MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Who is Tim Boyd? Texas mayor quits after telling residents govt owes them 'nothing' amid winter storm outages

He wrote, 'If you are sitting at home in the cold because you have no power and are waiting for someone to come rescue you because your [sic] lazy, is a direct result of your raising!'

The mayor of Texas came under fire after he wrote a Facebook post telling people who were suffering in the cold and were without power not to seek any help from their local governments. He reportedly told citizens that it was not the government's job to take care of them during trying times and added that "the strong will survive and the weak will parish [sic]". The leader said this as an unprecedented winter storm left millions without power in Texas.

In a Facebook post, Mayor Tim Boyd of Colorado City, Texas, criticized his constituents who were blaming the government for the winter storm Uri that has left thousands of people without electricity and heat.

RELATED ARTICLES

Who are ERCOT's board of directors? Gov Greg Abbott orders probe into Texas power grid operator after snowstorm

Beto O’Rourke slams GOP over Texas blackout, Internet digs up Ted Cruz's 2020 tweet on California fires

On February 16, 2021, he posted, "Let me hurt some feelings while I have a minute!! No one owes you are [sic] your family anything; nor is it the local government's responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Sink or swim it's your choice! The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING!!"

He then complained that locals were looking for a "hand out" and suggested that they should have been personally prepared to deal with catastrophic situations such as the massive winter storm that struck the region, leaving Texans freezing without heat. "I'm sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout! If you don't have electricity you step up and come up with a game plan to keep your family warm and safe. If you have no water you deal without and think outside of the box to survive and provide water for your family," he wrote. "If you are sitting at home in the cold because you have no power and are waiting for someone to come rescue you because your [sic] lazy, is a direct result of your raising!" he added.

Later Boyd blamed people's expectations stating: "Socialist government where they feed people to believe that the FEW will work and others will become dependent on handouts." He said he was "sorry" that people had to try to survive the storm without water and power, but doubled down on his insistence that he would not help, saying "I'll be damned if I'm going to provide for anyone that is capable of doing it themselves!"

"Bottom line quit crying and looking for a handout! Get off your ass and take care of your own family!" he wrote. Even though he used very strong words in the post, Boyd deleted it after it was slammed on social media.

Later, Boyd resigned on February 16 while responding to criticism he received for the controversial Facebook post. He later posted, "All, I have set back and watched all this escalating and have tried to keep my mouth shut! I won’t deny for one minute what I said in my post this morning. Believe me when I say that many of the things I said were taken out of context and some of which were said without putting much thought in to it. I would never want to hurt the elderly or anyone that is in true need of help to be left to fend for themselves. I was only making the statement that those folks that are too lazy to get up and fend for themselves but are capable should not be dealt a handout. I apologize for the wording and some of the phrases that were used! I had already turned in my resignation and had not signed up to run for mayor again on the deadline that was February 12th! I spoke some of this out of the anger that the city and county was catching for situations which were out of their control. Please understand if I had it to do over again I would have just kept my words to myself and if I did say them I would have used better wording and been more descriptive."

Talking about the effect of people's hatred towards him after he posted the message he wrote: "The anger and harassment you have caused my wife and family is so undeserved....my wife was laid off of her job based off the association people gave to her and the business she worked for. She’s a very good person and was only defending me! But her to have to get fired from her job over things I said out of context is so horrible. I admit, there are things that are said all the time that I don’t agree with; but I would never harass you or your family to the point that they would lose there livelihood such as a form of income. I ask that you each understand I never meant to speak for the city of Colorado City or Mitchell county! I was speaking as a citizen as I am NOT THE MAYOR anymore. I apologize for the wording and ask that you please not harass myself or my family anymore! Threatening our lives with comments and messages is a horrible thing to have to wonder about. I won’t share any of those messages from those names as I feel they know who they are and hope after they see this they will retract the hateful things they have said!"

One person shared his previous post where he stated that it's not the "government's job to take care of them" saying, "Colorado City mayor... literally speechless at how anyone can be this tone deaf in a public service position. People are freezing without information and PAY for these services and somehow we are still blaming socialism." While another one wrote, "The mayor of Colorado City, Texas. Good God. @PaulBegala."

One angry Internet user said, "I'd boot him out so fast his cowboy hat would spin. Those taxpayers have every right to expect reasonable service they're paying plenty of taxes. Most people expect a little trouble now & then but Cities always have a template for Emergency Services." While one said, "This dude is the mayor of Colorado City, Texas. Good fucking god they're fucked."

Journalist and author Kurt Eichenwald wrote, "Everything wrong with Texas GOP. This is a GOP Mayor, a “good Christian.” Paraphrase: “If you werent ready for failure of GOP govment & energy cos, if you have no heat/water/power to run essential home medical equipment - well fuck off! Don’t ask ME for help, you damn socialist!”" German film director Lexi Alexander said, "I have never seen anything more American than this post by a GOP mayor from Texas just now."