Councilmember condones ‘extermination’ threats, while blasting opponents

Burien City Councilmember Krystal Marx doesn’t practice what she preaches. Indeed, after a quick review of her Facebook post decrying dangerous rhetoric, you can see a very dangerous, hateful message from a commenter calling for the “extermination” of activists.

Rather ironically, Marx calls out a community group called the Burien Voice, which she claims “announced open season for death threats, vile racist remarks and horrific acts of violence against youth of color in South King County.”

To make her point, she has posted screenshots of objectionable comments left by some of the site’s followers. The conversation surrounded a viral video of an off-duty officer being attacked by a group of youths in Des Moines. The post has gone viral, with well over 4,000 shares.

The screenshots do not include any death threats that I saw, as Marx claims they do. As best as I can tell, Marx thinks it’s a death threat for someone to say they think the off-duty cop should have shot his attackers. That is, of course, not a death threat.

But the screenshots do show some vile, racist remarks, including user Thomas Marcut, who lives in North Dakota but is from Seattle, using the n-word. According to the Burien Voice’s comments policy, they will delete inappropriate comments, like direct threats and bigotry, and ban users in extreme cases.

Some of the comments in the screenshot are disgusting and bigoted. Marx was right to call the people out, even if she goes overboard is pretending that on a viral story commented on by people who don’t even live in our state, it’s easy to quickly moderate the inappropriate comments.

But using her own standards, Marx is just as guilty.

Writing on Marx’s page, local Roderick Thomas wrote of the commenters from the Burien Voice: “This is why I am against gun control. These people need to be exterminated.” After being called out by another commenter, Thomas said his “centrism carries no weight with me.” I reached out to him on Facebook, but he hasn’t responded.

Even after being alerted to the comment, Marx doesn’t address it. In fact, while the comment went unmoderated, Marx complained that the “level of violence being celebrated on that post [Burien Voice], completely unchecked, is disgusting and not what Burien is all about.”

This wouldn’t be the first time a politician said one thing while condoning the exact behavior they claim to be offended by. I had some questions for her, so I reached out.

Marx originally agreed to an interview for this blog, though turned down my radio show interview:

Thank you for your offer to join your radio show on KTTH to discuss the community’s concerns with the rhetoric coming from The Burien Voice. As I believe that site does not need any help drawing attention to itself, I must respectfully decline your invitation and wish you the best.

That’s a weird position, given she’s bringing attention to the site by calling them out while attempting to defend the actions of the kids who attacked the cop.

But after agreeing to answer some questions, Marx quickly changed her mind:

My apologies for taking up more of your time, Mr. Rantz; that message was for someone else. I am not interested in discussing The Burien Voice at this time, and truly do wish you the best on your story.

I certainly appreciate her well wishes, but given she referenced KTTH in her first message, her message wasn’t meant for someone else. She likely found out that I’m a Republican and we know Progressive activists don’t like stepping out of their echo chamber. In my response to her dismissal, I showed her the comment from Thomas, but she didn’t feel she should remove the comment.

Now, I don’t generally have a hard and fast rule when it comes to comment moderation. I generally think you should leave most comments up and let the person face the ridicule and condemnation, should they choose to act out in a bigoted way. Though, if I see something particularly egregious, I’ll delete on my blog or ban on Facebook. But I can’t always follow that closely.

But if you’re going to call out a group you oppose because some out-of-state passersby commented inappropriately on their page, you should take responsibility for the drivel on your own page. You may not be able to moderate the page as you would as a private citizen, but she certainly could call it out as inappropriate. She’s very actively engaging in the post, having conversations with visitors. She could very easily condemn the comment. She chooses not to. I’d ask her why, directly, but she ran from the interview.

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