PHILADELPHIA – After a federal judge dismissed a discrimination suit from Philadelphia City Council member Mark Squilla and local Italian-American groups over Mayor Jim Kenney’s removal of Columbus Day as an observed city holiday, the case has been appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Editor s note: This is the sixth part in Frontpage Mag s new series on Racist Mayors. (See previous parts below this article). Stay tuned for more installments. As a Philadelphia City Councilman in 2014, two years before his election as the city’s 99th mayor, Jim Kenney, an Eagles fan, tweeted that Chris Christie, a Cowboys fan, was a “fat ass.” Kenney then let it rip: “You suck! Kissing Texas ass for 2016!” While sports fanaticism might be a forgivable offense among overzealous males, two years earlier in 2012, Kenney tweeted Lou Dobbs after the latter made critical comments about Obama’s reelection: “You are a large asshole. Crawl back under your rock. You are a hater and a creep hiding behind your microphone.”
Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA – Counsel for the City of Philadelphia and Mayor Jim Kenney are seeking to dismiss a discrimination complaint from Philadelphia City Council member Mark Squilla and local Italian-American groups over Kenney’s removal of Columbus Day as an observed city holiday, arguing it lacks any factual basis.
The Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, Inc. of Yonkers, N.Y., plus Squilla, the 1492 Society and Jody Della Barba, all of Philadelphia, first filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on April 6 versus the City and Kenney.
The suit assailed the City and Kenney as having engaged in “continued, unrelenting, and intentionally discriminatory acts” against Italian-Americans – punctuated by Kenney’s Executive Order 2-21, which replaced Columbus Day as an official City holiday with Indigenous Peoples Day.
Bochetto | Bochetto & Lentz
PHILADELPHIA – Philadelphia City Council member Mark Squilla and local Italian-American groups have filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia and Mayor Jim Kenney, over Kenney’s removal of Columbus Day as an observed city holiday and other incidents the suit says speak to his prejudice for Italian-Americans.
The Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, Inc. of Yonkers, N.Y., Philadelphia City Council member Mark F. Squilla, the 1492 Society and Jody Della Barba, all of Philadelphia, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on April 6 versus the City and Kenney.
Late last spring after the killing of George Floyd triggered protests in the streets, people started casting around for useful targets in their crusade against white supremacy. One such ready target presented itself in the person of a guy who died six centuries ago, Christopher Columbus. Across the country, Black Lives Matter activists started pushing for statutes to be pulled down, holidays to be renamed and history books to be rewritten.
As I wrote at the time, it was Orwellian. However, if the attacks had been limited to statues, calendars and history books, we might have been able to have a civil discussion about the meaning of Columbus and his impact on western civilization.