Arnold’s mayor facing push to resign

Moore, 46, of Arnold contends.

Mr. Moore was one of about a dozen people canvassing the city on Saturday in an effort to garner 500 signatures calling for Ms. Peconi to resign.

Members of the community will attend a regularly scheduled public meeting on Tuesday and present the petition, Mr. Moore said.

He said some 200 signatures were collected on Saturday by about a dozen people and that he is hoping the core group of about five people will have a total of 500 signatures by Tuesday. The community organization, calling itself Concerned People of Color of Arnold and New Kensington, will meet at 6 p.m. for a rally outside the meeting place. The session has been moved from its usual location to the Lions Club bingo hall on Fifth Avenue.

Though Mayor Peconi removed the comment and shut down her Facebook page, screen shots of the comment went viral and outrage was stoked. The mayor has not returned calls to her home and office.

Mr. Moore said that, though the mayor didn’t explicitly mention AfricanAmericans, many people believe the remarks were rooted in racism.

“There was an undertone [that made it a] racial comment,” Mr. Moore said.

Antwon Rose was black. The police officer was white. Many of the protesters were black.

“She’s an elected official and there’s no way that she should be having those type of thoughts, but if she is having those types of thoughts, she should have kept them toherself,” Mr. Moore said.

Mr. Moore, who said he is African-American, estimated that about 20 percent of the city’s residents are people of color.

He said the outrage at the mayor’s remarks extends beyondthe black community.

“There are a lot of white people who are just as offended,” he said.

He criticized the mayor for not attending a rally June 28 that extended from noon to 7 p.m.

“She could have come out and issued a public apology but she didn’t,” he said.