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"Whitey keeping a black man down."--City Commissioner removed tonight in Paducah, KY [1]

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Date: 2023-01-17

Paducah City Commission Misconduct Hearing Jan 17, 2023

Tonight the Paducah City Commission voted unanimously to remove fellow Commission member David Guess following a white supremacist-themed text he sent on election day last fall.



My son and I had a bet on this. My son lives in Paducah and said that no way would they remove Mr. Guess, the “good ole boys” would close ranks and protect him, comments had been pouring in to support him (and excuse his behavior). I live in a nearby county. I pointed out that the Commission asked him to resign at the last meeting before the hearing, and following his refusal to resign, the procedure to have a hearing and vote on removal was scheduled—and that I thought that signaled hope that they would “do the right thing.” I am glad I was right. Keep in mind that outside of Paducah, as you enter on 1-24, there is a HUGE Confederate flag on private property greeting you. The city and county made an attempt to respond by putting this on the water tower that is on property across from this flag:

Unity Water Tower



I’ll keep this short and let readers read the news accounts. The screenshot of the offensive text has been included in a lot of previous reporting.

Guess said in the text: "You got dujan under control"

The city employee replied: "He is mad at you lol."

Guess replied: "Whitey keeping a black man down."

Then followed that up with: "Sorry. It just came out. I haven't said one thing this whole election or any day that I'm alive."

The city employee replied: "No comment lol."



I listened to the summary arguments and plan to listen to the rest of the hearing later, but it seems these live feed videos done by the local TV station (link below), contain a lot more detail than the previous news reports I’ve read and seen.



Here is the link to tonight’s proceedings, with a brief summary included in the accompanying text: Paducah City Commission votes unanimously

One thing that has struck me is that while the reaction of leaders has been to discuss the text as having “racist connotations”, I think a better and more useful description would be to focus on the white supremacist language directly, as opposed to getting into the merits of defining “racist connotations.” Mr. Guess’s explanations of being tired and stressed because it was election day, and that it was an attempt at a “bad joke” evidently failed to carry the day. That someone in his position would think that it was any kind of joke is pretty damning. Evidently he can appeal his removal, but honestly, if he really cares about the community he will accept justice and move on. Stay tuned.



Anyway, a bit of good news for the ongoing battle for social justice.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/1/17/2147777/--Whitey-keeping-a-black-man-down-City-Commissioner-removed-tonight-in-Paducah-KY

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