Geauga County commissioner says defacing war monuments should be a "shootable offense," but don't

Geauga County commissioner says defacing war monuments should be a “shootable offense,” but don’t quote him


CHARDON, Ohio – In this national moment of awakening about police violence against Black citizens, some public officials just can’t seem to land with both feet on the right side of history.

Among them is Geauga County Commissioner Ralph Spidalieri, who during a June 16 meeting of commissioners said that vandalizing a war monument should be a “shootable offense,” and since then, has managed to make an already ugly situation worse for himself by blaming the media for quoting him.

The statement was made during an audio-recorded conversation about outfitting the Geauga County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand was asking for riot gear and chemical munitions to prepare for a “show of force” in the event of racial justice protests such as those that have erupted in response to the May 25th police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed African American, in Minneapolis.

Hildenbrand said that deputies from different departments wearing the same gear while working together would look “almost like an army.” He went on to say that sending deputies to Cuyahoga County to help with protest control would be worth it to “keep those people there, keep them the hell out of our county.”

Read more: https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2020/06/geauga-county-commissioner-says-defacing-war-monuments-should-be-a-shootable-offense-but-dont-quote-him.html