A New Jersey mayor is facing mounting backlash for telling a constituent to call the cops on Jewish people for going to the beach.
Brick Township Mayor John G. Ducey was responding to a flat-out anti-Semitic tweet by user @simms10471 Tuesday night asking: “Can we please do something about our parks and beaches. They are being invaded by the hasidic and orthodox jews and being ruined.”
“Our tax paying residents are being forced out while politicians sit and do nothing,” the user added.
Instead of condemning the tweet, Ducey, a Democrat, responded: “Just call police with any problems and they will send them out.”
After major backlash from other Twitter users throughout Tuesday night and into Wednesday, Ducey tried to back-pedal.
“This twitter feed (and the world in general) is no place for bigotry or hateful comments,” he tweeted. “They are hurtful and divisive. They are condemned by me and all who are trying to make a difference in the world. Look for the good in you and others and the world will be a bettter place.”
Ducey, who was elected in 2014, told one person he didn’t want to “acknowledge the bigotry thereby giving the commenter the power he was seeking.”
He told another person: “I just tried to diffuse things and focus his anger at me. … I’ve done pretty well for six years but this is a learning experience,” he wrote to another person.
In an email to The Post, Ducey apologized for “any hurt I caused but [sic] not being careful with what I said.”
The word “them” in his tweet was in reference to park security, not Jewish people, he said.
“I knew no call would be made because there was no problem that he could report…,” Ducey wrote. “I have learned to be more careful with social media and I am taking the advice of some of my critics and not responding at all to such things in the future.”
The account @simms10471 appeared to have been deleted by Wednesday.