US Congresswoman Frederica Wilson has received threats
by Garth A. Rose
Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, 74, who gained national headlines recently over a dispute with President Donald Trump over a phone call the president made to the widow of a black soldier killed in Niger, has been threatened with a lynching.
Since Congresswoman Wilson revealed details of the phone call Trump made to Myeshia Johnson, widow of Army Sergeant La David Thompson, there have been reports she has been threatened in phone calls to her offices and via social media.
Threatened with lynching
In one on these social media threats, the Congresswoman was threatened to be lynched.
According to reports, police in Illinois are investigating allegations that a white man who lives in Des Plains close to Chicago, posted the following comments referring to the congresswoman on social media, ““Need ten good men to help carry out a lynching. Must have own horse and saddle. Rope will be provided.” In another post the man was also alleged to have referred to the congresswoman as a “disgusting pig” and “someone should take a boot to her face.”
The man suspected of placing the posts have denied this, claiming someone anonymously made the posts in his name, and he is now also receiving death threats.
Congresswoman Frederica Wilson was in a Limousine transporting Sergeant Johnson’s widow to the Miami International Airport to receive her husband’s casket being returned from Africa, when the president called the widow to offer consolation.
Speaking to members of the media on arriving at the airport the congresswoman reported being shocked overhearing Trump over a speaker-phone telling the widow in referring to her husband, “He knew what he was signing up for, but it still hurts.” Wilson perceived the comments were cold and not consolatory under the circumstances.
For several days Trump tweeted denials of his remarks in the telephone conversation, despite rebuttals from Congresswoman Wilson, and confirmations by Myeshia Wilson and the president’s Chief of Staff, General John F. Kelly.
Miami Gardens residents upset
Residents of the Congresswoman’s District 24, which includes Miami Gardens, home to Sergeant Johnson and his widow, Opa-Locka, Hollywood, Miramar, and North Miami, were very upset at the way she has been bemeaned by President Trump, and by the threats that followed.
“Ms. Wilson is highly respected for her work not only in this district since elected to Congress in 2010, but what she has done for South Florida from she was in the Florida House from 1998, and the Florida Senate from 2002. She has worked hard for education in the state, and especially mentoring young black men,” said Paul Porter, a Trinidadian-American resident of Miami-Gardens.
Peeved with Chief of Staff
Porter said he’s particularly “peeved” by comments made by the president’s Chief of Staff who referred to Wilson as “an empty barrel.” “And Kelly hasn’t even apologized knowing he made wrong allegations against her.”
Another resident of District 24, Laverne Dally, Jamaican-American of East Miramar, said, “The bitterness in which Trump, and other White House officials referred to Congresswoman Wilson has stoked the threats against her. In an already tense, divisive racist environment, the leaders in Washington should have acted more responsibly. But threatening to lynch someone in 2017 America is much too much. I can tell all who thinks their treats and criticisms will beat Ms. Wilson down that she’ll emerge much stronger from this. She is beloved in District 24.”
Threatening a member of Congress is a federal crime which can carry a prison sentence of up to five years.
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