From the Maplewood Township Committee:
The Maplewood Township Committee condemns the racist comments of United States Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin. We are outraged and disappointed by Senator Johnson, who has betrayed the oath of office all elected officials take to uphold the Constitution and its values of equality and justice for all.
During a March 11th radio interview, Senator Johnson said that he did not feel threatened by the overwhelmingly white rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th but would have been “concerned” if those protestors were associated with Black Lives Matter and Antifa. Johnson said, “Even though those thousands of people… were marching to the Capitol, I knew those were people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, and so I wasn’t concerned… Now, had the tables been turned… and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned.”
The facts are that on January 6th thousands of white rioters violently broke into the Capitol, five people died during the assault, including one police officer, and 140 police officers were injured. There was widespread damage to the building, including personal offices of House and Senate members. And more than 300 insurrectionists, including members of far-right, extremist groups, have been charged with various violations of the law.
As local elected officials in New Jersey, we cannot be silent. As the late Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel said, “To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all.” We believe it is our duty to speak out against the Wisconsin Senator’s blatantly racist words.
We thank New Jersey U.S. Senator Robert Menendez for forcefully calling out Senator Johnson’s racism on the floor of the Senate. We urge other federal, state, county and local officials to issue their own condemnations.
We hope the people of Wisconsin will take note of Senator Johnson’s words, beliefs and deeds, and think long and hard about the kind of representation they want in the United States Senate.
Maplewood (NJ) Township Committee
Mayor Frank McGehee
Deputy Mayor Dean Dafis
Committeeman Victor De Luca
Committeewoman Nancy Adams
Committeeman Greg Lembrich
