvnSlnm - vcstar.com
David Atkins must be removed.
Yet Halperin gets suspended
What’s worse political speech, name calling by a “Journ O List” against a PRES__ENT . . . or slanderous “political” speech against private citizens?
You Dems are a real trip.
Meh! The dems are liberal fascists.
Good read:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barak_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html
Who founded the Klan? Democrats.
Who used the Klan to suppress black votes? Democrats.
Which party is and always has been the party of Race? Democrats.
Oh yes it does.
[David Atkins, the Ventura County Democratic Party's vice chairman] on his Twitter account last week in which he wrote that some east county Republicans who testified at a hearing in Oxnard should "just put your white hoods on already"...The Democrats are the Party of the Klan.
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