stltoday | St. Louis County’s acting health director says the rumor is true: He gave someone the middle finger on his way out of the council meeting on the mask mandate Tuesday night.
But in a letter to County Councilwoman Rita Heard Days sent Wednesday, Dr. Faisal Khan said he did it after a string of racist provocations from Republican politicians like Councilman Tim Fitch and a boisterously anti-mask audience pushed him past his limit.
“I have never been subjected to the racist, xenophobic and threatening behavior that greeted me in the County Council meeting last night,” he wrote, after noting he’s been in public health for 25 years.
Fitch and others blamed for stoking racism and xenophobia dismissed Khan’s allegations as baseless. Fitch also said Khan was trying to provide political cover for County Executive Sam Page, who called for the mask mandate.
“The entire letter is another desperate attempt at deflection and diversion by Sam Page,” Fitch said in an interview. “Dr. Khan knew he was in trouble for (giving the middle finger) and this was an opportunity to put that on someone else.”
Khan appeared at the meeting as the council was considering a move to terminate the mask mandate as unlawful and unnecessary, which it would do despite the rising threat of the delta variant. During the debate, dozens of people, some of whom held signs with anti-mask messages, filled the council chambers to cheer on the action and jeer the mandate’s defenders.
Khan said the trouble began as soon as he took the podium with a “dog-whistle” question from Fitch, looking to emphasize Khan’s foreign background.
As he spoke, Khan said he also endured harassment from Republican politicians Paul Berry and Mark McCloskey, who sat close behind him in the audience.
Berry was an unsuccessful candidate for county executive in 2020; McCloskey, who is running for U.S. Senate, gained notoriety with his wife, Patricia, for brandishing firearms at protesters last year. Both McCloskeys attended the council meeting.
0 comments:
Post a Comment