You're Fired? Petition seeks Katie Hopkins Sun sacking after her impassioned call to murder 'feral' migrants riles readers
Katie Hopkins has come under fire for posting her most controversial views yet in her column for the Sun claiming that migrants making the perilous journey over across the Mediterranean should be chased off by 'gunboats'.
Speaking in the aftermath of the death of 400 migrants at sea crossing to Europe from North Africa last week, the former Apprentice star questioned European nation's responsibility to avert such disasters.
Hopkins posted the strongly-worded word views in a piece entitled: "Rescue boats? I’d use gunships to stop migrants."
She said: "What we need are gunships sending these boats back to their own country.
“Some of our towns are festering sores, plagued by swarms of migrants and asylum seekers, shelling out benefits like Monopoly money”.
Adding that migrants are a "plague of feral humans" and that "migrants are like cockroaches... they are built to survive a nuclear bomb. They are survivors”.
The article spawned a petition on Change.org to have Katie Hopkin’s column removed from the publication – an unrealistic goal as long as her particular breed of controversy continues to sell newspapers.
The petition reads: “Katie Hopkins' malicious words were once more published in the Sun newspaper on the 17 April in an article on Mediterranean migrants, following the sinking of a migrant vessel on the 12 April which saw 400 people drown.
“Katie claims she 'doesn't care if migrants die' which is an opinion she is entitled to, despite it being a sad and selfish one.”
Concluding: “I am not attacking her right to an opinion, however I do not believe The Sun newspaper should encourage these poisonous opinions. Presenting these extreme views as normal is dangerous and only encourages further demonisation of immigrants in our own country.”
At the time of publication the petition has received over 11,500 signatories, edging towards the target of 15,000 names.
A number of high profile tweeters turned on Hopkins who is known for stirring the pot on the social media site.
Having read her latest article, it’s hard to think of anything left for Katie Hopkins to do now, other than to just kill some people.
— Matt Lucas (@RealMattLucas) April 18, 2015
On balance, I'd prefer to turn a gunship on @KTHopkins. http://t.co/P9nuHyYICT
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 18, 2015
@RealMattLucas @markt2606 @piersmorgan @KTHopkins She says whatever will get her attention. At whatever cost. #Troll
— Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) April 18, 2015
.@KTHopkins to write about immigrants so hatefully you cannot love yourself. Come back to humanity, you must be shattered.
— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) April 17, 2015
Guardian columnist Owen Jones also shared his views on the response to Hopkin’s comments.
I know we’re supposed to ignore Katie Hopkins. But The Sun have published what reads like a neo-Nazi rant pic.twitter.com/lbV7CQS8xP
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) April 18, 2015
Yes, we’re responding how she wants us to. But we can’t live in a country where a newspaper printing a Nazi-like rant is met with silence
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) April 18, 2015
Hopkins' views have landed her in trouble in previous instances, just in January police were investigating her for ‘little sweaty Jocks' comments during the emergence of Ebola suffers in Scotland.
Notably, The Scottish Sun's editor distanced his publication from Hopkins' column in a tweet.
.@frangudger @TheSunNewspaper @KTHopkins Just for the record, it wasn't published in Scotland.
— Gordon Smart (@gordonsmart) April 18, 2015