In this case out of New York State, some hapless layperson serving as a "town justice" in Altona Town Court, in Clinton County, posted a comment in favor of capital punishment on his personal Facebook page. It consisted of a photo of a noose, and the statement, "If we want to make America great again, we have to make evil people fear punishment again."
It took several months for some person of sufficiently "woke" character to determine that the image and statement were susceptible, in their view, to interpretation as a racist statement in favor of lynchings. That unknown person notified the NY State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which then sent the town judge a letter saying to take the post down, followed by a formal disciplinary complaint. The complaint also asserted the position that the post (which was included as an attachment to the complaint) undermined "the integrity of the judiciary and public confidence in the courts," because "the noose is an incendiary image with repugnant racial connotations."
Notwithstanding that this construction of the post came, in its entirety, from the voices in the head of the bureaucrat who drafted the complaint, the town judge was intimidated into agreeing that his post was misconduct, resigning his office, and stipulating that he would never again seek judicial office in the future.
So, basically,even though the post was, facially and in context, a completely legitimate comment in favor of capital punishment, a bureaucrat in a state agency attached entirely unintended connotations to the post, and then used that to bully a lay judge out of public service, forever. This is the sort of horrific destination one comes to by a senseless insistence on construing every public statement as offensively as possible. I see no possible advantage to the public in this. Rather, it actually undermines the integrity of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct that a fanatic extremist has been allowed to use the agency to perpetrate an injustice.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Clinton-County-town-justice-resigns-after-posting-14445910.php
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