7 BRONX WEEKLY August 2, 2020 www.BXTimes.com
Opposition calls for CM King’s removal
Group sends letter to City Council following years of misconduct, harassment
BY JASON COHEN
Councilman Andy King faced
accusations of misconduct in
2019, new allegations that he
abused his staff and the City
Council Disciplinary Committee
has charged him three times
over the course of two years.
Many people are fed up with
his behavior and on July 28,
the Sexual Harassment Working
Group, Senator Alessandra
Biaggi and several other groups
sent a letter to Council Speaker
Corey Johnson demanding
King’s removal.
Survivors and advocates expressed
anger after the Council
suspended King for 30 days last
year but didn’t give him the boot.
Despite the City Council’s Committee
on Standards and Ethics’
2019 release of a nearly 50-page
report of charges against King,
including serial sexual harassment
and discrimination, intimidation
and retaliation against
survivors and witnesses, King is
still in offi ce.
“The City Council must send
a clear message to workers, and
the electorate, that city elected
offi cials do not and will not continue
to tolerate sexual harassment
and discrimination,” the
letter stated. “In addition to a vote
to approve King’s expulsion from
the Council, this should include
reforms to strengthen the Council’s
processes in safeguarding
staff against harassment, retaliation
and other harmful behavior
through an effective independent
accountability system and
formalized protections.”
In November 2019 the Sexual
Harassment Working Group
stood with the more than 130 current
and former courageous City
Council staffers who, in an open
letter to Speaker Johnson, demanded
King’s expulsion.
In July, a former King staffer
sued him in federal court after
alleging his offi ce retaliated
against her after she was helping
an investigation into him.
“It is crucial that these internal
reforms include input from
those most affected: current central
and council member staff,
and King’s staff, in particular,”
the letter said. “Once again, we
also ask the City Council to convene
public hearings modeled after
New York State Legislature’s
2019 harassment hearings so that
the Council can have the opportunity
to review feedback from
experts, advocates, survivors
and other stakeholders on how
to best protect public employees
from harassment and discrimination.”
Bronx pols refl ect on life of Rep. John Lewis
BY ALEX MITCHELL
As Georgia’s congressional representative
and civil rights icon John
Lewis was laid to rest this week, his
years of service in pursuit of justice
have inspired and infl uenced many
in the Bronx’s political delegation.
Lewis, who died on Friday, July
17 at age 80, was a hero of the U.S.
civil rights movement of the 1960s,
endured beatings by white police and
mobs and played an outsized role in
American politics for 60 years.
Bronx Borough President Ruben
Diaz, Jr. along with many of his colleagues
in government, took to Twitter
with remembrance messages of
the progressive Democrat.
“As one of the lions of the civil
rights movement, you were a trailblazer
who shed blood in the fi ght for
equality, a role model who inspired
others to stand up for what’s right,”
Diaz wrote on Twitter.
East Bronx and western Queens
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio
Cortez appeared on an NPR radio
program, where she refl ected on
the life of Lewis as well.
“I would say that the beginning
of me really thinking about politics
in a traditional sense was in looking
at the example of John Lewis and the
civil rights movement overall,” she
said.
In the south Bronx, retiring Congressman
Jose E. Serrano also wrote
about his time of service with Lewis
in the house.
“He was a civil rights leader we all
looked to for advice. He was a mentor
and a friend. One of the true heroes
in our country. R.I.P. my friend. We
will miss you,” Serrano wrote.
West Bronx and upper Manhattan
Congressman Adriano Espaillat
also released a statement on Lewis’
passing.
“Congressman Lewis was a
leader of extraordinary principle
who stood at the vanguard of the
civil rights movement. During his
life and career, Congressman Lewis
demonstrated unrivaled courage,
leadership, and commitment to the
vitality and diversity of our nation,”
he stated, adding “it was truly aweinspiring
and my honor to serve
with Congressman Lewis in the
United States House of Representatives.
His torch may have dimmed,
but his legacy forever shines bright
in Congress as we continue to champion
the work that he held dear to ensure
equality, freedom and justice
for all.”
Jamaal Bowman, the Democratic
congressional nominee for the north
Bronx and south Westchester also
Tweeted out a message of sincerity
towards the lessons learned from
Lewis.
“He was an organizer who
brought Americans together across
our differences to defeat the racism
tearing our country apart from its
inception,” Bowman wrote on Twitter..
John Lewis is a Founding Father
of the America we must become.
Lewis was born to an Alabama
sharecropper in 1940 and
was elected in 1986 as a Democrat
to the U.S. House of Representatives
from Georgia. On July 17, the
80-year-old died after a battle with
pancreatic cancer.
A protege of civil rights icon
Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis led
sit-ins to integrate all-white lunch
counters, was one of the original
“Freedom Riders” who integrated
buses and suffered a skull fracture
while demonstrating for Black voting
rights in a savage beating by
a nightstick-wielding white Alabama
state trooper during an incident
now called “Bloody Sunday.”
Lewis was present at many of
the civil rights movement’s seminal
moments, and was the youngest
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) waves after he speaks at the ceremony
at the Lincoln Memorial honoring the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on
Washington, August 24, 2013. Thousands of marchers were expected in Washington,
D.C. on Saturday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech and to urge action on jobs, voting
rights and gun violence. REUTERS/Larry Downing/File Photo
speaker at the 1963 March on
Washington where Martin Luther
King delivered his “I Have a
Dream” speech, hoping for a land
where Blacks “will not be judged
by the color of their skin but by the
content of their character.”
Lewis, the last surviving
speaker at that speech, maintained
the fi ght for civil rights until
the end of his life. He made his
last public appearance in June, as
protests for racial justice swept the
United States and the world.
With reporting by Will Dunham/
Reuters
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