North Adams may reprimand city councilor
Made derogatory comments about BLM, coronavirus
A Massachusetts city council is moving to censure a member after he called Black Lives Matter a “terrorist organization” and said the coronavirus pandemic — which has killed more than 146,000 Americans and 8,000 Bay Staters — was “minuscule” and “overblown.”
The North Adams City Council on Tuesday is bringing forward a resolution to censure Councilor Robert Moulton following his comments last week about Black Lives Matter, the coronavirus and other city issues.
“It seems like that’s this month’s flavor. It’s a terrorist organization,” Moulton said of Black Lives Matter on the local public access television program “Let’s Talk About It.” “They want to get rid of the family.”
Moulton also called supporters of Black Lives Matter “moronic.”
When it came to the coronavirus, the city councilor said the COVID-19 pandemic was “minuscule” and “overblown.”
“They shut down the country, they’ve destroyed our economy … they did that for less than 1% of the economy,” Moulton said.
The council resolution to censure Moulton states that the councilor made “repugnant” statements about Black Lives Matter.
Moulton “minimized inequalities in education, home ownership, employment, wealth, and leadership, rooted in our country’s history of slavery and systemic racism,” the resolution states.
Moulton on Sunday did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The councilor also misled residents and “set an example dangerous to the public safety by dismissing COVID testing, evidence-based use of personal protective equipment, mocking evidence-based social distancing practices, and encouraging the commingling of positive cases in his home and business,” according to the resolution.
His comments were “false, hateful, discriminatory, and racist,” the resolution reads.
The council will take up the resolution that would reprimand and censure Moulton for “unbecoming the dignity of our honorable office and inconsistent with the collegial efforts of this body’s efforts in matters of diversity, equity and inclusion; insensitive and dangerous to the people; and imposing the possibility of liability on the City of North Adams in matters of administration, personnel, and contractual obligations.”
The resolution also calls on Moulton to apologize, as well as “correct his misrepresentations of medical and scientific fact as it pertains to the safety and well-being of our residents during the COVID pandemic.”