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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Twitter feed reads like a right-wing message board, chock-full of pro-gun rhetoric, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and even pro-gun and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
So it comes as no shock that Abbott is being extensively criticized for his merciless response to the mass capturing in his state Friday.
A person suspected of utilizing an AR-15 rifle to kill 5 neighbors execution-style continued to elude a military of regulation enforcement looking for him exterior Houston over the weekend.
Authorities stated Sunday afternoon that Francisco Oropesa, 38, appeared to have slipped previous a 2-mile dragnet of greater than 150 regulation enforcement officers in Cleveland, Texas, about 45 miles north of Houston, on Saturday.
Authorities say Oropesa opened fireplace on his neighbors late Friday after considered one of them complained that gunfire coming from Oropesa’s property was maintaining an toddler from sleeping. A 9-year-old was among the many 5 individuals killed.
Abbott stated nothing in regards to the mass capturing from both his private or official Twitter account on Saturday, although he did discover time to publish this tweet with a canine.
“All smiles for the weekend,” Abbott wrote.
Issues bought worse from there.
When Abbott lastly talked about the capturing in a Sunday tweet, he acquired a torrent of criticism for highlighting the massacred household’s alleged immigration standing, and for doing the identical with the suspect.
“I’ve introduced a $50K reward for information on the legal who killed 5 unlawful immigrants Friday,” he posted alongside a press release wherein he provided condolences.
With this act, Abbott appeared to wish to make a narrative about violent crime right into a story about immigration. It’s a racist affiliation that has develop into regular amongst conservatives nowadays. However even when it seems that some or all the victims have been undocumented, there’s no believable clarification — apart from xenophobia — for Abbott to seek advice from their citizenship standing there.
For one, undocumented individuals have a proper to not be killed or harmed, alalthough Texas Republicans appear to wrestle with this truth. And, as many immigrant rights advocates have famous, the time period “unlawful immigrant” is flawed on each authorized and ethical grounds. On prime of that, the governor is clearly being picky with the individuals he elects to malign. His personal lawyer basic, Ken Paxton, has been beneath legal indictment for a number of years now on fraud allegations, and he’s the topic of a federal corruption probe as effectively.
However Abbott has by no means as soon as referred to his AG as a “fraud suspect.”
With household and group members nonetheless grieving, one would possibly suppose it ill-advised to push anti-immigrant rhetoric when speaking in regards to the victims of a mass capturing.
Good luck convincing Greg Abbott.