*Before he became the creator, executive producer and head writer of HBO’s Maryland-set series “The Wire,” David Simon was a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. On Thursday, he took to Twitter with his thoughts about the mass shooting that took place hours earlier at a Sun-owned newspaper in Annapolis, and raged against the man whom he holds responsible for fanning the flames.
In an epic tweet-rant, Simon put the blame squarely on Donald Trump for creating the climate that lead to the five fatalities at The Capital Gazette.
“Blood today in an American newsroom. Aren’t you proud, you vile, fascist son of a bitch,” he tweeted in response to a Trump tweet in which the president claimed the “fake news media … is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”
First-degree murder charges were filed Friday against Jarrod Warren Ramos, whom police said targeted the paper, shooting his way into the newsroom and killing four journalists and a staffer before he was arrested. Acting Police Chief William Krampf of Anne Arundel County said Ramos “looked for his victims.”
Ramos had been threatening physical violence against reporters at Capital Gazette ever since suing the newspaper for defamation in 2012, alleging he was harmed by an article about his conviction in a criminal harassment case. A judge dismissed the suit, and an appeals court later upheld the dismissal. Although Ramos is refusing to talk to investigators, it appears his shooting spree was connected to this longstanding gripe.
— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) June 29, 2018
Thursday’s shooting came amid months of verbal and online attacks on the “fake news media” from Trump and other politicians. The rhetoric prompted New York City police to immediately tighten security at news organizations throughout the city.
At one point, Simon tweeted that a friend may have been involved in the Annapolis incident and had not yet reported they were safe. He was trolled by another user, and responded with profanity, saying it was “Trump’s direct language” that’s to blame.
Simon only recently returned to Twitter after a ban for attacking another Trump follower. He celebrated his return with a lengthy tweetstorm of more than a dozen posts that showed his absence from the platform did not diminish his frustration.
Read Simon’s tweets below:
FACTS: Whatever was in the shooter’s head, the US President stood ready to bolster and validate it. We know this. It is on the record. The US President chose to declare to citizens of the republic that journalists of a free press were “enemies of the people.” https://t.co/Pi30oH9NCI
— David Simon (@AoDespair) June 29, 2018
Have learned now that two friends from the Annapolis Capital, both of them “enemies of the people,” still have not reported safe. I don’t believe in petitional prayer, but maybe they and their families do. So…
— David Simon (@AoDespair) June 29, 2018
Fact: Journalists are “enemies of the people.” The US President stated that. Out loud. That fact is there any time you want to pick it up and defend it, asshole. https://t.co/H4r6TrfCqv
— David Simon (@AoDespair) June 29, 2018
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