Mayor, council condemn Johnson post; say it gives city undeserved black eye

LACONIA — The mayor and City Council emphatically and unanimously condemned anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice following School Board member and state Rep. Dawn Johnson reposting a link on social media to an article that contained a derogatory caricature of a Jewish man.

The comments came during Monday’s City Council meeting, three days after Johnson reposted the cartoon from the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website. Johnson deleted the post from her Twitter feed on Friday, saying she did not realize the source of the material.

“Posting or reposting on social media content that espouses or amplifies racism or anti-Semitic content crosses the line (of acceptable political discourse),” Mayor Andrew Hosmer said. “It’s abhorrent and an affront to our shared values.”

Hosmer said the reaction to the posting was not about partisan politics, but human rights.

Johnson’s name was scarcely mentioned — and then only in passing — during the remarks from the individual councilors. Hosmer never uttered her name.

While Homser said the anti-Semitic sentiment illustrated by the cartoon was not indicative of attitudes among the people of Laconia toward Jews and other minorities, he acknowledged, “Our community is not insulated or immune from some of the ugly discourse that permeates our country.”

Councilors decried the post as an extreme departure from what they said is the city’s reputation for tolerance and inclusiveness.

“We are better than this and we know better,” said Councilor Mark Haynes, who represents Ward 4, the same ward that Johnson represents on the School Board.

Councilor Bruce Cheney said that he doubted that the post was simply the result of some unintended computer operator error as Johnson and some of her supporters have suggested.

“I don’t see how these comments that were made could have been a mistake,” said Cheney.

He noted that he never has received as many constituent complaints about a single issue during his time on the council.

Ira Keltz, president of Temple B’nai Israel in Laconia, told the council that people – and especially elected officials – should not be sharing the kinds of sentiments contained in Johnson’s post, but rather condemning them.

“Public figures should be held to a higher standard,” Keltz said during the public comment portion of the meeting, which occurred before Hosmer and the councilors made their remarks. “Their remarks, statements and even shared articles from social media sites should never include underlying hateful information,” he added, reading from a joint statement from the local synagogue and the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire put out in response to the Johnson matter.

The statement was also skeptical of Johnson’s explanation that the posting was simply due to a misunderstanding or oversight.

“She mentioned that she was not aware of the source, but she has included other negative and conspiracy theories previously, and as an elected official, it is important for her to condemn these words and images, not share them,” the statement reads.

Dana Hackett was another member of the public who called in to express her alarm and disapproval of Johnson’s posting.

Noting that she has a 4-year-old daughter who is about to enter kindergarten, Hackett said, “It terrifies me that she will be going to school in a district with someone on the School Board that has such hateful views and thoughts.”

She said it was time for people to take a stand against prejudice, “both as citizens and all our elected officials.”

Councilor Henry Lipman said he hoped people take the ramifications of the Johnson controversy and learn from it.

“Amplifying someone else’s hateful expression is harmful,” he said. “I’m glad that is recognized by my fellow councilors,” added Lipman, who is Jewish.