City mayor asked to resign over racist Obama posts of monkeys and noose

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Officials are calling on West York Mayor Charles Wasko to step down after making several racist posts on Facebook.

Wasko’s posts included two which compared President Barack Obama and his family to monkeys and one that suggested the president should be hanged from a noose. Another quoted a nonexistent black person as describing socialism as “when the white folks work every day so we can get all our governmental entitlement stuff for free.”

Council president Shawn Mauck said that he had not been aware of the posts before, but when they were brought to his attention, he called the posts “disgusting” and said, “I kind of want to throw up.”

Councilman Brian Wilson, who along with Mauck is calling for Wasko’s resignation, also pointed out that the mayor oversees the West York Borough Police Department.

“With those types of thoughts in your mind, how can you oversee the police department?” asked Wilson “We can’t have anybody being racist or bigoted … especially an elected official.”

Matthew Millsaps, the acting chief of the department, noted that the mayor does have some oversight but that it is limited. What’s more, Millsaps condemned the posts, saying, “I’ve viewed these images and am disturbed.”

“This in no way reflects the ideology or beliefs of this department,” he said, later adding, “Of particular concern are any images with undertones of violence — lynching or that are threatening in nature.”

Local attorney Sandra Thompson of the York NAACP said Wednesday that the NAACP is taking action and that Mauck and Wilson had already reached out to her.

“We call upon them, other council members and the West York community to take a stand against the mayor’s actions that are based on racial bias and stereotypes and that exceed any protections of political speech,” she wrote. “Now that York NAACP has been made aware, we will be seeking to take action, because his obvious bias against black people has an effect on all his constituents, which he seems to forget includes black people.”

Unfortunately, Mauck said, the borough council had no power to remove the mayor from office, but he said that he planned to draft a censure to formally condemn Wasko.