JEFF COX is a deputy attorney general for the state of Indiana.
Or, at least, he was a deputy attorney general--before he got caught publicly encouraging the use of live ammunition against Wisconsin protesters who are defending their right to collective bargaining.
In February, according to Mother Jones magazine, when a staffer tweeted a report that riot police might be planning to remove protesters from the Wisconsin Capitol building, they received a response from Cox--aka Twitter user "JCCentCom"--who wrote "Use live ammunition."
According to Mother Jones' Adam Weinstein:
From my own Twitter account, I confronted the user, JCCentCom. He tweeted back that the demonstrators were "political enemies" and "thugs" who were "physically threatening legally elected officials." In response to such behavior, he said, "You're damned right I advocate deadly force." He later called me a "typical leftist," adding, "liberals hate police."
Only later did we realize that JCCentCom was a deputy attorney general for the state of Indiana.
As one of 144 attorneys in that office, Jeff Cox has represented the people of his state for 10 years. And for much of that time, it turns out, he's vented similar feelings on Twitter and on his blog, Pro Cynic. In his nonpolitical tweets and blog posts, Cox displays a keen litigator's mind, writing sharply and often wittily on military history and professional basketball. But he evinces contempt for political opponents--from labeling President Obama an "incompetent and treasonous" enemy of the nation to comparing "enviro-Nazis" to Osama bin Laden, likening ex-Labor Secretary Robert Reich [10] and Service Employees International Union members to Nazi "brownshirts" on multiple occasions, and referring to an Indianapolis teen as "a black teenage thug who was (deservedly) beaten up" by local police. A "sensible policy for handling Afghanistan," he offered, could be summed up as: "KILL! KILL! ANNIHILATE!"
Early Sunday, Mother Jones sent an email to Cox's work address at the Indiana attorney general's office, asking if the Twitter and blog comments were his, and if he could provide context for some of them. He responded shortly after from a personal email address: "For 'context?' Or to silence me? All my comments on twitter & my blog are my own and no one else's. And I can defend them all.
"[Y]ou will probably try to demonize me," he wrote, "but that comes with the territory."
Cox is right, it does come with the territory. Anyone violent and stupid enough to publicly advocate police firing on unarmed, peaceful protesters should be "demonized."
Thankfully, Cox's bosses felt the same way. He was fired from his post soon after. In a statement, the Indiana Attorney General's office noted: "Civility and courtesy toward all members of the public are very important to the Indiana attorney general's office. We respect individuals' First Amendment right to express their personal views on private online forums, but as public servants we are held by the public to a higher standard, and we should strive for civility."
