Name: Prosecutor’s social media post, apparently equating BLM to Nazis, draws outrage
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Prosecutor’s social media post, apparently equating BLM to Nazis, draws outrage

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateA Facebook post this week from an account linked to the chief trial lawyer at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office has provoked outrage, with about a dozen defense lawyers and others in the legal community calling for the prosecutor to step down over comments that appear to equate Black Lives Matter protesters with Nazis.The meme posted by veteran prosecutor Kaylynn Williford shows a black and white photograph of hands holding an overflowing bin of rings.It says, “Wedding bands that were removed from Holocaust victims prior to being executed, 1945. Each ring represents a destroyed family. Never forget, Nazis tore down statues. Banned free speech. Blamed economic hardships on one group of people. Instituted gun control. Sound Familiar?”Williford and DA Kim Ogg did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the June 22 post, which has since been removed, according to people who have viewed the site.Tom Berg, a former top assistant to Ogg, said the post “leads one to make a false and confused comparison between the Holocaust and current events including Black Lives Matter.”“Why Kaylynn would share that propaganda I have no idea,” Berg said. “There are all kinds of cloudy thinking and bad judgment emanating from the DA Office these days.”Berg said the First Amendment protects “some pretty vile speech.” He noted that Williford may harbor such thoughts, but if the office has a social media policy restricting speech that brings disrepute, Ogg should invoke that policy.“I would not have tolerated this, but I have been gone a year,” he said. “Given the DA’s efforts to court portions of the black community in an election year, this strikes me as bizarre.”Mauro Beltramini, a criminal defense lawyer who is active on social media, shared a screenshot of the post Friday highlighting it as an example of the DA’s “Trial Bureau Chief being racist as (expletive) (and publicly embarrassing themselves while also letting everyone know they’re a huge piece of (expletive)).”He goes on to say, “This person thinks protestors (sic) and BLM and people that want to tear down Confederate-loser-statues are the same as Nazis. Y’all know what to do.”Beltramini said he had heard from a dozen people in the legal community and others who feel Williford must resign or be fired for publicly sharing such views.“It’s a strikingly bad choice given the circumstances right now,” Beltramini said in an interview. “This is a high-powered person who has the power to control a lot of cases, what cases can be dismissed and a lot of policy for the trial attorneys, probably for hundreds in the entire office.He said he doesn’t think that somebody who wanted to take down Confederate statues or sought sensible gun control would be “lumped in with Nazis.”&nbsp; “Just because two groups have the same thought, it doesn’t mean they have the same motivation for doing these things.”Beltramini said his concern and others’ concerns are that someone with these views should not be trusted to make the life-altering decisions she must deal with on the job.Williford has handled several high profile cases in her decades at the office, including the Andrea Yates trial and the death penalty trial of Ronald Lee Haskell, convicted of killing six of his ex-wife's family members in 2014.gabrielle.banks@chron.com

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateA Facebook post this week from an account linked to the chief trial lawyer at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office has provoked outrage, with about a dozen defense lawyers and others in the legal community calling for the prosecutor to step down over comments that appear to equate Black Lives Matter protesters with Nazis.The meme posted by veteran prosecutor Kaylynn Williford shows a black and white photograph of hands holding an overflowing bin of rings.It says, “Wedding bands that were removed from Holocaust victims...

Prosecutor’s social media post, apparently equating BLM to Nazis, draws outrage

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