San Bernardino, California district attorney calls U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters ‘a cunt’

By Frederick H. Lowe
Contributing Writer

(BlackmansStreet.Today) — District attorneys are required to apply the law with impartiality but that doesn’t mean they are void of personal opinions which can be offensive and possibly influence their work.

Michael Selyem, lead gang crimes prosecutor for the San Bernardino County, California, District Attorney’s Office, called U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, “a cunt and a loudmouth” and that “someone in the ghetto should have shot dead this bitch by now.”

Selyem, a deputy district attorney, wrote his opinion of Waters on his Facebook and Instagram pages. He has been placed on administrative leave and could be fired, according to several news reports. He also made profane comments about former First Lady Michelle Obama. His Facebook and Instagram pages have since been deleted.

Selyem’s boss, District Attorney Mike Ramos, said during a news conference Monday that his office does not condone expressions of hatred, discrimination or incitements of violence.

Waters, a California Democrat, has been in heated war of words with Trump about the separation of families who are seeking political asylum at the southern border and that sparked Selyem’s verbal assault, calling for someone, anyone, to physically attack Waters.

At a Los Angeles rally in June, Waters urged attendees to exercise their constitutional rights of freedom of speech and peaceful protest by letting Trump and members of his administration know that separating immigrant children is not tolerated in this country.

Since then, members and former members of the Trump administration and Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, have been confronted by protestors and harassed.

Trump called Waters a person with a low IQ.

His verbal attacks on Waters angered the Congressional Black Caucus, of which she is a member, because House and Senate leadership of the Democratic Party had not stepped into defend her. They have since done so.

Selyem has defenders. Ramos said there have been no indication that racial bias affected Selyem’s handling of cases; nevertheless, he assigned another prosecutor to investigate previous cases managed by Selyem.

This article originally published in the July 16, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.