advertisement

Stava-Murray restores Facebook page that went dark after 'viral' post on police bill

A Facebook page maintained by Downers Grove Democratic state Rep. Anne Stava-Murray as a forum for her legislative work that went dark Thursday night has been reactivated.

Stava-Murray said she deactivated the account overnight after a post about police bills went "viral."

The account was restored Friday morning.

"There were people commenting who thought it was a federal bill, so I unpublished it for the evening hours to make it stop," Stava-Murray said Friday afternoon.

The account's disappearance followed a lengthy online squabble over a post Stava-Murray made after her vote in support of a criminal justice reform bill the state legislature approved and sent to the governor's desk Wednesday.

Stava-Murray, a former member of the Naperville board of fire and police commissioners, also had come under fire Wednesday for proposing legislation that would have eliminated school resource officer positions throughout the state.

After her vote on the reform bill, Stava-Murray posted a message on the Facebook page that read: "Thin blue line folks: your continued harassment does not help your cause. I'm proud of voting for more police accountability. As for the SRO bill, I hadn't planned on calling this session since accountability passed."

A screenshot of state Rep. Anne Stava-Murray's Facebook post. The page where the post appeared was temporarily taken down.

The post received largely negative responses from those who responded to it, many complaining the legislator wasn't following the will of her constituents. It has garnered more than 2,400 comments.

"Of the more than 2,000 comments, I could find only 20 from people who were constituents," Stava-Murray said.

Posters began attacking the representative on her personal Facebook page after her legislative page was shuttered.

She issued an apology after some complained the term "thin blue line folks" was derogatory.

"I can assure you no offense was intended," she wrote on her Facebook page Friday along with screenshots of insults and threats she received in the wake of the original post. "It's been a long week and I'm dealing with commentary like the below and people calling and screaming at my staff. It's been an ugly day, but no disrespect was meant and for that I'm truly sorry."

Stava-Murray, who was reelected to her second term in November, is no stranger to controversy.

Shortly after taking office in 2019, she posted on Facebook that Naperville - where she lived at the time - had a "history of white supremacist policies," claiming racial profiling by police and housing discrimination. The post also earned her rebukes and at least one call for her resignation.

At the time, Stava-Murray defended her stance and suggested the criticism was largely spurred by partisanship from Republican opponents.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.