Jokes????

Jokes about school shooting, abortions flow from agency spokesman’s Twitter feed

By SAM MINTZ

A Federal Highway Administration spokesman made dozens of jokes over the past several years about mass shootings, abortion and the killing of Trayvon Martin, a review of his personal Twitter account shows.

The tweets by Doug Hecox, who is a comedian, writer and adjunct professor in addition to his role at the highway agency, include a 2016 post in which he wrote: "More Republicans would support abortion if they realized how many Democrats it prevents."

The Twitter account was made private shortly before POLITICO inquired about Hecox's tweets. Hecox, who according to his LinkedIn profile has been with agency since 2004, did not respond to a request for comment.

The agency responded by noting that its social media policy allows "limited personal use of Web-based interactive technology sites ... while on breaks or during lunch" and that users' personal views expressed on personal Twitter accounts "do not represent the positions held by the agency." The agency did not address questions about whether the tweets were inappropriate or unethical, however, and its social media policy, last updated in 2011, appears mainly focused on use of official social media accounts or conduct while at work. The agency noted that public affairs staff don't have official social media accounts.

The account doesn’t state Hecox’s full name or suggest any connection to his government job, but a Q&A with Hecox on the federal agency's website says the Twitter account belongs to him. The agency's page also lists Hecox as the owner of a personal website that is linked from the Twitter account's bio page. Some recent tweets included photos from highway agency events as well as references to Hecox’s work as an adjunct professor of journalism at American University.

Hecox has tweeted several times about mass shootings. In 2012, on the day 20 children were killed during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, Hecox tweeted: "The realist in me thinks the Newtown shooting is a tragedy, but the optimist in me thinks it is a good lesson in subtraction." Newtown was also the subject of several other tweets Hecox posted that day.

Other tweets joked about the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and a 2012 shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. Hecox tweeted about the Aurora shooting at least seven times in the days following the attack, which killed 12 people and injured 70.

“Thanks to the Aurora shooter, hundreds of moviegoers were spared heart disease from heavily buttered movie popcorn. #silverlining,” one tweet read.

Other topics Hecox took on include the Trayvon Martin shooting, transgender bathrooms and Syrian refugees. He also repeatedly uses a word that the developmentally disabled consider a slur.

On his website, Hecox writes: “My standup material is mostly clean, which leads me to a lot of corporate gigs, conferences and workshops where profanity is not allowed. However, I also perform frequently for colleges and in comedy clubs where edgier material is preferred.”

Paul Light, a professor of public service at New York University, said the tweets aren't illegal or unethical, but raise questions about the line between Hecox’s comedy and his job as a spokesperson for a federal agency.

“In any publicly visible role, you have to be careful about balancing your personal and professional lives. I think that he might want to consider which profession he wants to pursue," Light said. "You have to be thoughtful about how your life works if you’re going to be a public officer. If he’s making crude jokes … he needs to think about how he wants to handle these two pieces of his world.”

Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense, said making light of gun violence contributes to people not taking the issue seriously and that Hecox's tweets, especially on the day of a mass shooting, are offensive.

“The bottom line is that gun violence is not a joke. It’s a matter of life and death. Everyone, including our public officials, need to take America’s gun violence seriously,” she said. “This person thought it was a good idea to mock gun violence victims on the worst day of their family members’ lives. It isn’t funny, it isn’t appropriate, and in fact it’s incredibly offensive and shouldn’t be acceptable in our culture.”

An American University spokesperson said: "We do not condone the insensitive posts from the individual's Twitter account."