Charleston shooting judge once reprimanded for using the n-word in court

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Charleston County Magistrate James Gosnell Jr has generated much controversy after referring to the family members of Charleston shooter Dylann Roof as “victims” and asking the community to “rally round” the family to support them.

“We have victims – nine of them. But we also have victims on the other side. There are victims on this young man’s side of the family,” he said on Friday.

The appeal opened his remarks to the court as he also added, “Nobody would have ever thrown them into the whirlwind of events that they are being thrown into.”

“We must find it in our heart at some point in time not only to help those that are victims but to also help his family as well.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkS7k1iaAH8

The backlash over these remarks was swift, with many people calling Gosnell out for “racist” and “insensitive” remarks, with one Twitter user opining, “Watching Judge James Gosnell lecture the families of victims in court re: sympathy for Roof family made me sick. Racism not thinly veiled.”

What’s more, Gosnell’s remarks come 12 days after he was called to the Supreme Court for using the n-word in court. “There are four kinds of people in this world – black people, white people, red necks, and n—rs,” he allegedly told a black defendant.

“[Gosnell] represents he knew the defendant, the defendant’s father, and the defendant’s grandfather,” the court notes state, according to the Daily Beast.

“[Gosnell] represents that when the defendant, an African-American, appeared in court for the bond hearing, [Gosnell] recalled a statement made to him by a veteran African-American sheriff’s deputy.”

Just two days after those remarks, Gosnell found himself in ever more trouble after attempting to get Joseph S Mendelsohn, a fellow judge, out of jail for drunk driving by posting bond early and trying to convince officials to say that “this didn’t happen until 8:00 a.m.”

A record like this certainly makes Gosnell’s comments on the Roof case even more suspect.