The self-righteous cartoonist made a disturbing remark now about why parents should challenge their children's innocence Before he was arrested on charges of child pornography.
Darren Bell, 49, who amassed a wide following for his drawings depicting Donald Trump as Hitler, has been charged with sharing more than 100 disgusting AI-generated images of child sexual abuse.
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office announced that the afflicted father and former Washington Post contributor was arrested on Wednesday at his home in Sacramento, California.
It first came to their attention after deputies obtained information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that 18 files of child sexual abuse material had been shared online.
After investigating the post, investigators were able to link them to a sick user who uploaded 134 pornographic videos. They later allegedly determined that Bell was running the account.
Investigators stormed the artist's home and locked him in the Sacramento County Main Jail, where he was held on $1 million bail.
Bell enjoyed mainstream success for his fiery political drawings. In 2023, he published a graphic novel called The Talk, which was about his decision to talk to his son about race in America.
The memoir was inspired by the killing of George Floyd, where Bell decided to teach his child that he would inevitably be abused because of the color of his skin, he told ABC News.
He encouraged parents to share this bleak prediction with children and extort their innocence in an attempt to teach them “how irrational people can be.”
“Because one day they're going to be faced with a situation where, no matter how well behaved they are, how well dressed they are, someone in a position of power is going to decide to negatively impact their lives,” he said.
Disturbed graphics
Bell was active on social media and spent most of his time posting his political works on his subgroup, Disobey Darren Bell Upfront.
In one drawing, which he shared several times on Instagram, he depicted Trump as an Adolf Hitler-type figure standing on a podium giving a speech.
On the podium, he drew a picture that resembled a Nazi Party symbol, but instead of a swastika, there was a T turned into an angle.
In another illustration, Bill depicted Trump having a meltdown over the poor performance of MAGA-endorsed politicians in the 2022 midterm elections.
In that cartoon, the artist depicted the so-called “red wave” in the form of an exploding ketchup bottle that painted a wall behind the screaming president.
At the time, fans couldn't get enough of Bell's drawings. One follower commented, saying: “This is good. I laughed out loud,” on the comedy that dealt with the president's childish tantrum.
However, now, Pell's arrest and cavalier attitude has earned him a wave of backlash, with angry users flooding his comments with calls for justice.
One angry user commented on one post, saying: “Jail is too good for this guy. Don't mess with kids.”
“It's amazing how you've spent the past years calling Trump and his supporters rapists, usurpers, and Nazis,” another person wrote.
“Meanwhile, you have just been arrested for creating and distributing child pornography.”
Other users criticized Bell for “discrediting” his work and his alleged disturbing crimes.
“Someone needs to talk to their kids about perverts like you,” another angry follower wrote.
Bell will appear in court on Friday.