



SEATTLE– A Seattle city councilwoman who called on protesters to “shutdown” Donald Trump’s inauguration has since received hundreds of angry emails and phone calls, some telling her to kill herself, her office said.



A spokesperson for Councilwoman Kshama Sawant said the office has been inundated with racist messages and threats of violence following remarks Sawant gave during a post-Election Day press conference at Seattle City Hall on Nov. 9.



“Join me, I appeal to you, today at 4 p.m. at Westlake (Park),” Sawant told a crowd. “Let’s have a massive protest and tell America we do not accept a racist agenda and let’s make sure that on Inauguration Day, on the 20th and 21st of January, let’s do a nationwide shutdown and occupy inauguration.”



Hundreds of people later showed up at an anti-Trump rally at Westlake Park, where Sawant reiterated her call for protest. A video of the speech went viral, and Sawant’s office said they fielded more than 200 calls before 9:30 a.m. Thursday.



“A (Sawant) staffer was told on phone: 'I will come and tattoo a swastika on your head and on that bitch’s head,'” Council spokesperson Dana Robinson Slote told Q13 News in an email.



The office was also inundated with emails.



“Go back to India bitch,” one email read. “I am tired of being shamed because I’m a white male. You automatically think I’m a racist. How about you go the (expletive) back to India or wherever you came from?”



Another email accused Sawant of enticing a riot.



“We didn’t riot with Obama was elected,” the email reads. “Ever stop to think we see (Obama) as a racist? But we carried on and lived to fight another day. Stop being such a cry baby bitch and go hang yourself.”



Sawant’s call for protest is not a surprise. The socialist council-member has herself engaged in acts of civil disobedience during her time on the council and was arrested during a wage protest in 2014.