He said a California local health officer should be ‘shot.’ Now he’s back on the air
Days after reports surfaced that a Yuba-Sutter area podcaster told his listeners that the local health officer “should be set up against a wall and shot,” he appears to have secured a new gig: hosting a talk show on a conservative radio station in Marysville.
Lou Binninger has disputed that comments he made on his “No Hostages Radio” podcast constitute threats, though he hasn’t denied calling bicounty health officer Dr. Phuong Luu a “nutcase” who “should be set up against a wall and shot after (the pandemic) is over,” as outlined in court filings first reported by the Marysville Appeal-Democrat newspaper.
“She has killed people in this community, and traumatized them,” he continued during an Oct. 24 episode of his podcast, referencing the Yuba-Sutter health office’s local response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the newspaper.
In an April 10 episode, he reportedly said of Luu: “Somebody should just smash her car, bust her up.”
Both episodes have since been removed from the No Hostages archive on Binninger’s website and from podcast platforms that carry it.
Yuba County told The Sacramento Bee in an emailed response Tuesday that officials “learned of several statements made on a local podcast directed at a county employee which called for violence toward that employee.” As a result, county counsel “filed a petition to prevent any similar threats or calls to violence in the future.”
Health officer given armed security
The county said it initially sought a workplace violence restraining order against Binninger, filing a petition in Yuba County Superior Court on April 16.
County health director Jennifer Vasquez wrote in a court filing that after the county became aware of Binninger’s remarks, Luu’s office was relocated. She was given armed security guard to escort her to and from her vehicle and, for the time being, she would no longer be attending public meetings in person, as the Appeal-Democrat reported.
“I believe these safety measures to be necessary in light of the specific threat of a call to violence against a county employee, Dr. Luu, especially when considered in conjunction with the increasing number of threats to public health officers in the state and the increasing violence against Asian-Americans,” Vasquez wrote.
In her own statement filed to court, Luu wrote that she was aware Binninger has a “small but avid following” and that she has “concern that one or more of those individuals hearing such comments would act upon them.” A Facebook page for Binninger’s podcast has about 650 followers.
Instead of ruling on the restraining order, a judge during an April 21 hearing directed county counsel and Binninger to draft a settlement agreement “that balanced the county’s desire to ensure the safety of its employee and Mr. Binninger’s First Amendment right to criticize and petition his government officials,” Yuba County wrote in its statement to The Bee.
An agreement was signed by Binninger, county counsel Michael Ciccozzi and Judge Stephen Berrier late last week, and the restraining order petition was dropped.
Among other items, the stipulations call for Binninger to edit out the segments of his podcast that prompted concern, and for him not to stalk Luu at her home or workplace, according to a copy of the agreement provided to The Bee by the county.
Binninger is still permitted to attend public meetings, the agreement makes clear.
Binninger returning to airwaves
In the midst of all of this, Binninger announced last Wednesday on Facebook that he was returning to traditional radio “after over two years away,” to host a weekly Saturday program called “Lou Live” on KMYC-AM 1410, also known as the Patriot. According to his post, he started this past Saturday, one day after the restraining order case was settled.
The Patriot is a conservative station carrying talk show programming from Ben Shapiro, Glenn Beck and, formerly, the late Rush Limbaugh.
The Bee’s attempts to reach KMYC for comment regarding adding Binninger to its lineup were unsuccessful. A voicemail left Tuesday at the station’s business phone line was not returned, and KMYC 1410 does not have an active website, social media pages or an archive of past broadcasts.
In an April 24 Facebook post he titled as his response to the Appeal-Democrat story, Binninger claimed his comments were not threats because there was “no evidence that (his) speech has influenced anyone to taunt or trouble the health officer.” Threats of violence, though, can carry legal consequences including criminal charges regardless of whether any violence is actually carried out, California law makes clear.
The settlement agreement states there is no admission of fault or liability by either party. Binninger didn’t deny making the comments quoted in the court filing, but claimed his remarks were taken out of context.
“For example, saying ... the health officer should be held accountable for crimes against humanity and suffer the same fate as those found guilty in the Nuremberg Trials is not saying I am going to shoot them or telling others to shoot them,” he wrote to Facebook. “It is saying that what has been done is criminal and incredibly damaging.”
In his Facebook post, Binninger also included a racist defense of himself: “In the served documents there were numerous statements about Asian American hate crimes. The facts are that nearly all violent crimes against Asians are committed by Blacks. I’m white,” he wrote.
Binninger did not respond to The Bee’s requests for comment.
More than a year into the pandemic, there have been continuing reports nationwide and in California of threats of violence or intimidation against local public health officials.
A recent story by Kaiser Health News chronicled Santa Cruz County’s public health director and its county health officer, who also both required personal security after being inundated by threats and even trespassing protesters. During one board of supervisors meeting, a man “made a beeline” toward the health officer and the meeting had to be evacuated, KHN reported.
Threats of violence have led to de-platforming in some instances. Last November, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was permanently banned from Twitter after suggesting infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, as well as FBI Director Christopher Wray, should have their “heads on pikes” outside the White House.
Binninger has continued posting his weekly podcast as well as a blog on his website, with written articles that include numerous baseless accusations of Luu and California Gov. Gavin Newsom being part of the “deep state,” along with conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccine.
“If Luu was in private practice she would lose her license, lawsuits and possibly her life for causing people to become ill, die, relapse, close businesses and end their lives,” he wrote in an Oct. 30 post.
To end a March 19 blog titled “Officer Luu Must Go,” he wrote: “Our heath officer and our politicians are killing us. It’s time for a purge.”
Yuba still struggling with COVID-19
Yuba County has been subject to some of the state’s tightest restrictions during the pandemic, due largely to persistently high coronavirus case numbers.
Several weeks last summer and autumn, Yuba and sister county Sutter recorded some of the highest COVID-19 infection rates out of all counties statewide, according to the California Department of Public Health.
More recently, Yuba as of this week is one of just 12 counties still in the second-tightest “red” tier of business restrictions in California’s reopening system and was one of the last to exit the strict purple tier, because of case rates that have consistently far exceeded the statewide rate and thresholds for advancing to looser levels.
In the county seat of Marysville alone, the bicounty health office reports that about 3,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the health crisis. That’s nearly one-fourth of all residents in a city with a population just over 12,000.
Yuba also has one of the state’s worst vaccination rates, recently in the bottom five among California’s 58 counties. Only 26% of county residents had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, compared to 48% statewide, according to CDPH data updated Tuesday.
This story was originally published May 5, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
