Virginia police union demands Jay Jones quit AG race after he called for killing of cops

The Virginia Fraternal Order of Police (VFOP) has condemned the text messages that were sent by Democrat candidate for Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones—in which he called for the death of former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert—and has called on him to step out of the race. It has also been reported that Jones previously said if "a few" police officers died, then cops would stop "killing people."

The VFOP posted to X, “The Virginia Fraternal Order of Police is aware of the recent text message scandal involving you, the Democrat candidate for Attorney General. While this incident may have occurred in 2022, this conduct has no place in our society or democracy, especially from an elected official who is running to be the top prosecutor in Virginia. The men and women of the Virginia Fraternal Order unequivocally condemn these violent text messages sent by you about a political opponent and his family.”

“We support everyone's right to respectful and peaceful discussions with a political figure, however the calling for any type of violence is unacceptable. We have seen what this type of rhetoric has caused in other parts of the country. The men and women of law enforcement work tirelessly to combat the violence you wished on a fellow Virginian and his family. Therefore, the members of the Virginia Fraternal Order of Police believe that you, Jay Jones, are unfit for the office of Attorney General of Virginia. It is time you hold yourself accountable for these actions and withdraw from the Attorney General race immediately,” the police union added.

The condemnation from the VFOP comes as there have been no major Democrats who have withdrawn their endorsement of Jones. The Virginia Beach Democratic Committee as well as others have doubled down in their support of Jones.

GOP House Delegate Carrie Coyner, who was on the text chain with Jones when he talked about killing former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert, recounted: "We (Coyner and Jones) had a pretty heated conversation about public policy and pain involving qualified immunity. I served on the Courts Committee for a short period of time. A bill to remove qualified immunity for police officers, which protects police officers from personal liability in their line of duty and their line of work, and he believed that they should not have qualified immunity, and he was trying to convince me to agree with that, and I said, ‘No, police officers have to make a split-second decision about whether or not to shoot a gun to protect themselves or protect others. And if they’re having to think about, will this strip my whole family of everything … are they going to be able to make that split-second decision?’"
 

"And I said, ‘I believe that people will get killed. Police officers will get killed.’ And he said, ‘Well, maybe if a few of them died, that they would move on, not shooting people, not killing people.’ And I said, ‘that’s insane.’ But he firmly believed that if you removed qualified immunity, that police officers would act differently, and I firmly believe that it would not result in good public policy, and it would put police officers and the public’s lives at risk if they have to second-guess themselves on a decision they’re making in a moment where someone is doing something violent," Coyner added in her comments while speaking to the Virginia Scope. 

The 2022 texts from Jones about killing Gilbert were between him and Coyner in 2022, when Jones stated, "Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, hitler and pol pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head. Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time."

Coyner replied to him at the time, “Jay Please stop.”

Jones reportedly called Coyner afterwards, and in conversations with Coyner, said he hoped Gilbert’s children died so that Gilbert and his wife would move on policy decisions with guns.