We need to talk about Kevin.
Park Slope state Sen. Kevin Parker told the deputy communications director for Senate Republicans to “kill yourself” in a Tuesday Twitter post, after the spokeswoman claimed on social media that a parking placard displayed inside a car illegally parked along a bike lane belonged to the lawmaker.
Parker’s disturbing tweet — which he quickly deleted, although not before NY Capitol reporter Jon Campbell took a screenshot — came hot on the heels of gun legislation he introduced last month, which would require authorities to review social-media posts made by people applying for gun licenses with an eye for threatening language, among other things.
The senator’s office did not immediately return messages left seeking comment regarding whether his tweet would disqualify him from obtaining a gun permit, should the bill pass.
Senate Republicans’ spokeswoman Candice Giove identified Parker as the problematic parker in a comment she posted to a photo shared on Twitter, which showed a white Vokswagen completely blocking a bike lane in Manhattan.
“I got to the bottom of this, the placard is assigned to @SenatorParker,” Giove tweeted from her a private account.
Parker then fired off his threatening missive in response, which he later apologized for in another tweet.
“Suicide is a serious thing and should not be made light of,” the senator wrote.
But less than an hour later, the pol returned to attacking his accuser on the social-media platform, blasting Giove for her former job as a flack for the Independent Democratic Conference, a group of rogue blue-party state senators that caucused with the GOP until it dissolved in April.
“@Candicegiove is on the wrong side of history for every important issue facing New York State!,” Parker tweeted.
The local lawmaker, however, has a questionable past of his own, including a criminal mischief conviction for attacking a New York Post photographer outside his East Flatbush home in 2009.
Police also charged Parker for assaulting a city traffic agent back in 2005, but dropped the case after the pol reportedly agreed to seek help for anger management, according to the New York Times.
And following the senator’s alleged incident with the traffic agent, a former aide to Parker told the Times the pol threatened her after she publicly accused him of another assault.
Following the senator’s hostile turn on Twitter, some local Democrats distanced themselves from the long-time pol — whom voters reelected to an eighth term this November — with Flatbush Councilman Jumaane Williams announcing that Parker will step down as the co-chair of his campaign for New York City Public Advocate.
“I’m very concerned by the statement I saw from Senator Parker on social media earlier today. After speaking with him this afternoon, we have both agreed that it’s best for him to step down as co-chair of my campaign for Public Advocate,” Williams said.
