A Louisiana school librarian is suing two men for defamation after they accused her of advocating to keep "pornographic" materials in the parish library's kids' section. It's a rare example of an educator taking legal action against conservatives who use extreme rhetoric in their battle against LGBTQ-themed books.
Amanda Jones, a librarian at a middle school in Denham Springs, Louisiana, filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday, arguing that Facebook pages run by Michael Lunsford and Ryan Thames falsely labeled her a pedophile who wants to teach 11-year-olds about anal sex.
Jones, the president of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians, was alarmed and outraged by the verbal attacks, which came after she spoke against censorship at a Livingston Parish Library Board of Control meeting. She said she’s suing the two men because she’s exhausted with the insults hurled at educators and librarians over LGBTQ materials.
“I’ve had enough for everybody,” Jones said in an interview. “Nobody stands up to these people. They just say what they want and there are no repercussions and they ruin people’s reputations and there’s no consequences.”
Lunsford did not respond to requests for comment. Thames declined to comment.
Nationwide, school districts have been bombarded by conservative activists and parents over the past year demanding that books with sexual references or that discuss racial conflict, often by authors of color or those who are LGBTQ, be purged from campuses. Those demands have slowly moved toward public libraries in recent months.
Many conservative activists have referred to people who defend the books as “groomers,” comparing them to child molesters. The Proud Boys, an extremist hate group, has barged into LGBTQ-themed reading events in several libraries, insisting they need to protect children. Some librarians have said they no longer feel safe serving in their roles.
More than 600 people donated a combined $20,000 for Jones on GoFundMe so she could respond with legal action.
The defamation suit seeks damages and asks a judge to issue a restraining order to prevent the two activists from speaking about Jones publicly. She also filed criminal complaints with the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office against the men. The sheriff’s office said the case is under investigation.
The FBI is investigating an "unprecedented" number of threats against bureau personnel and property in the wake of the search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, including some against agents listed in court records as being involved in the recent search, a law enforcement source tells CNN.In the days following the search [at Mar-a-Lago], violent threats surfaced online, with posters writing, "Garland needs to be assassinated" -- referencing Attorney General Merrick Garland, who "personally approved" the decision to seek a warrant -- and "kill all feds." Additionally, the biography and contact information of the federal magistrate judge who signed the search warrant was wiped from a Florida court's website after he too became the target of violent threats.
As Right-Wing Rhetoric Escalates, So Do Threats and Violence
Both threats of political violence and actual attacks have become a steady reality of American life. Experts blame dehumanizing and apocalyptic language.In the year and a half since a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, threats of political violence and actual attacks have become a steady reality of American life, affecting school board officials, election workers, flight attendants, librarians and even members of Congress, often with few headlines and little reaction from politicians.
In late June, a former Marine stepped down as the grand marshal of a July 4 parade in Houston after a deluge of threats that focused on her support of transgender rights. A few weeks later, the gay mayor of an Oklahoma city quit his job after what he described as a series of “threats and attacks bordering on violence.”While this welter of events may feel disparate, occurring at different times and places and to different types of people, scholars who study political violence point to a common thread: the heightened use of bellicose, dehumanizing and apocalyptic language, particularly by prominent figures in right-wing politics and media.
Several right-wing or Republican figures reacted to the search of Mar-a-Lago not only with demands to dismantle the F.B.I., but also with warnings that the action had triggered “war.”
“This just shows everyone what many of us have been saying for a very long time,” Joe Kent, a Trump-endorsed House candidate in Washington State, said on a podcast run by Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief political strategist. “We’re at war.”
On Thursday, a 42-year-old Ohio man, identified as Ricky W. Shiffer, showed up at the Cincinnati field office of the F.B.I. with an AR-15-style rifle and was subsequently shot to death after firing multiple times at the police during a standoff. There is no evidence of what prompted Mr. Shiffer to act. But Mr. Shiffer’s social media posts later revealed that he was full of rage about, among other things, the search at Mar-a-Lago — and that he wanted revenge.
“Violence is not (all) terrorism,” he wrote — on Mr. Trump’s own social media app, Truth Social. “Kill the F.B.I. on sight.”
Violence is not terrorism? That is blithering nonsense. Violence can be terrorism when it is illegal and unwarranted.
This childish, mindless hate and violence is what decades of poisonous Republican Party lies, slanders, irrational emotional manipulation and crackpot conspiracy bullshit has encouraged and unleashed. Millions of Americans are morphing into domestic terrorists based on nothing but lies, slanders and irrational drivel. Fascist Republican elites, donors and their propagandists incite the hate, chaos and violence. This is Republican Party’s way of attacking and destroying democracy, the rule of law, civil liberties and respect for truth, especially inconvenient truth.
Being focused purely on winning power and based on lies and deceit, these fascist lies, slanders and attacks are unprincipled and incoherent. The Republican Party incites and condones it all, making it a fascist domestic terrorist organization.
Q: It is time for law enforcement to classify the Republican Party as a domestic terrorist organization?
Rank and file fascists?
If not, then what?
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