Camden News
Social media provides individuals with the opportunity to display behavior that reflects well, questionably or downright badly on the person doing the messaging.
But, when the individual actually represents the community, that person’s social media behavior reflects on all of us.
That’s what happened when Mayor Julian Lott indulged in venting about another individual recently. Unfortunately, rather than target the individual he was aiming for, which in itself was unseemly for a public official, the mayor leveled his wrath at an unsuspecting constituent.
The constituent was merely trying to thank a state legislator who apparently had worked on behalf of our area to make available COVID-19 vaccinations.
Lott’s displeasure with the legislator might be understandable. He is state Sen. Charles Edwin Beckham III of the 12th District. It was revealed when Beckham was running for the position that he was expelled from a Mississippi high school for racist activities that included wearing a Ku Klux Klan costume.
He attributed his behavior to youthful mistakes and has renounced such hate groups.
Lott does not appear to give credence to Beckham’s stated redemption, referring to him in a social media post as having been a “klansman.”
Lott’s post was in an exchange with a constituent who expressed gratitude to Beckham for working to get vaccinations available locally. Lott took exception to that and, in a post directed at the constituent, stated such things as “Satan, the Lord rebuke you.” He told the constituent to stop posting on the mayor’s site, a site which is open to the public.
As we said, Lott’s problem with Beckham is understandable. We too remain troubled by the senator’s past behavior. But the mayor’s problem is with Beckham, not the constituent who was trying to give credit where credit was due for bringing COVID-19 vaccinations to Camden.
When the mayor is posting on Facebook, he is projecting the City of Camden’s image. The image suffers when the mayor is seen verbally attacking one of his constituents.