Monroe school board candidate made racist, homophobic Facebook posts

A Monroe Township, Gloucester County, school board candidate made a series of racist and homophobic Facebook messages between 2013 and 2016, at times referring to black people as “animals” and “fucking monkeys.”

“So now I watch videos of the ‘protesters’ throwing trash cans and any other items at any white person they see…….time to start firing bullets into these fucking monkeys and send them to their graves,” Monroe school board candidate Rick Jankowski wrote on April 27, 2015.

Jankowski, a union carpenter who has lived in Williamstown, an unincorporated community in Monroe for close to 15 years, did not respond to messages seeking comment sent to his personal and campaign Facebook accounts at 12:36 p.m. and 12:32 p.m. on Wednesday, respectively.

“I’m sorry but I can’t stay quiet any longer…..you goddamn animals in Missouri make me sick! Another black criminal gets killed after assaulting a white cop and you pieces of shit want justice? You are not Americans, you are animals who disgust me. You wonder why there is racism in this country? Get a fucking job and contribute you useless wastes of life instead of constantly committing crims and protesting when you get what you deserve, [sic]” Jankowski wrote on Aug. 18, 2014.

His comments were made on the former account.

This article will be updated with comment when it is received.

“Everyone please go to You Tube and search ‘The Lynching’…..very interesting video you will find,” Jankowski wrote on July 27, 2013, apparently referring to a video about the shooting of Trayvon Martin by the conservative PJ Media.

The comments could upend Jankowski’s candidacy, especially because he’s running for a position on a school board, said Micah Rasmussen, director of Rider University’s Rebovich institute.

“There’s just some things that are not acceptable in any community, and I have to imagine that this is one of them,” Rasmussen said. “Regardless of what we want to say about what’s fair game in the Trump era and what’s not fair game in the Trump era, there’s a basic respect for one another in as human beings in most communities, and in most communities that I know in New jersey, if not every community in New Jersey.”

The result might be different were Jankowski running unopposed, but there are six candidates running for three open seats on the Board of Education.

Incumbents Anthony Ayres and James Henderson face challengers in Jankowski, Barbara Chamberlain, Brian Cummiskey and Daniel Beaver.

Addition to all the above hurdles, Jankowski’s candidacy will face organized opposition from Gloucester County’s branch of the NAACP.

“I’m going to make sure with my base, that they know about this gentleman who’s running for school board,” said Gloucester NAACP President Loretta Winters. “He should not – he should not – represent  anyone. He refers to people as animals, he shouldn’t even be representing animals.”