'Nut Cases' And 'Snowflakes': Judge Suspended Over Facebook Posts

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA — A Gwinnett County judge and longtime local politician has been suspended after a series of controversial Facebook posts came to light.

Over the weekend, magistrate Judge Jim Hinkle, who also was a longtime mayor of Grayson, made several posts in which he called people protesting Civil War monuments "snowflakes" and "nut cases," and compared those who would tear down those monuments to radical Islamic group ISIS.

The posts brought to light older controversial posts by Hinkle. In January, the judge posted that he was "proud to be a deplorable infidel," an apparent reference to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's reference to some of now-President Donald Trump's most extreme supporters as "deplorables."

Last year, on the same day the U.S. Treasury announced that Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman would replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, Hinkle posted, "Well, the U.S. Treasury has just announced the ugliest $20 bill, or any money ever." Tubman will become the first African-American and second woman ever to be featured on U.S. currency.

In other posts, Hinkle has condemned Islam as a violent religion.

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Gwinnett County Chief Magistrate Judge Kristina Hammer Blum told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she suspended Hinkle hours after his posts first came to light on Saturday. She told the paper Hinkle is suspended while she considers "appropriate final action" in the case.

"As the Chief Magistrate Judge, I have made it clear to all of our Judges that the Judicial Canons, as well as our internal policies, require Judges to conduct themselves in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity, impartiality, and fairness of the judiciary," Blum told the AJC in an email. "I consider any violation of those principles and policies to be a matter of utmost concern, and will certainly take any action necessary to enforce compliance and to maintain the integrity of this Court."

By Wednesday morning, Hinkle appeared to have either deleted his Facebook account or set it to a private setting. But the AJC captured images of his posts before he did so.

"In Charlottesville, everyone is upset over Robert E. Lee statue. It looks like all of the snowflakes have no concept of history," Hinkle wrote Saturday. "It is what it is. Get over it and move on. Leave history alone - those who ignore history are deemed (sic) to repeat the mistake of the past. In Richmond, VA, all of the Confederate monuments on Monument Ave. have people on horses whose asses face North. PERFECT!"

Later, he wrote "The nut cases tearing down monuments are equivalent to ISIS destroying history."

The posts came the same weekend white nationalists from across the nation descended upon Charlottesville, Virginia, spurred at least in part by efforts there to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The ensuing demonstrations, during which some members of the group brandished torches and Nazi and Confederate flags, resulted in violent clashes with some counter-protesters and the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed when a so-called "alt-right" member slammed his car into a group of anti-racism demonstrators.

Contacted by the AJC, Hinkle said he didn't "see anything controversial" about his posts.

“But you know, with the way things are going in the world today, I guess everything’s controversial,” he said, according to the paper.

Photo via Gwinnett County Magistrate Court