The Detroit Free Press is saying Teana Walsh called Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy on Friday afternoon to inform her of her resignation. Worthy, whose jurisdiction includes Detroit, accepted the resignation, according to a statement by the prosecutor’s office.
A spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, Maria Miller, said in an emailed statement:”During her tenure in the office Teana Walsh has been known for her great work ethic and her compassion for victims of crime and their families. Her post was up online briefly and she immediately took it down. The post was completely out of character for her and certainly does not reflect the person that we know.”
Walsh posted her comments on her personal Facebook page Monday night as heated and then violent protests took place in Baltimore over the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, allegedly arrested without probable cause, who later died after sustaining an injury while in police custody.
Walsh’s Facebook post, the image which was shown on Fox News, and was later taken down read: So I am watching the news in Baltimore and see large swarms of people throwing bricks etc at police who are fleeing from their assaults … 15 in hospital already. Solution. Simple. Shoot em. Period. End of discussion. I don’t care what causes the protesters to turn violent…what the “they did it because” reason is…no way is this acceptable. Flipping disgusting.
The post angered some people, including a couple of attorneys. One took a picture of it before it was taken down and shared it with Fox News.
Lonnie Scott, the executive director of the liberal advocacy group, Progress Michigan, said in a statement Friday that “Walsh’s comments represented a mentality that has to be purged from the criminal justice system as a whole.”
While Walsh’s comments were dangerous and irresponsible, according to many community leaders, her comments posted on social media point out how very unwise it can be to vent your feelings in such a very public way.
While the Internet is often used as a soapbox to express our feelings over many kinds of issues, a person in the public eye is under the microscope, whether they know it or not, and cannot let their guard down, ever. Walsh has learned a very tough lesson.