A satirical article’s headline - alleging Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said police should not exist because some officers are Jewish - is being taken seriously by users re-spreading an old post. Reuters found no evidence of Omar ever making such statements, which appear to have been fabricated by a satire site.
This post about Omar, the Minnesota Representative in the US House of Representatives, is resurfacing in April 2021 at the time of the murder trial of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd.
“Ilhan Omar Says Police Shouldn’t Exist After Learning Some Cops are Jewish,” says the headline of the satirical piece written by “MiketheCop” on March 8, 2019, as seen in the screenshot shared in a 2019 post.
Comments and captions on shares, all from April 2021, show users taking the headline seriously. Their comments include, “Then she doesn’t need to be in office does she?”; “She is a threat to Jews everywhere”; “How much more American hating could she be;" and “When is the country going to be fed up with the actual racists and traitors?”
Reuters contacted Mike the Cop, to whom the article is attributed, who confirmed to Reuters via email that the article was satirical. He said it was written for Blue News Network, a now-defunct website that formerly described itself as a “satirical news website."
Reuters found a post on Blue News Network’s Instagram account, which has the disclaimer “your trusted source for law enforcement satire”, promoting the article on the day it was published more than two years ago, as seen here here .
Reuters found no evidence of remarks made by Omar that are similar to these in credible media reports or on Omar’s social media channels. Jeremy Slevin, spokesman for Ilhan Omar, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
In June 2020, after Floyd’s death, Omar called for the Minneapolis Police Department to be disbanded.
Reuters has previously debunked several false claims about Omar.
VERDICT
Satire. This article was written more than two years ago for a satirical site and Reuters found no evidence that Omar made these remarks.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.