Lawmaker suggests Rep. Tasker targeted by law enforcement for legislative initiatives
A Seabrook lawmaker responded to the arrest of state Rep. Kyle Tasker by suggesting Tasker was targeted by law enforcement for his work on police accountability legislation.
Today, the news broke that Tasker is being held on $250,000 cash bail after being arrested for allegedly attempting to lure a 14-year-old girl for sex. The Union Leader reported the 30-year-old, three-term lawmaker is accused of using Facebook Messenger to arrange a liaison with a police officer he thought was an underage girl.
Rep. Max Abramson questioned the arrest. “Whether Tasker committed a crime or not,“ he wrote on Facebook, “why did the police chiefs of several departments set up a sting operation against yet another legislator who supported dash cams, body cams, and police accountability, but not against Democrats and RINO’s?”
Tasker’s arrest was the culmination of a joint operation between the Nottingham police department and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that began in January after police received a report that the Nottingham Republican had sexually harassed a young girl.
A subsequent search of Tasker’s residence turned up what the police called an “enormous amount of controlled substances.” He was charged with three additional felonies for possessing marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms and Suboxone with the intent to distribute.
In his statement criticizing Tasker’s arrest, Abramson attacked House Speaker Shawn Jasper, who removed Tasker from the House Children and Family Law Committee, and criticised those who called for Tasker’s resignation.
“State Income Tax Jasper has been using the power of the Speaker’s Office to fight every single police accountability bill that real Republicans have put forward,” Abramson wrote, “while pushing to expand Obamacare and the Democrats’ big government agenda.”
“Whether Tasker is guilty or not,” he continued, “Democrats and RINO’s weren’t calling on Democrat Martha Fuller Clark to resign when she severely injured a pedestrian because Democrats always vote to give more overtime and bigger pensions to the police unions, and she was never charged.”
Abramson made headlines last year when Jasper removed him from the House Criminal Justice Committee after the Speaker learned of Abramson’s 2012 felony conviction for firing a gun during a party at his home in Seabrook.
Today, Abramson claimed he was also targeted by law enforcement for ideological reasons. “Seabrook officers have admitted to people in my town that the 2010 case against me was pure retaliation for speaking out against police accountability,” he wrote.