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Salem City Councilor Daniel Benjamin is under fire after sharing graphic, violent video of cars running over Black Lives Matter protesters.

(KATU screenshot)

Update: Daniel Benjamin has resigned from the Salem city council

Warning: The video embedded in this post contains graphic, violent footage.

Salem City Councilor Daniel Benjamin has come under fire after sharing a graphic video of cars running over Black Lives Matters demonstrators on Facebook.

Portland activist and Don't Shoot PDX lead organizer Teressa Raiford has called for his resignation. Salem Mayor Anna M. Peterson told Benjamin that she was "disappointed and shocked at the video and I suggested that he take it down," reports KATU.

Benjamin claims that because he shared it on his personal Facebook page, that anyone who was offended by it could simply unfriend him. He then told KATU that any claims he was racist for sharing it, "is actually racist" itself.

Raiford told the station it's "hogwash," and that sharing the video promotes racism. The graphic footage shows a series of clips from news reports wherein vehicles run over Black Lives Matter protestors.

Benjamin shared the video from Ron Dwyer, a conservative blogger who captioned the footage with, "As this video shows people are starting to get tired of the Black lives Matter bullies blocking the roadways."

According to the Salem city attorney, the only way a councilor can be removed is if he or she is convicted or a crime or neglects to attend work meetings for 30 days without notifying city officials, KATU reports.

The council can, however, censure Benjamin and Peterson can remove him from any sub-committees. She says she'll decide what to do after meeting with Benjamin one-on-one.

The day after KATU's initial report, Benjamin issued an apology on Facebook, writing that, "My intention by sharing that video was to bring awareness that people were being killed in the streets of our cities."

Most responses to Benjamin's apology struck a similar tone: Too little, too late.

The KATU report is embedded below -- it contains the graphic, violent footage Benjamin shared on Facebook.

--Eder Campuzano

503.221.4344

@edercampuzano

ecampuzano@oregonian.com