LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. >> A Georgia judge has been suspended for making online comments that called critics of Confederate monuments in the South “snowflakes” and “nut cases.”

Judge Jim Hinkle was suspended Tuesday from his post as a Gwinnett County Magistrate Court. Judge Kristina Hammer Blum, the metro-Atlanta court’s chief judge, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Hinkle would remain off the bench “while I consider the appropriate final action.”

Violence last weekend during a Virginia rally by white supremacists opposing the removal of statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee last weekend has stoked calls to topple Confederate statues and monuments in other parts of the South.

A Marine Corps veteran and former mayor of the city of Grayson, Hinkle wrote about the controversy on his Facebook page Saturday.

“It looks like all of the snowflakes have no concept of history,” Hinkle wrote. “It is what it is. Get over it and move on.”

The judge followed up with a post Tuesday that criticized “the nut cases tearing down monuments.”

Hinkle told the newspaper he didn’t “see anything controversial” about his posts.

“But you know, with the way things are going in the world today, I guess everything’s controversial,” Hinkle said.

Hinkle’s Facebook page was no longer publicly accessible late Tuesday morning, the newspaper reported.

In her email confirming Hinkle’s suspension, Blum said it’s her job to ensure magistrate judges in the county “conduct themselves in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity, impartiality, and fairness of the judiciary.”

Gabe Okoye, the chairman of Gwinnett County’s Democratic Party, said Hinkle should “apologize and resign” because of his comments.