This happened recently in South Carolina. That is State Senator Tom Fernandez, a sitting state legislator, blasting his train horn while driving past a peaceful protest, trying to bait someone into reacting. (He reportedly drove by multiple times). A protester yells “F*** you, Tom,” and Tom flips him, and the rest of the protestors, off. You can hear one of his team members on camera say, “We got it, Tom,” before Tom tells him to go to the McDonald’s parking lot so that they can upload the footage; clearly hoping to make the protestors look like the aggressors. He wasn’t even smart enough to cut out the part of him basically being elated that he got the footage.

But it gets worse:

Tom also runs a public Facebook group with 107,000+ members, where he shares his policy views, legislative votes, and political attacks. And he blocks constituents who criticize or disagree; even respectfully.

This seems to go directly against multiple First Amendment court rulings (Lindke v. Freed, Knight v. Trump), which say public officials cannot block critics from forums used for official business.

I made a petition to get the SC Senate Ethics Committee and media involved. This is not partisan… it is about public accountability. I would love for you to sign it!

https://chng.it/KSVwcXyj6w