Channeling Qadhafi

Over the weekend, Mother Jones tweeted a report (which proved incorrect) that riot police were being sent to break up the protest at the Wisconsin capitol building. Twitter user JCCentCom gleefully responded: "Use live ammunition." Aghast, MoJo staff writer Adam Weinstein confronted him about the statement. In his reply, JCCentCom disparaged the protesters as "political enemies" and "thugs" who physically threatened "legally elected officials." Still, surely he wasn’t serious about shooting into a crowd. JCCentCom tweeted back, "You're damned right I advocate deadly force." He added "liberals hate police" and called Weinstein a "typical leftist." Just another whack job in full bloom, right? Not quite. It turns out JCCentCom is Jeffrey Cox, a deputy attorney general for the state of Indiana (one of 140 in that office). And he’s a 10-year veteran. Cox’s Twitter bio says he’s a “lawyer, writer, amateur classicist, military historian, runner, dancer and all-around weirdo.” He has 273 equally “all-around weirdo” followers on Twitter. My only question is this: How does an educated man like Cox get to a place where he can advocate the killing of peaceful, American demonstrators exercising their right to assemble? Madness.

UPDATE (2/24/2011): Cox has been officially consigned to history's ash heap. Indiana AG's spokesman Bryan Corbin confirmed that Cox had lost his job. To wit: "Today the Indiana Attorney General’s Office announced that Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Cox is no longer employed by this agency ... as public servants we are held by the public to a higher standard, and we should strive for civility." Amen. Buh bye, Jeff.