Mississippi mayor defends cops who killed George Floyd: ‘If you can talk, you can breathe’

The mayor of a Mississippi city is on the receiving end of blowback after he took to Twitter to defend the cops involved in the death of George Floyd.

From his now-deleted Twitter account, Petal mayor Hal Marx wrote, “Why in the world would anyone choose to become a #PoliceOfficer in our society today?”

“If you say you can’t breathe, you’re breathing. Most likely that man died of overdose or heart attack,” Marx later wrote, following up with another tweet that said “officers were not restricting his breathing.”

As a result of his tweets, Marx was the subject of a huge wave of backlash from Twitter users, one of which was offensive lineman for the Indianapolis Colts, Javon Patterson, who wrote, “You know as a former resident of Petal … this is truly disturbing to see. To know that a leader of community feels right even posting this.”

Toronto Blue Jays outfielder and Petal High School graduate Anthony Alford responded on Facebook, writing, “How could you watch this video and make such an idiot comments.”

According to NBC Jackson affiliate WLBT, Marx responded to the backlash, saying, “The tolerant progressives can’t tolerate a simple statement of fact.”

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.