Johnson County Commissioner thinks #MeToo is the butt of a joke. No one is laughing

Johnson County Commissioner Mike Brown was out of line for a tasteless social media post that offended survivors of sexual assault and their advocates. He needs to apologize.

Brown was taken to task Thursday over a Facebook post that depicted the Statue of Liberty, referenced Democrats and included the MeToo hashtag.

Three women told Brown his not-so-funny post about the #MeToo movement was offensive.

One asked Brown to apologize for the joke about a Democrat inappropriately touching the Statue of Liberty, but so far, he has been unrepentant. Brown hasn’t returned calls from The Star seeking comment. He has yet to publicly acknowledge he erred.

Commission Chair Ed Eilert commented after the women spoke at a commission meeting but failed to rebuke his colleague.

Brown took office last January. The first-time politician may be new to the public stage, but good taste and basic decency should be familiar concepts. His best bet would be to offer conciliatory words to offended parties.

As one advocate points out, the seven county commissioners represent nearly 100,000 Johnson County Democrats, as well as thousands of sexual assault survivors.

Brown shouldn’t joke about sexual assault. It’s no laughing matter.

This story was originally published July 20, 2018 at 5:30 PM.