After Maine Governor Paul LePage (R) unleashed in a tirade against drug dealers named "Smoothy" and "D-Money" who travel to the state where they sell drugs and impregnate white girls, LePage denied that he was referring to black drug dealers.
LePage appeared on a local radio station yesterday, however, where he made it crystal clear that he was referring to black men.
"I had to go scream at the top of my lungs about black dealers coming in and doing the things that they’re doing to our state," he said on his weekly radio appearance on WVOM. "I had to scream about guillotines and those types of things before they were embarrassed into giving us a handful of DEA agents. That is what it takes with this 127th [legislature]. It takes outrageous comments and outrageous actions to get them off the dime."
As I've said before, it's far more likely that your average white girl-impregnating drug dealer in Maine more closely resembles the cast of Fargo rather than The Wire.
More substantively, Governor LePage is essentially saying that he screeched about scary black men to compel the state legislature to act. He's saying he deliberately used a racial stereotype.
It is not necessarily true that his comments have compelled the state legislature to act. State lawmakers have longed supported increased spending on drug-treatment programs to reduce recidivism, but Governor LePage insisted that the legislature spend more money on law enforcement at the exclusion of drug-treatment.
Governor LePage wants a harsh criminal crackdown on "D-Money" while lawmakers want to treat the problem with healthcare.