Police: Witness says GA State Rep was one who said “Go back where you came from!” – not man she accused
“Cobb authorities … said Tuesday they don’t intend to file criminal charges in the case”
On Sunday, I wrote about Democrat state Rep. Erica Thomas walking back her statement that Cuban anti-Trump Democrat Eric Sparkes told her to “go back where she came from.” Since then, she has walked back her walk back and is insisting that he did say that.
“He said go back, you know, those types of words. I don’t want to say he said, go back to your country or go back to where you came from, but he was making those types of references is what I remember,” said Ms. Thomas in video posted Saturday.
On Monday, however, the black Democratic legislator held a press conference with her attorney, Gerald Griggs, at which she denied walking back her claim.
“I want to make sure that everyone knows that in any way am I backtracking on my statement or am I retracting on anything that I said,” Ms. Thomas said at the press event.
In her interview with the press over the weekend, Thomas was insistent that she had been “verbally assaulted”/a victim of “simple assault,” that some sort of crime was committed against her when Sparkes challenged her decision to enter the 10 Items or Less lane with more than 10 items. Sparkes admitted that he called Thomas “lazy” and a “bitch,” but he adamantly denies telling her to “go back to her own country.”
Cobb Country police have declined to press charges against either party. To be honest, I have no idea what criminal charges can be brought over calling someone a bitch in a supermarket. He didn’t touch her, and she is not claiming that he did. Anyway, “no charges” is indicated in the official release from Cobb County police:
Here’s the official release from Cobb County Police regarding the incident involving State Rep. Erica Thomas and Eric Sparkes at the grocery store. pic.twitter.com/VKvKE1ZTN6
— Richard Elliot (@RElliotWSB) July 23, 2019
The Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) reports:
A Publix employee told a Cobb County officer that she witnessed part of the conversation and heard Thomas “continuously tell Eric Sparkes to ‘Go back where you came from!’” but did not hear Sparkes utter those words to Thomas.
. . . . Cobb authorities, meanwhile, said Tuesday they don’t intend to file criminal charges in the case after what the police department said was a “thorough” investigation into the confrontation.
. . . . Both Thomas and Sparkes have called on Publix to release a video of the incident, which has not yet been made public. But the officer who reviewed the tape, which did not include audio, described it in the report.
He wrote that Sparkes “did not appear to be irate” during the confrontation and that he quickly retreated from Thomas as she moved his way “pointing her finger at him.”
When she moved toward Sparkes a second time, a Publix staffer waved for him to leave and Thomas turned to her daughter and paid for her items, he wrote. The dispute lasted about 45 seconds.
The Publix employee, a customer service manager, told police that after Sparkes accosted Thomas he began to leave but “Ms. Thomas kept ‘running her mouth’ as she approached him.” Sparkes, she said, responded by repeatedly calling Thomas “ignorant.”
Thomas’ attorney says that she “wants the world to know that she’s standing up for the rights of women who have been victimized,” according to the AJC.
For his part, Sparkes is adamant that he is not a racist and that the media “isn’t fact-checking items or they are just taking the word of a politician when they do a live Facebook or a Twitter post.”
The AJC continues:
In a statement on Tuesday, Sparkes said he wasn’t surprised that Cobb authorities decided not to file charges. And he blasted media coverage of the incident.
“Everyone that knows me knows that I am anti-hate, anti-bigot and anti-racism,” he said, adding: “Sadly, too much of media isn’t fact-checking items or they are just taking the word of a politician when they do a live Facebook or a Twitter post.”
Sparkes has said that he is consulting attorneys about a possible defamation lawsuit. Georgia Republicans are also weighing in saying that if it turns out that Thomas defamed Sparkes, she should resign.
A Cobb County man might sue a Georgia lawmaker after she claimed he told her, “Go back to where you came from,” during a confrontation at a grocery store.
In a statement Monday, Eric Sparkes told CBS46 he’s “in the process of exploring with attorneys a defamation lawsuit against her.”
. . . . After Thomas’s news conference, Sparkes sent CBS46 the following statement:
Ms. Thomas has taken an innocuous situation that began on my part to be about being inconsiderate and turned into a national case about race over night. Ms. Thomas accuses me of telling her to go back to wherever. Those words were never spoken. She backtracked slightly and now is changing her story. I am in the process of exploring with attorneys a defamation lawsuit against her.
The Cobb County Republican Party also speaking out, calling on Rep. Thomas to resign if “it turns out to be true she defamed a private citizen and Democratic constituent for political purposes.”
Given her recent statement that she “was scared for [her] life,” it seems that Thomas is intent on pursuing something against Sparkes—whether that be legal action or vilification in the court of public opinion is unclear at this point.
Either way, it’s probably a bad idea. Thomas’ past Twitter activity is being scrutinized, and she is not faring well. At all.
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Comments
So, basically she was projecting.
I am shocked, SHOCKED! Said no one, ever.
The idea that a 250lb woman was afraid of a 160lb guy, that seems funny, in a sad, ironic way…
I hope that there are videos released that dispute everything this politician claims..
There is a video that has been released. No sound, but the behemoth did walk after the little fruitcake yelling (it appears she was yelling) at him.
Did you notice she’s SUPPOSEDLY pregnant and she’s wearing a Planned (murdering) Parenthood t shirt? Classless all the way.
This donkey fight and the bernie campaign labor fight are actually parallel stories in that they display what happens in a democrat controlled world and why EVERY election, for the foreseeable future, is a flight ’93 election. We simply cannot allow another democrat infestation…
We’ll need to nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way.
This guy is getting a good taste of his own democrat party playbook. Wonder if he’ll walk away.
Well, hope springs eternal, but he’s a Democrat, so probably not.
No Audio? They need to upgrade. Being able to replay what was said in contested confrontations will only reduce the store’s liability in the long run.
The problem with audio feeds, in the checkout area, is the amount of ambient noise generated by lots of people in the line monitored as well as on adjacent lines.
You never have to scratch hard for the racism and bigotry of the left to appear…it forms the basis for all they believe and do
So, according to an eye witness who heard her telling him to go back where he came from, making her a liar (what a shock, a leftist who lies) and a racist.
I am sick of the left who make out as if a “person of color” (another nomenclature I am sick of) cannot be racist, when the issue of racism comes in all colors of the rainbow. I know plenty of blacks who are racist toward other blacks for not being black enough. They are also racist against “brown” peoples. Then we get into the racism against “white” people being perpetrated all the time, even by other “whites” for political purposes to divide and build hatred.
The National Socialists are the party of hatred. They promote it, they promote division by class, by race, by beliefs, by politics. I see the destruction of our country for lies committed by the Obama regime, hatred by the National Socialists for their hatred that has blinded them all because Hillary, a criminal family boss, a liar, a hate filled frustrated lesbian who has gotten away with far too many criminal acts, ended up losing to Trump.
This woman is a bully who used her political office to promote more hate. Who cares nothing about a man who she bullied then lied about. She has zero ethics. But then, this is the left. They have no moral compass, no compassion and are only focused on power. They are totalitarians in the making, and God help this country should they ever regain power in our highest offices.
It’s time to run these scorched earth leftists out of office, out of power, exposing them for the fascist communists they are at heart.
” I know plenty of blacks who are racist toward other blacks for not being black enough”
Blacks have always been racist and judged each other by their skin color. Over the years I have worked closely enough with several black people that my skin color is overlooked. In their conversations, blacks have always (in my experience) had a caste system where the lighter your skin the higher you rank. I think rebellion against this by darker skinned blacks might be part of the not black enough claims.
If you’ll change that to “some blacks” I’ll agree with you.
Is the second from the right wearing dark makeup? The other three have consistent skin tone, she does not. Maybe common – I never noticed one way or the other. It never occurred to me to notice.
Maybe she’ll run for Governor of Georgia on the Democrat ticket. She seems the type
So, what did she have in her cart?
do NOT say chicken and watermelon cause that would be racist..
What is it with DemoncRats that they lie about all kinds of things? There is a column here in LI about Fauxcahontas (Elizabeth Warren) lying about her role in the breast implant case, and now this?
The end justifies the lie
“Given her recent statement that she “was scared for [her] life,” it seems that Thomas is intent on pursuing something against Sparkes—whether that be legal action or vilification in the court of public opinion is unclear at this point.”
Thomas lost this argument when the video shows HER moving toward Sparkes in an aggressive manner. Now, given the disparity in size between Thomas and Sparkes, Sparkes actually has the better case for claiming assault.
I have had a number of interactions with overtly racist black people. On one occasion I was almost hit by a black woman who was not watching where she was driving, and when I angrily told her to watch where she was going, she got angry with me and made racial insults. On another, it was a black cyclist who threatened violence. A close friend was sideswiped by a black driver who immediately began complaining that she would be ticketed for a traffic violation because she was black–no admission that she might have been in the wrong.
My point is NOT that all black people are racists–such a claim would be despicable–but rather to anecdotally support the notion that a black American could make a false accusation of racism.
To illustrate the harmful effects of such false accusations, we had a few riots at my high school (which drew kids from middle-class, working-class and slum neighborhoods) and those riots were to a significant degree triggered by false accusations of racism, accusations made by black kids who were caught and punished for misbehavior.
I had a black neighbor threaten to throw a brick through my window because somebody, who he assumed to be me, had put some trash in the trash bin he put out for trash day. Why that generated such anger is unclear, since after trash pickup the bin was empty and he was in no way inconvenienced by the extra trash in his bin.
She claims a crime has been committed, yet she can only state vaguely what may or may not have happened. But it’s definitely a crime!
Even if her story had been 100% true, what crime would Sparkes have committed?
On a lighter note… The Babylon Bee reports a poll that says 95% of Americans support shooting into the Sun anyone that gets into the “15 items or less” lane with more than 15 items…
I think we can all agree with the two main points of this sad episode: (1) Somebody told someone something about leaving, and (2) It’s Trump’s fault.