California Mayor James Stewart Resigns After ‘Egregious Error’ In Emailed Statement Caused Racial Outrage

The Southern California city of Temecula will soon be in search of a new mayor after theirs had resigned due to an email scandal on the topic of police brutality.

Mayor James Stewart resigned both his mayorship and position on the city council after he sent an email saying he didn’t “believe there’s ever been a good person of color killed by a police officer.” Southern California’s Riverside Press-Enterprise reported. The former mayor said that the word “good” was added accidentally, due to the fact that he dictated the email.

Stewart told the Press-Enterprise in a separate report that thanks to his dyslexia, he is known to use voice to compose much of his written communication. He admitted to not proofreading the message before sending it.

“I absolutely did not say that. What I said is and I don’t believe there has ever been a person of color murdered by police, on context to Temecula or Riverside county. I absolutely did not say ‘good’ I have no idea how that popped up.”

Stewart was replying to an email on Tuesday about what the city was doing about police violence and racism against people of color. His response was quickly posted to social media, which caused an outcry from people calling for his resignation and organizing a protest.

Stewart issued a statement late on Thursday with an apology to residents and his colleagues, saying that he would soon be leaving his post as mayor and city councilman.

“City of Temecula, I hear you, I agree with you, and I am deeply sorry,” he said in a statement about his resignation.

Stewart went on to say he believed his constituents had “every right” to be hurt and offended over the verbiage in the letter that he sent just days ago. However, the mayor did caveat his resignation with one key point.

“I may not be the best writer and I sometimes misspeak, but I am not racist.”

Stewart explained that he understands there’s nothing he can say that would make up for the turmoil that he caused in the hearts of his Southern California constituents, and that he would remove himself from office.

The turmoil surrounding issues of race has increased in recent weeks since the death of two African American men, Ahmad Arbery and George Floyd, both of whom were unarmed when they were allegedly slain by white men.

Since their high-profile deaths were captured on camera, outrage has spread across the nation, with increased rallying and even calls for police to be defunded, as The Inquisitr previously reported.