NY State Sen. Greg Ball: 'Who wouldn't use torture on this punk?'

GlobalPost

A New York state senator caused an uproar when he suggested that Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be tortured.

Republican Sen. Greg Ball reacted to Friday's night's capture of Tsarnaev with a tweet:

Police arrested Tsarnaev Friday after finding him, bloody and hiding, in a boat stored in a backyard in suburban Watertown, Mass., four days after the deadly bombing of the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured more than 170.

Tsarnaev's brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, also a suspect, died in a shootout with police after a Thursday night crime spree that killed an MIT security officer.

Ball's comments follow years of debate, activism and policy change in the US over the use of torture and the laws governing treatment of detainees.

But he isn't the first politician to post an insensitive tweet during the aftermath of the Boston marathon tragedy.

More from GlobalPost: Arkansas State Rep. Nate Bell apologizes for 'Boston Liberals' AR-15 tweet

Arkansas state Rep. Nate Bell was forced to issue a mea culpa after tweeting that 'Boston liberals' in lockdown probably wished they had AR-15 rifles with them.

So far, Ball has not apologized. His first tweet after the one referencing torture came on Saturday, when he simply tweeted, "Good morning!"

Meanwhile, Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona suggested Tsarnaev should be sent to Guantanamo Bay, the detainee prison in Cuba.

Both The senators oppose closing the detainee prison where 166 men from Afghanistan and around the world remain, without being charged.

About one third of the detainees are now on a hunger strike, according to the Pentagon.

[View the story "NY state Rep. Greg Ball in trouble for \"torture\" tweet" on Storify]
Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.