Florida prosecutor suspended after calling downtown Orlando 'miscreants and ghetto thugs' on Facebook
LatestA Florida prosecutor was suspended Friday for a horrific Facebook post published shortly after the Orlando shooting that called the city “a melting pot of 3rd world miscreants and ghetto thugs.”
In the now-deleted post, assistant State’s Attorney Kenneth Lewis wrote that “the entire city should be leveled” after the shooting at the Pulse nightclub on Sunday that left 49 dead and 53 wounded.
The post (captured by NBC affiliate WESH) read in full:
“Downtown Orlando has no bottom. The entire city should be leveled. It is void of a single redeeming quality. It is a melting pot of 3rd world miscreants and ghetto thugs. It is void of culture. If you live down there you do it at your own risk and at your own peril. If you go down there after dark there is seriously something wrong with you. Disney does everything in its power to shield visitors of Disney from its northern blight. That doesn’t change reality. Disney may be the happiest place on earth but Orlando is a national embarrassment. If this is an act of domestic terrorist it is so important that we don’t publish the religion, name, or motive of the terrorist as not to offend anyone.”
Lewis is an assistant State Attorney in Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit, which includes Orlando. The State’s Attorney’s office suspended him for violating social-media policy, which was put in place after Facebook posts by none other than Lewis himself.
In 2014, Lewis was temporarily reassigned and underwent sensitivity training after posting “Happy Mother’s Day to all the crack hoes out there. It’s never too late to turn it around, tie your tubes, clean up your life and make difference to someone out there that deserves a better mother.” In another post, he put up a picture of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor with the words “Reason enough why no country should ever engage in the practice of Affirmative Action again. This could be the result. Where would she be if she didn’t hit the quota lottery? Here’s a hint: ‘Would you like to supersize that sir?’”
Lewis apologized for both posts and said he thought they were visible only to his Facebook friends, according to NBC News.
After the posts, the State Attorney’s office reviewed 55 cases he prosecuted for signs of bias and ultimately cleared him, according to CNN.