A Democratic congresswoman from Missouri has come under fire for supporting a ‘violent’ riot Saturday at a St. Louis jail and left one officer hurt, according to reports.
Early Saturday morning, inmates took over a section of the City Justice Center, smashing windows, throwing chairs onto the sidewalk below and started fires after a ‘defiant’ inmate attacked a guard, prompting several other inmates to join in on the assault, The New York Post reported.
It took officials nearly eight hours to bring an end to the unrest, which was described as ‘extremely violent’. Guards used tear gas to take back control of the facility.
Hours after the riot subsided, Rep. Cori Bush wrote, appeared to tweet a statement of support for the rioters.
“A riot is the language of the unheard,” Rep. Cori Bush wrote quoting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
“I want to talk to my constituents in the window. Their lives and their rights must be protected,” Bush said. “My team and I are working to ensure that the urgent needs of people who are incarcerated are not ignored.”
One of the Twitter users found Bush’s support of the violent riot to be hypocritical, given what she said after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
“Exactly a month ago you were saying riots were dangerous and a threat to democracy. Good to know that riots are OK now,” pointed out twitter user Naomi Mathew.