New York state senator apologizes after tweeting 'Kill yourself!' to GOP aide

Kristine Solomon

A New York state senator with a history of temper tantrums apologized on Tuesday for tweeting “Kill yourself!” to a GOP aide after she called him out for illegally using a Senate-issued parking placard. His tweet has since been deleted.

The message was sent from the official Twitter account of state Sen. Kevin S. Parker, a Democrat from Brooklyn, in response to a tweet from Candice Giove, who is a deputy communications director for Republicans in the New York state Senate. Giove was retweeting photos originally posted by a cyclist named Chesney Parks who spotted a white Volkswagen blocking a bicycle lane. One photo shows the offending vehicle, and a second photo shows a close-up shot of the placard, which reads: “This vehicle is on official business.”

Giove decided to investigate and was able to identify the owner of the placard — but she also realized that parking in the bike lane was not the senator’s only transgression.

Then came the vehement response from Parker, who was tagged in Giove’s tweet:

Parker deleted the tweet minutes later, according to USA Today — but not before it was acknowledged by Giove and several other Twitter users. “Did a Senator just write this to me?” the aide tweeted, linking to the senator’s flippant words about suicide.

Shortly afterward, Parker tried to make amends to Giove, tweeting, “I sincerely apologize. I used a poor choice of words. Suicide is a serious thing and should not be made light of.”

Parker backed a bill last month that could theoretically help discourage suicide. It would require anyone seeking a permit to carry a concealed firearm to first consent to a search of their social media accounts. Authorities would be looking for objectionable content in an attempt to assess an applicant’s mental health before allowing that person to carry a gun.

After deleting the tweet, Parker could have let the situation rest — but instead he doubled down on Giove, tweeting that she “is on the wrong side of history for every important issue facing New York State!” and criticizing her tenure as the former spokeswoman for the I.D.C. (Independent Democratic Conference). He also called Giove “a tempest in a teapot” and a “Twitter troll” in an interview with the Albany Times Union. Parker then attempted to bolster his own reputation by retweeting several people who commended him for apologizing, including state Sen. Luis Sepúlveda, whose mother died by suicide.

Giove has not responded to the senator’s apology, but plenty of others have chimed in on the exchange. State Senate Democratic leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins issued a statement that read: “I was disappointed in Senator Parker’s tweet. Suicide is a serious issue and should not be joked about in this manner. I am glad that he has apologized,” according to Newsday. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, called the insult “wildly inappropriate,” according to the New York Times.

And Majority Leader John J. Flanagan, a Republican to whom Giove reports, issued a statement that called Parker’s language “cavalier and harmful” and said that it “shouldn’t be dismissed as just a poor choice of words.” He added, “Actions have consequences, and as a member of the incoming Democrat majority in the Senate, Kevin Parker should be reprimanded by his leadership immediately.”

That said, Parker’s tweet has already had one significant repercussion: He agreed to step down from his role as co-chairman of Jumaane Williams’s campaign for New York City public advocate. Williams confirmed the resignation in an official statement late Tuesday.

This is unfortunately not Parker’s first public scandal. On two separate occasions, Parker made headlines for assault. In 2009, he was charged with felony and misdemeanor criminal mischief for assaulting and menacing a newspaper photographer who was stationed outside his mother’s house in Brooklyn, according to the New York Times. And in 2005, the Times reports, Parker was arrested and charged with punching a traffic agent who was giving him a ticket for double-parking his car.

Yahoo Lifestyle has reached out to Parker for comment on the incident as well as to Giove and will update this post with new information.

If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call 911, or call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.

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