Charlottesville Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy Under Fire For Racist, Homophobic, Sexist Tweets

Several news outlets are reporting that there are growing concerns among Charlottesville residents and increasing calls for the resignation of Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy after the revelation of numerous social media posts by Mr. Bellamy which contained lewd, vulgar, sexist, racist, and homophobic material.

The Daily Progress was the first to break the story:  http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/local/past-bellamy-tweets-draw-ire/article_2c5a86fa-b514-11e6-88b1-878551ca38ab.html

Followed shortly by UVA’s Cavalier Daily.  WARNING:  GRAPHIC CONTENT!  http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2016/11/wes-bellamy-charlottesville-twitter

Bellamy is the man behind the push to tear down the Robert E. Lee monument in Charlottesville and rename Lee Park. Working with fellow councilman Kristen Szakos, Vice-Mayor Bellamy bullied council into spending over $10K to appoint a "commission" to evaluate the statues, based on his false "white supremacy" narrative. Clearly, Bellamy is the true "supremacist" in Charlottesville.

Ironically, Bellamy recently led the lynch mob against a UVA professor who made a social media comment comparing the Black Lives Matter group to a hate group.  The Vice-Mayor called for his removal as a guest lecturer, and a boycott of his business.  Bellamy organized and led a protest at his restaurant, based on one social media comment. 

Shortly after the illicit tweets surfaced, Bellamy locked down his Twitter account, but the links had been archived and in his public apology, Bellamy did not deny that he was the author.  Interestingly, when a local news outlet offered an apology for a post which Bellamy deemed inappropriate, he refused to accept it: “Yes, the station did offer an on air and social media apology, but for many, including myself that is not enough.” – November 12, 2016  His supporters are pointing to his more recent tweets and claiming he is a “changed man”.  We tend to believe it is more likely a timely illustration of politicians "saying one thing in private, another in public", as former Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton put it. Those of us who have been involved in the fight to save the Robert E. Lee Monument and Lee park were aware of Bellamy’s blatant disrespect for us and our heritage, but even if he had not waged a war on our history, his behavior should shock all decent Virginians, especially those with school aged children, as Mr. Bellamy is a teacher in Albermarle County, and was appointed by Governor McAuliffe to serve on the State Board of Education.