The Shelby County, Tennessee, Commission on Monday voted 12-0 in favor of censuring Criminal Court Judge Jim Lammey for his infamous April 5, Facebook link to an article by notorious Holocaust denier David Cole claiming that liberal Jews have supported Muslim immigration to the west, thus acting like the creators of golem in Jewish folklore. The article calls Muslim immigrants “foreign mud,” criticized the “integration craze” in public schools, and called on Jews to “get the [expletive] over the Holocaust.”
It should be noted that he commission cannot directly censure a sitting judge. The resolution will be turned over to the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct with a request to find judicial misconduct on Lammey’s part.
The accused judge wrote the commission: “I adamantly deny the characterization of me by the local media and certain interest groups as being a Holocaust Denier, anti-immigrant, and racist. Please find attached a note sent to me from the author of the article I shared, that everyone, who obviously did not read it, seems to be so offended by. I merely said it was ‘Interesting.’ It sets the record straight against those who so maliciously mischaracterize me as an anti-Semite hater of all immigrants. The writer is Jewish and not a Holocaust denier. The local newspaper’s initial dramatic heading, tying me to a Holocaust denier, and an accompanying article, was all based on a falsehood. This is character assassination at its best. It is perhaps libelous as well since the falsehood has maliciously continued to flourish, even here. Incidentally, I believe all immigrants should come here legally. That’s my constitutional right under the First amendment.”
David Christopher Cole, a.k.a. David Stein (Stein was outed as Cole by his ex-girlfriend in 2013), is a Republican hack who uses the fact that he is Jewish to boost his controversial views that the number of Jewish victims of the Holocaust has been exaggerated. In his 2014 book Republican Party Animal, Cole wrote: “You want the really quick condensed version of my views? Auschwitz was not an extermination camp.”
In January 1998, Irv Rubin, chairman of the Jewish Defense League, offered a monetary reward for information regarding Cole’s whereabouts. In response to the threat, Cole entered into a deal with Rubin whereby he renounced his views and the JDL removed the reward offer. Rubin bragged that Cole’s recantation is “evidence of the power of the Jewish Defense League,” but Cole later claimed in Republican Party Animal that the recantation was insincere.
The Tennessee Commission Vice-Chair Mark Billingsley said Lammey’s posts constituted “the promotion of hatred that affects so many in our community, adding, “I think we have to stand up for what is right and what is just. If we’re silent on this, it certainly condones a promotion of hate.”
Shelby County is the site of Memphis International Airport, located 3 miles south of the center of Memphis. If you’re flying from NY City, you should be above Shelby County after 2 hours and 55 minutes.
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