Bring back ‘severed ears,’ county school official in NC said on eve of Capitol riot
A newly elected school board member in a North Carolina district is standing by comments he made on social media the day before rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol last week.
“Kick some a-- and come back with a collection of severed ears!” David Hensley wrote Jan. 5 on the Facebook page of a friend and supporter of President Donald Trump. Hensley also thanked the friend for “representing us.”
His comments were posted less than 24 hours before Congress was set to certify the electoral college results when a mob of Trump supporters broke through police barriers, scaled walls and smashed windows to breach the Capitol.
The melee lasted several hours and resulted in at least five deaths, including a Capitol police officer and a woman who was shot by police.
Hensley, who lives in Pinehurst, was not in Washington at the time.
In an email to McClatchy News, Hensley described himself as a philanthropist and successful businessman whose Facebook comments were “made as a private citizen.”
The former Marine Corps officer is the founder and CEO of Quantico Tactical — a “gold star” supplier of tactical gear and weapons to the U.S. military. Since 2018, federal spending data show, his company has received $236 million in defense contracts.
Hensley was elected in November to the Moore County school board, which oversees a district of roughly 13,000 public school students in the Sandhills region.
In campaign materials, his promises included improving academic success and “ensuring that our children have leaders and role models whom they can respect.”
Comments on Hensley’s post regarding the Capitol riots were largely supportive, as were those on his own Facebook pages. But they also raised some eyebrows in this conservative county that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in November.
In a post Monday night, Hensley shared a screenshot of a text from an unknown number accusing him of “coordinating gun classes with someone who committed treason.” He captioned it, “I stopped getting anonymous threatening e-mails after the election, but I just got my first anonymous text.”
Hensley told McClatchy News his comment about severed ears was “metaphorically speaking.”
“No one should read anything into that other than it being a flippant comment,” he said. “I actually believe I had just finished watching a season of ‘American Horror Story’ where that played a part, so as I mentioned and made a flippant, metaphorical comment.”
Hensley also said his comment thanking the friend for representing the people of Moore County in Washington, D.C., that day should be taken “at face value.”
“I believe there is lots of pent up anger by conservatives who know there is a double standard in the media and courts,” he said. “They rightfully feel their concerns are not being adequately addressed, so many good Americans with great intentions attended the rally in Washington, D.C. It is their right to do so.”
Those in attendance included “friends and acquaintances,” Hensley said.
“I was proud of them for standing up and I thanked them for representing the many other citizens of Moore County who wanted to attend, but could not,” he said.
Moore County is tucked between Charlotte and Raleigh, with Fayetteville to the east. It’s home to about 100,000 people, more than 80% of them white, according to U.S. Census records. Board of Elections data show Trump received 63% of the vote in Moore County.
Hensley also shared a statement on his Facebook page “Hensley School Board” from the president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, which attributed the violence on the Capitol to white supremacy.
The post, which he captioned an “important message,” generated dozens of comments.
“It accused millions of good Americans who attended the rally in Washington, D.C. of being racists, when in fact, they are not,” Hensley told McClatchy News when asked why he shared the post. “The march in Washington had nothing to do with white supremacy; it was for election integrity. In fact, I can state that I do not know a single racists (sic)/white supremacist and that America is demonstrably NOT a racist country.”
Catherine Murphy, spokesperson for Moore County Schools, said the district was not aware of Hensley’s comments on social media.
“If this comment was made by a school board member, it was in his individual capacity and not on behalf of the school system or via the school system’s official social media accounts,” she said.
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 11:55 AM with the headline "Bring back ‘severed ears,’ county school official in NC said on eve of Capitol riot."
