Vox Suspends Editor For Encouraging Protesters To Riot At Trump Rallies

Police form a line to contain protesters outside a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday, June 2, 2016, in San Jose, Calif. A group of protesters attacked Trump supporters wh... Police form a line to contain protesters outside a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday, June 2, 2016, in San Jose, Calif. A group of protesters attacked Trump supporters who were leaving the presidential candidate's rally in San Jose on Thursday night. A dozen or more people were punched, at least one person was pelted with an egg and Trump hats grabbed from supporters were set on fire on the ground. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) MORE LESS
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A deputy editor at Vox was suspended Friday after firing off a late night tweetstorm advising Donald Trump’s detractors to riot if the presumptive GOP nominee visits their cities.

Editor-in-Chief Ezra Klein published a short statement announcing that Emmett Rensin, deputy editor of Vox’s first person section, encouraged “dangerous” activity with his tweets and was suspended as a result.

“We at Vox do not take institutional positions on most questions, and we encourage our writers to debate and disagree,” Klein wrote. “But direct encouragement of riots crosses a line between expressing a contrary opinion and directly encouraging dangerous, illegal activity. We welcome a variety of viewpoints, but we do not condone writing that could put others in danger.”

The statement did not mention the length of the suspension.

Rensin’s dozens of tweets came after the violence that broke out outside a Trump rally in San Jose, California, on Thursday night. He argued that getting into physical altercations with and throwing food at Trump supporters leaving the event were fair responses to a candidate who has repeatedly been labeled a “fascist” and “existential threat” in the press.

Rensin advised other Trump opponents to carry out similar acts of civil disobedience if he holds rallies or speeches in their hometowns.

“Advice: If Trump comes to your town, start a riot,” Rensin wrote in one tweet.

“Again: You cannot tell people over and over that somebody is an existential threat to them and then be appalled when they act like it,” he wrote in another.

Rensin continued tweeting about the violence into Friday morning, sending his last post as recently as noon. All of the tweets remained live on his account as of Friday afternoon.

Read a selection of them below.

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