NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Conservative pundit Gary Raynoso says he was “angry and upset” last night when he tweeted that people in Charlotte should “plow through” protesters or rioters they encountered on the streets, a tweet that got him suspended from Twitter.
Last night was the second consecutive night that protests over the police shooting of Keith Scott, an African American male. While the police claim that Scott was shot after being given numerous commands to drop his gun, the community to which Scott belonged is still seeking answers. Protests began on Tuesday night but riots were also seen that night as well. Wednesday night brought more of the same initial peaceful protests, but eventually chaos ensued.
That’s when Raynoso, a reporter for conservative outlet PB&J Media, took to his Twitter account and sent the tweet that got him suspended.
“Just plow through the mongrels,” Raynoso tweeted.
Within minutes, the tweet had gone viral, and several prominent political pundits had advised him to walk it back or delete the tweet entirely. Raynoso, instead dug in, claiming his First Amendment right to free speech. However, Twitter being a private entity, decided that he had violated their Terms of Service, and suspended his account. Raynoso’s friends and colleagues protested.
“What the hell,” Cassandra Dill asked on her own Twitter feed. Dill is a young female conservative pundit who appears regularly on Fox News, “How come other jerks on Twitter can call for violence against people and that’s okay,” Dill tweeted in rapid fire succession, “but Gary gets booted for telling people to murder protesters and rioters? Only in Obama’s America do two wrongs not make a right! Bring back our moral equivocation, Obama!”
Many other conservative commentators echoed their concerns that Twitter is persecuting conservatives unfairly. However, a spokesperson for Twitter told reporters that “not all violations of the TOS are equal” and that “we hold people in the media that have thousands of supporters to a slightly higher standard than random people with eggs as their profile pictures.”
Raynoso said he plans to serve his suspension but will speak out against censorship every chance he gets.
“This is lame,” Raynoso complained, “because sure, I could have just deleted the tweet and acknowledged I’d gotten a little too steamed under the collar. But obviously my First Amendment rights to say whatever I want with impunity were violated, and I don’t wanna be silent about it.”
This is a developing story.
Follow James on Twitter @JamboSchlarmbo.
