Sharing an ‘All Lives Splatter’ meme is not a good idea, these public officials learn

A state legislator in South Dakota and a sheriff’s department in Washington state are in trouble for sharing a controversial meme that’s making the rounds.

The drawing shows an SUV running over three stick-figure pedestrians. The slogan above says: “All lives splatter.”

Below the drawing are the words, “Nobody cares about your protest. Keep your a** out of the road.”

The meme calls to mind the August death of Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old protester killed in Charlottesville, Va. when an alleged neo-Nazi drove a Dodge Challenger into a crowd of counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally.

Lynne DiSanto, a Republican state representative from Box Elder, S.D., posted the meme to her Facebook page on Sept. 7. It went largely unnoticed until this week, when she apologized for it and lost her real estate job.

DiSanto added her own comment to the meme: “I think this is a movement we can all support. #alllivesplatter.”

The state’s Democratic Party condemned her for it and called for an apology.

DiSanto reportedly removed the image on Tuesday, but not before members of progressive groups grabbed a screen shot and circulated it on social media, where it drew strong condemnation.

According to the Rapid City Journal, some people who initially commented on the post supported it.

“I am sorry if people took offense to it and perceived my message in any way insinuating support or condoning people being hit by cars,” DiSanto told the Journal. “I perceived it differently. I perceived it as encouraging people to stay out of the street.”

She told media she did consider the highly charged political environment before posting the meme.

She said she was sorry after the South Dakota Democratic Party called for an apology.

“The right to peaceably assemble is fundamental to our democracy — so fundamental, in fact, it is included in the First Amendment to our Constitution,” state Democratic Party Executive Director Sam Parkinson said in a press release.

“Whether one supports the cause of protesters or not, sharing an image promoting running them over is offensive and beneath the dignity of the office Rep. DiSanto holds. Even though she removed the image from her Facebook page, she still owes the people of South Dakota an apology.”

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reported DiSanto will serve again as majority whip during the 2019 legislative session unless she steps down.

“I don’t think that will have an impact,” Republican House Majority Leader Lee Qualm told the Argus Leader, who called DiSanto’s action an error in judgment.

“Obviously I think she wishes she had not put it out there, but she was quick to pull it down, and it seems like one of those things you do without putting much thought into it.”

On Tuesday evening, DiSanto’s employer, Keller Williams Realty Black Hills in Rapid City, posted a message on its Facebook page that read: “Due to recent events, Lynne Disanto is no longer associated with Keller Williams Realty Black Hills.”

DiSanto posted the meme a few days before the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office in Wenatchee, Wash., also shared it on Facebook — on Sept. 11.

An unnamed employee of the department shared the image from another Facebook page called “Libtards; you gotta love ’em!”

The meme, posted to the department’s Emergency Management Facebook page and later deleted, included this message: “I don’t wish harm on anyone ... but protesters don’t belong in the road!”

The meme was originally sent to an employee’s personal Facebook account, and the employee mistakenly shared it to the Emergency Management’s page, Sheriff Brian Burnett said in a statement.

The post “does not reflect the views of the Sheriff’s Office” the statement said.

According to the Yakima Herald, the employee — not a deputy — responded on the department’s page to one of many comments calling for the employee responsible for the meme to be fired.

“I work off a computer but it does give options of who to share with and I must not have caught that it was sharing to EM ... I had planned to share with a cousin primarily. I just did it too fast or something,” the employee wrote, according to the Herald.

“Staff at Chelan County Emergency Management feel terrible that this inappropriate and hurtful post made it onto the Facebook page,” Burnett told the newspaper.

He told local media an “investigative review” and changes are being made to make sure nothing like this happens again.

This story was originally published September 21, 2017 at 10:04 AM with the headline "Sharing an ‘All Lives Splatter’ meme is not a good idea, these public officials learn."