South Windsor Mayor Responds to Candidate's Vegas Gun Comments With Call to 'Unite'

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT — South Windsor Mayor Carolyn Streeter Mirek on Thursday sent out a strong-willed statement calling for residents to "demonstrate our sound spirit of inclusiveness" in the wake of social media comments from a town council member about the Las Vegas shootings.

Ritu Goel on Wednesday dropped out of the race after the comments on Facebook sparked a rhetorical riot on social media.

The posting by Goel read, "Prayers for Las Vegas ... People who are in favor of guns should have been on that strip."

That sparked a hailstorm of comments — most of them downright nasty — on a variety of Facebook pages starting with hers and spilling onto the Facebook page of a local real estate agency that said Goel is no longer affiliated with.

Goel then released statements that included, "For the safety of my family I am withdrawing my candidacy for town council ... My professional life is at stake. Last night, I went to the police station accompanied by some fellow Democrats, to ask for police protection ... Politics has become a blood sport in South Windsor. My one badly worded, emotional painful Facebook post was taken out of context and exploited by our political opponents on social media and news channels ... An apology has not stopped the hate directed towards me and my family ... I have never advocated violence against anyone, nor did my social media comment. What I expressed is complete frustration with the lack of sensible gun controls and my hope that those who support the NRA in believing that guns are more important than lives will see the Las Vegas tragedy and change their minds."

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In her Thursday statement, Mirek did not mention her Republicans nor Goel's Democrats by name, but called for residents to "move forward."

She wrote, "As mayor for everyone in South Windsor, I care for all of its residents. As such, I call on our town to demonstrate our sound spirit of inclusiveness and our strength to overcome adversity, forgive and move forward. There is no room for hate spewed by anyone, especially by people seeking leadership roles in our beautiful town."

She did single out Goel by saying, "The best course of action for a person making a mistake is to apologize unconditionally, which is what aspiring leaders like Ms. Goel should have done. "

Mirek concluded her statement by saying, "As the mayor, I would like everyone in town to rise above and unite because the unity of all of our town residents comes above any one person's self-interest. I have worked long and hard to keep South Windsor a great town ... The town needs to come together ... what's done is done ... Let's continue to celebrate the wonderful and diverse town that we all know South Windsor is."

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