Kirk ‘disguised himself as a Christian,’ the North Carolina cop claims
Durham Police Chief Patrice Andrews said she was “outraged” by people honoring Charlie Kirk and accused the murdered conservative commentator of masquerading as a Christian and spreading “hate speech.”
“I won’t stop being outraged at the way this man is being honored by people that I thought I knew,” Andrews, a registered Democrat who has led the department since 2021, wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post. “This man, who disguised himself as a Christian, shamed Black women like me, believed that gun violence was necessary to preserve the 2nd amendment, and created a culture of divisiveness through hate speech.”
“So, at the time of his death, I chose to give him the empathy that he didn’t believe in and certainly didn’t believe that people like me deserved,” she added. “But to know many of you STILL support him despite his horrible rhetoric.. I cannot.”
Since Kirk’s assassination on Wednesday, almost a hundred individuals have been fired from their jobs for publicly celebrating or justifying Kirk’s assassination on social media and on television, according to a running tally compiled by Capital Research Center’s Parker Thayer. Among them are MSNBC political contributor Matthew Dowd, who was canned after blaming the murder on Kirk’s “hate speech,” and Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah, whose posts on Bluesky falsely claimed Kirk said all black women “do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously.”
A petition launched Monday calling on Andrews to resign has garnered over 1,300 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon.
In a statement, the City of Durham said it is aware of Andrews’s post and is “reviewing the matter to determine whether any City policies were violated.” But the city’s Democratic mayor, Leonardo Williams, told the Raleigh News & Observer, “I fully support our chief.”
“After her post, some have become selective about who gets to have freedom of speech and who doesn’t,” he added in a statement. “This is not a ‘shut up and dribble’ moment. This is a Black woman leader who has proven beyond measure that she is more than capable of honorably and effectively leading the largest law enforcement agency in our city.”
This isn’t the first time Andrews has raised eyebrows. In November 2023, a month after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, the Durham Police Department, under her leadership, refused to arrest any of the roughly 200 anti-Israel protesters blocking a highway and instead rerouted traffic. Law enforcement warned the agitators they would be arrested, but ultimately allowed them to remain until they left on their own accord after about two hours.
“We were prepared to arrest any individuals that did not comply with our lawful orders,” Andrews said in a statement. “We did not and will not prioritize haste over safety, and will always avoid taking haphazard or reckless action that would have placed officers, motorists, bystanders, and protesters in danger.”
White state Republicans accused Durham leaders of “coddling lawlessness,” Durham mayor pro tempore Mark-Anthony Middleton praised the police department.
“I know a lot of people wanted us to go in immediately and arrest everyone, but that can escalate the situation. The last thing we need is a riot on [the highway],” Middleton told the News & Observer.
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