Indiana lawmakers under fire following controversial Facebook posts
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Two Indiana lawmakers are defending themselves after controversial images were shared on their social media pages.
One image calls women fat who participated in this weekend’s protests against President Donald Trump. The other makes fun of protesters.
24-Hour News 8 showed Hoosiers the images, and asked what they thought. “I don’t think anybody, in any position should be posting stuff like that, but especially someone with such authority,” Carmel resident, Amy Chen said.
“Maybe he should get peppered sprayed, and see how painful it could be,” Indianapolis resident, Keith O’Neal said.
The image making fun of women was shared on State Senator Jack Sandlin’s page. He deleted it, and isn’t sure how it got there. “I have no idea,” State Senator Sandlin said.
Sandlin says multiple people have access to his account. “This is an unfortunate posting, but we need to move on,” State Senator Sandlin said. “I’ve apologized for people who saw it, and I would never put anything like that on my page.”
While State Senator Sandlin isn’t sure how the image was shared, that’s not the case with State Representative Jim Lucas. “That’s me,” State Representative Lucas said. “Like it or not it wasn’t intended to be offensive to anybody. I own it. It’s on my page.”
Assistant Majority House Whip, Jim Lucas, shared an image of a protester being peppered sprayed. He said he never intended to offend anyone, and people should take a deep breath.
“As leadership absolutely,” State Representative Lucas said. “I guess I should be more mindful.”
State Representative Lucas said he will not delete the image. As for State Senator Sandlin, he’s looking into cyber security.
He issued an apology on his page after deleting the image, but also deleted that note. He did so he said to issue a formal apology through his office.
Yesterday, an offensive message related to the Women’s March on Washington appeared on my Facebook page. It’s unclear to me how this ended up on my page, but I have removed it. This message in no way represents my views toward women, and I sincerely apologize to anyone who may have seen it.”