Rep Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) this week took to Twitter to release audio tapes of numerous death threats made against her.
“We cannot accept the racism and sexism that underlies and propels so much of this violence,” she tweeted along with her audio file of voice mail messages.
The release of the audio comes less than a month after Seattle Police released a suspect from jail after allegedly threatening Jayapal outside her home.
KIRO reported a neighbor phoned police reporting the man drove by the Representative’s home three times screaming with his hands in the air and a pistol in a gun holster on his hip.
The neighbor also reported “that she heard the suspect yell something to the effect of, ‘Go back to India; I’m going to kill you.’”
However an investigation by detectives found that the man did not make a death threat and denied making any comments about Jayapal’s ethnicity.
He was released on bail pending further investigation.
Jayapal recently talked about that incident with the Washington Post.
“We sign up for a lot of things,” Jayapal said to the Post. “It should not be that you get this kind of abuse and racism and sexism directed at you. But you have to accept it if you want to do this job.”
She says her neighborhood now feels “tainted” after saying it “had been such a safe space.”
“We felt threatened,” she said. “We still do.”
Identified by police as 49-year-old Brett Forsell, he lives 7 blocks.
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