A Salem city councilor faces criticism after he shared a video of black protesters being run over by cars on Facebook.
Salem City Councilor Daniel Benjamin shared a video from Ron Dwyer showing cars running over black protesters Thursday, reports The Oregonian.
Dwyer, a blogger, captioned the video with, “As this video shows people are starting to get tired of the Black lives Matter bullies blocking the roadways.”
Now, activists and the city’s mayor have come out to express their disapproval over Benjamin sharing the video. Some, like Don’t Shoot PDX organizer Teressa Raiford, are calling for Benjamin’s resignation.
“I think it’s sickening and pretty much disgusting. You’re promoting racial intimidation and harassment and possibly murder. He needs to resign,” Raiford insisted.
Mayor Anna Peterson also expressed her dismay with the video, calling it “inappropriate.”
“These are horrific videos. Just to share them seems inappropriate to me,” Peterson declared Tuesday. She added that she had talked to Benjamin about the video.
A council member can be removed if they are convicted of committing a crime or if they are absent for 30 plus days, according to Peterson. She does have the power to remove a council member from a subcommittee, an action she is considering for Benjamin.
Benjamin told the Statesman Journal that he removed the video from his page and turned his Facebook to private after receiving multiple “hate posts.”
“I would like to issue an apology regarding a video that I shared on my personal Facebook page. My intention by sharing that video was to bring awareness that people were being killed in the streets of our cities… and I do not condone either side in regards to the violence that has been perpetrated on innocent people,” Benjamin wrote on his city council Facebook page.
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