NY City council accused of anti-semitism over ‘greedy Jewish landlords’ remarks

Thomas Lopez-Pierre, who's running for city council in Manhattan, has vowed to stop “greedy Jewish landlords” from committing “ethnic cleansing” against blacks.

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

Thomas Lopez-Pierre is running for a seat on the city council in Manhattan, and he’s doing so with calls for stopping “greedy Jewish landlords” from committing “ethnic cleansing” against blacks.

Lopez-Pierre’s campaign was targeted to generate as much backlash as possible, and it definitely did just that, with both Jewish and non-Jewish groups calling for him to be ejected from the Democratic Party, a call that Manhattan Democratic Party Chairman Keith Wright said the party was looking into following through.

“I absolutely believe he should be removed from the party,” he said. “We don’t want someone in our party who is an anti-Semite, misogynist and homophobe.”

In the middle of all the backlash, a GoFundMe called “Stop Thomas Lopez-Pierre Hate Campaign” cropped up and raised $5,781. However, it turned out to be run by none other than the candidate himself.

“I call it bait and switch,” Lopez-Pierre bragged to the New York Post. “I intend to use the money to pay for my marketing expenses. The people who are doing this [donating] oppose me. I thank them for their support.”

Although Lopez-Pierre has little chance of beating the heavily-favored incumbent, Mark Levine, who is Jewish, he is getting his name out in the news in any way he can.  He issued the following statement to theGrio:

“As a Democratic candidate for city council, I, Thomas Lopez-Pierre will NOT apologize for fighting for Black and Hispanic tenants against those elected officials like NYC Council Mark Levine that take tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions from landlords/real estate industry at a time when displacement is at its highest in Harlem. I have never nor will I ever take political contributions from landlords/real estate industry.”

Lopez-Pierre faces an uphill battle to defeat the heavily-favored incumbent Mark Levine. Levine called Lopez-Pierre’s GoFundMe campaign “a pretty clear case of fraud.”

 

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