Butler County workers target of threats and harassment after Trump rally shooting
BUTLER, Pa. (KDKA) — Workers in Butler County say they are the target of threats and harassment after Saturday's attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
But for city and town workers at or near the site of the assassination attempt at the Butler County Farm Show grounds, that job is getting harder and harder because they are dealing with an endless barrage of calls, emails, threats and harassment from people blaming them for what happened.
"It's frustrating and it's sad because the city employees had nothing to do with what happened at the farm show grounds," Butler Councilman Donald Shearer said.
Butler is a town of just 13,000 people. It was not even the location of Saturday's rally. Butler Township was.
But people from all over the world can go online, search and find an email or phone number to call. Some call with praises, many with harassment.
"My major problem with national politics over the last eight to 12 years is that it's getting continuously more and more aggressive on both sides of the aisle," Shearer said. "From what happened on Jan. 6 to what happened this past weekend, it needs to stop on both sides."
At the Butler Township Municipal Building, workers there are receiving the same harassment.
"The people that are working here and the people that are taking these phone calls and these emails, these are citizens," Shearer said. "These are neighbors within this community. They had nothing to do with it."
Both the city of Butler and the town of Butler Township say the last three days have been like no other. Not only do they want the harassment to stop, but they don't want to be remembered as the place where an assassination attempt was made on a former president.