State leader says he never meant ‘carpet bomb’ American cities

State leader Herb Frierson says he’s been misunderstood.

The Republican state representative from Poplarville, who recently resigned to accept a job as commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Revenue, never intended to suggest that America’s military should carpet bomb cities where police officers have been shot, but that’s how some people took a post he fired off in anger on Twitter. The post was automatically shared as a public post on his Facebook page.

Frierson said he was angry when he heard about the truck attack in Nice, France, that left 84 dead on July 14. He tweeted: “It’s time for some new rules of engagement. It’s time to carpet bomb the towns the evil is occupying. Let God sort out the guilty.”

Several commenters agreed, including U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo, who commented from his personal account under Frierson’s post. “Wow. I like it,” Palazzo said. Palazzo did not respond to a request from the Sun Herald that he clarify and expound on his remarks.

Then came the blowback.

“It’s gone viral and it’s pretty bad,” Frierson said. “ I get a message every now and then from somebody saying they saw something, just saying that somebody had posted I wanted to bomb American cities.”

After a gunman killed three officers there on July 17, people inferred Frierson meant Baton Rouge , and perhaps Dallas, where a gunman killed five police officers July 7.

Instead, Frierson said, he posted while watching news out of Nice, as the date on the post indicates.

“You post things in anger,” he said. “Maybe you ought to think about it. At the time, it sounded good.”

And he’s not really taking back what he intended to convey. He will leave it up to the nation’s leaders, Frierson said, but bombing ISIS strongholds such as Syria and Iraq might not be a bad idea.

He said, “I was suggesting we fight this evil like we fought the Nazis.”

This story was originally published July 19, 2016 at 9:50 AM with the headline "State leader says he never meant ‘carpet bomb’ American cities."