A community outreach worker in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s press office has been suspended without pay for 10 days for claiming that conservative activist Charlie Kirk “got what he wished for” when he was gunned down on a college campus in Utah.
“I’m not mourning a racist, bigoted, xenophobic clown like him who hated me and mine,” Johnson press aide Anton P. Adkins wrote this week on his personal Facebook account.
“But, I understand there’s a majority culture that someone of yall [sic] desire to please and are fooled into think his passion of Christianity wasn’t more than ensure his check got cleared.”
Adkins, who makes $76,824 a year, could not be reached for comment.
The mayor’s office called the posting “inflammatory and offensive,” and said Adkins has “apologized publicly” and deleted the post.
“Disciplinary action has been taken … for unprofessional conduct on social media,” the mayor’s office said in a statement.
Ald. Ray Lopez (15th), one of Johnson’s most outspoken City Council critics, said a 10-day suspension that deprives Adkins of one paycheck is a “slap on the wrist.”
“He should be fired,” Lopez said. “For someone who espouses the virtues of good government and being the `Soul of Chicago,’ Anton’s presence is a stain on that very soul.”
Public Safety Committee Chair Brian Hopkins (2nd) said it was inexcusable for “someone who works in communications to respond with painful comments in the aftermath of a public assassination.”
“Regardless of your personal feelings, you don’t have to disclose all of your deepest, darkest thoughts,” Hopkins said. “To have such poor professional judgment would justify an immediate termination.”
After Kirk was shot to death during an appearance this week on the campus of Utah Valley University, Johnson released a statement saying he was “horrified” by the latest in a disturbing pattern of political violence across the nation not seen since the 1960s.
Recent examples include two assassination attempts against President Donald Trump, the murder of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband, the fire-bombing of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence while he and his family slept inside, and the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers after an event at a Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.
The statement quoted Johnson as saying, “In this country, political violence must be unacceptable in every form and we must stand together to reject it. … If violence replaces dialogue, none of us are safe.”
A graduate of Wheeling High School and founder of Turning Point USA, Kirk was a charismatic figure who energized young conservatives, motivated them to vote and was influential in Trump’s election. But his outspoken views alienated Blacks, women, and gay and transgender people.
He called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 a “mistake” that had been turned into an “anti-white weapon” and branded the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. an “awful person” who was responsible for the nation’s focus on race, according to The New York Times.
Kirk also labeled George Floyd a “scumbag” and condemned U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court, as an unqualified “diversity hire” in a nation he said was fixated on race-based hiring.
As a community outreach worker in Johnson’s press office, Adkins helps to get the word out about town hall meetings, community forums and other events in Chicago neighborhoods.
He’s not the first mayoral ally or employee to escape serious consequences after making offensive remarks on social media.
Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33rd) neither apologized nor was removed as chair of the City Council Committee on Health and Human Relations — even though Debra Silverstein (50th), the Council’s lone Jewish member, demanded both — after Rodriguez-Sanchez wrote a Facebook post accompanied by a picture of herself and her son that said, “Looking for an anti-Zionist pediatrician for this baby. Give me your recs.”
And Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) survived an effort to remove him as Housing Committee chair after he had attended a rally outside City Hall where an American flag was burned to protest U.S. support for Israel.