Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / Chattooga County Sheriff Mark Schrader talks to a resident during an Aug. 7, 2017, hearing at the Chattooga County Civic Center in Summerville, Georgia.Four elected officials in Chattooga County, Georgia, including Sheriff Mark Schrader, have left the county’s Democratic Party after online threats against the sheriff and his deputies in the wake of a recent white supremacist rally in Dahlonega.
Schrader sent deputies to the Sept. 14 rally, billed by organizers as showing support for President Donald Trump, to help keep the peace. When he thanked his deputies on Facebook for their efforts, a number of people left comments sharply criticizing Shrader for sending deputies in the first place.
Schrader said some of the comments were taken as threats. Only a few of them, he said, were from local people.
After the backlash to his post, Schrader deleted it. He then became the fourth Chattooga elected official to cut ties with the Democratic Party last week.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that more than 100 police officers, many in riot gear, were in Dahlonega’s town square during the rally. There were about 50 activists and perhaps twice that many counter-protesters, the paper reported.