On Monday afternoon, the University of Minnesota’s College Republicans club tweeted — and quickly deleted — a statement saying that Black Lives Matter protesters “are anarchist terrorists.”
Tweet was deleted quickly pic.twitter.com/SYhoMkzzHE
— Ricardo Lopez (@rljourno) March 22, 2021
The tweet was screenshotted and shared by Ricardo Lopez, a reporter at the Minnesota Reformer, and garnered backlash from the community. In response to the criticism, the account posted an apology.
I would like to sincerely apologize for the previous tweet. The tweet in question was reprehensible, and was not an official position of our group. It does not reflect the views of our group or the Republican Party. CR’s stands for justice and meaningful police reform.
— College Republicans (@CRsatUMN) March 22, 2021
The student who posted the tweet has since been “heavily” disciplined and no longer has access to the group’s social media accounts, according to Chase Christopherson, president of the University of Minnesota’s College Republicans.
Christopherson, a fourth-year student said the student group does not support what the student said and “wholeheartedly condemn[s] it.”
“It’s just not right to say that, [to] make such broad generalizations,” Christopherson said. “We stand by people fighting for police reform, like common-sense police reform. We support the kid’s right to freedom of speech, but we’re not going to let them voice that on our account.”
He said that within the group, opinions on police reform vary; however, he said that as a group, they believe that police should be held accountable for their actions.
“We do support the police, but we also support the right for people to protest against the police,” Chrisptherson said. “When the police do wrong, and the police do wrong, we’re right next to the people protesting, until it turns violent.”
Though Christopherson said conservatives are generally not ones for political correctness, he apologized for the tweet.
“Obviously conservatives, generally, they don’t like to say, ‘Oh we don’t want to offend anybody,’ but if it actually hurts somebody, genuinely I’m sorry.”
The Tweet swiftly prompted condemnation from University community members and beyond.
“Your finger doesn’t just slip and accidentally type a long, violent, and racist statement,” wrote Brian Evans, communications director for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
Okay, so why did you tweet that?
Your finger doesn’t just slip and accidentally type a long, violent, and racist statement. Does someone in U of M College Republican leadership actually think that? Are you going to do anything about it? https://t.co/x18JUyQyLH pic.twitter.com/gbH7XHILLj
— Brian Evans (@BriInMN) March 22, 2021
Some did not find the student group’s apology satisfactory.
This is an insufficient response, given the nature of the now-deleted tweet.
Address why your organization feels it was important to verbally stomp on the constitutionally-protected rights of those who are part of and support BLM.
— GingerNorth (@GingerNorth11) March 22, 2021
This is a breaking news report. More information will be added as it becomes available.
Tom
Mar 25, 2021 at 9:35 pm
Nah
alainsane
Mar 25, 2021 at 1:20 pm
Aww, Capn. Your suggestion needs to go down with your decrepit “ship.”
CapnRusty
Mar 23, 2021 at 2:21 pm
The Young Republicans say they will condemn a Tweet which “actually hurts somebody,” Obviously, there needs to be a clear definition of “actually hurt somebody.” There has to be a starting point for the definition, and I would suggest that the clearest definition would be that “hurt” means the kinetic infliction of pain. Any definition that only involves “feelings” is unworkable under any definition of free speech.