Whereas, City Council through its previous legislative actions has supported the elimination of discrimination and harassment in the workplace, schools, the justice system, and all other sectors of society; and
Whereas, Frank Fina, E. Marc Costanzo, and Pat Blessington who are currently prosecutors in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office, exchanged and circulated numerous emails and photographs while they worked for the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office. The emails which these men forwarded reportedly include women in compromising sexual situations with captions indicating advancing in the work place requires such acts, depiction of African American babies as violent from infancy, and stereotyping and ridiculing of gay men; and
Whereas, Frank Fina’s involvement in prosecuting sex crimes makes this behavior all the more disgraceful; and
Whereas, A culture of misogyny and racism that permeates the highest levels of government is evidence of gross misconduct and compromises the public trust in law enforcement entities; and
Whereas, The Philadelphia Chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) has launched an on-line petition calling for the termination of these prosecutors. Last week on November 12th, the women Council members stood with NOW in their advocacy efforts on this issue, now therefore, be it
Resolved BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, that it hereby denounces the demeaning, misogynistic, racist and homophobic emails sent on state-owned computers by prosecutors currently employed by Philadelphia’s DA’s Office, urges the District Attorney to terminate their employment, and calls on the Pennsylvania Attorney-General’s office to appoint an independent special prosecutor to investigate the three former state prosecutors, so as to restore public confidence in our law enforcement entities.
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