A Texas mayor is now an ex-mayor after posting a tirade on Facebook calling his constituents “weak” and saying “only the strong will survive and the weak will parish [sic]” as winter storms continue to batter the state.
Tim Boyd, mayor of Colorado City, Texas, posted the controversial thoughts Tuesday while some city residents had been without power or running water for 24 hours and temperatures remained below freezing.
Citizens had asked on a community Facebook group if the town was going to open warming shelters. That’s when Boyd stepped in.
In a now deleted post, he wrote, “Let me hurt some feelings while I have a minute!! No one owes you are [sic] your family anything; nor is it the local government’s responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Sink or swim it’s your choice! … I’m sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout.”
Boyd also mentioned, in his original post, that people who didn’t have electricity should “step up and come up with a game plan.” Don’t have running water? “Think outside of the box to survive and supply water to your family.”
As of 9 a.m. CT this morning, it was 15 degrees in Colorado City. It’s not expected to top 25 degrees today. The town, located about 70 miles west of Abilene, has a population of 4,000 people.
After intense feedback to his comments, Boyd announced his resignation and said he was not speaking as a mayor, but as a citizen of the town. He claimed to have resigned as mayor before making the post.
He complained that his wife has been fired from her job because of the comments, then doubled down on them, saying, “I was only making the statement that those folks that are too lazy to get up and fend for themselves but are capable should not be dealt a handout.”