Plymouth clerk in online post controversy resigns
By Mark Hicks
The Detroit News
Plymouth’s longtime city clerk has abruptly left her position amid an investigation into her alleged online message this week that drew ire from activists.
City officials were probing the comments Linda Langmesser reportedly posted on the Conservative Daily’s Facebook page, referring to a recent Atlantic piece authored by Rumana Ahmed, a Muslim woman who resigned from the National Security Council job within days of the new presidential administration.
That investigation was still ongoing when the clerk, who had been with Plymouth more than 25 years, announced that she would resign and retire on Friday, City Manager Paul Sincock said. He declined further comment.
The city’s deputy clerk Maureen Brodie has been tapped to fill the appointed position, Sincock said.
Langmesser did not respond to a social media request for comment Friday night. No one answered the phone at her listed address.
The departure follows public outcry about her social media comments, which some critics called biased and slanted against Muslims.
The Arab-American Civil Rights League reported members learned the then-clerk had alleged in her Facebook post that Muslims “don’t tell the whole truth” since lying is “part of their culture.”
The post, which appeared to have been removed after it was shared with city officials Monday, went on to denounce the former White House staffer: “She is nothing but trouble and needs to be sent back so she can profess her love to the koran there where it is appreciated, not here!!”
That stance prompted the ACRL to urge Plymouth leaders to take action against Langmesser, whose words the American-Muslim & Minority Advocacy League’s director on Wednesday deemed “outrageous, not to mention incendiary and dangerously irresponsible.”
Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan chapter, called for Langmesser to resign if she failed to prove the writing resulted from hacking, as was suggested in an interview with a television station.
“No public servant should be representing the interests of the people and overseeing elections while at the same time holding clearly bigoted views,” he said.
