(RepublicanDaily.org) – A Democrat in Texas running for a local government position has been arrested for using social media to post allegedly fake racist attacks against himself, as well as creating fake accounts to attack political opponents.
The Texas Rangers arrested Taral Patel, who is running under the Democratic Party for the Commissioner of the 3rd Precinct of Fort Bend, on charges of online impersonation, a felony; and misrepresentation of identity, which is a misdemeanor. The suspect has been released on a total bail of $22,500, and is set to appear before a judge on July 22.
According to authorities, Patel spent several months creating a fake online persona impersonating a supporter of Andy Meyers, who happens to be a Republican, and the current commissioner of the Fort Bend’s Precinct 3. Patel allegedly used the account to post multiple hateful and racist messages to himself. The messages contained comments that called him “subhuman” and a “monkey,” as well as other derogatory statements against his Hindu religion.
Patel further claimed that the messages, which he took screenshots of and shared to his followers, reflected a “deep and misguided fear” felt by members of the GOP.
Ironically, Patel was implicated after an investigation into the racist posts requested by Meyers. He was identified after a subpoena was sent to Facebook and Google resulted in investigators obtaining information that matched the phone number, address, bank card number, and other personal information belonging to Patel.
Parallels between Patel and actor Jussie Smollett have also been drawn – Smollett became infamous in 2019 for staging a fake hate crime attack against himself where he claimed that supporters of former president Donald Trump attacked him for being black and gay. Smollett was later indicted several times on charges of disorderly conduct and making false police reports after an investigation into his claims showed that the attack was a hoax all along.
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