Denton sheriff defends Facebook post after Manchester attack

A North Texas sheriff who criticized “the left” and “political correctness” in a Facebook post after Monday’s terror attack in Manchester, England, defended his comments Tuesday.

“I stand behind it,” Denton County Sheriff Tracy Murphree told NBC 5. “We need to be realistic about the world we live in.”

The Manchester bombing, which happened at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, left at least 22 dead, including an 8-year-old girl. Manchester police identified the bomber as 22-year-old Salman Abedi, a British native who died in the attack.

Murphree’s Facebook post about 10 p.m. Monday implored Americans to “pay attention to what is happening in Europe.”

“This is what happens when you disarm your citizens,” Murphree wrote. “When you open your borders without the proper vetting. When you allow political correctness to dictate how you respond to an enemy that wants to kill you. When you allow these radicals to travel to Afghanistan and Iran and simply let them back in.”

He later wrote, “You better wake up America. While you are distracted by the media and the crying of the left, Islamic Jihadist are among us and want to kill you.”

Murphree’s supporters praised him for “speaking and standing up for the truth,” as one comment said, while his critics accused him of fearmongering and ignorance.

The Dallas-Fort Worth chapter for the Council for Islamic Relations issued a news release calling Murphree’s post an “Islamaphobic rant.”

“We call on Sheriff Murphree to reaffirm his pledge, and that of his officers, to serve and protect all Denton County residents regardless of their faith, ethnicity or national origin,” CAIR-DFW Civil Rights Director Nikiya Natale said in a statement.

In his interview with NBC 5, Murphree said, “A lot of folks want to make it a race issue. And to me, it’s not a race issue. It’s a public safety issue.”

Murphree caused a stir on social media last year, when he was running for office and posted on Facebook about the transgender bathroom issue.

“If my little girl is in a public women’s restroom and a man, regardless of how he may identify goes into that bathroom. He will then identify as a John Doe until he wakes up in what ever hospital he may be taken to,” the since-deleted post said, according to WFAA. “Your identity does not trump my little girls safety. I identify as a over protective father that loves his kids and would do anything to protect them.”

Murphree later told WFAA “it was a mistake for me to post that.”

This report includes material from The Associated Press.

This story was originally published May 23, 2017 at 8:39 PM with the headline "Denton sheriff defends Facebook post after Manchester attack."