MTA worker called out sick to attend Capitol riot, placed on suspension

'Effective immediately this individual has been suspended from Metro-North without pay.'

Jan 8, 2021

A New York state employee called out sick to participate in the Stop the Steal protest in Washington D.C. on Wednesday. But after he was identified by the FBI as one of the trespassers, the seven-year MTA employee found himself out of a job.

Will Pepe, 31, reportedly called out sick from his job at the Metro-North’s Brewster rail yard so he could march on the Capitol at the urging of President Donald Trump. Pepe is now under investigation for participating in the violent melee that left 5 people dead, including a Capitol police officer. The protestors sought to stop the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

“Effective immediately this individual has been suspended from Metro-North without pay and will be disciplined in accordance with their collective bargaining agreement pending an investigation,” MTA spokesman Ken Lovett said in a statement. “This alleged conduct is abhorrent and goes against the values of Metro-North, New York and the nation.”

theGrio previously noted that the Capitol chaos on Jan. 6 was a racial double standard played out for the world to see as just months ago a group of Black peaceful demonstrators was tear-gassed in front of the White House while they protested the endless police killings of unarmed Black Americans. The white rioters this week committed an egregious security breach that left five dead and Congressional leaders cowering in fear for their lives.

President-Elect Biden recently said, “Not only did we see the failure to protect one of the three branches of our government … we also saw a clear failure to carry out equal justice.”

Biden said his decision to run for president in 2020 was largely prompted by the racist images and events of the deadly attacks in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, in which Trump called the violent protesters “very fine people.”

Meanwhile, Republican U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Friday called for the immediate resignation of President Donald Trump, two days after his supporters stormed the Capitol building in a deadly riot, theGRIO reported.

Murkowski is the first GOP member of the U.S. Senate to publicly call for Trump’s resignation.

“I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage,” Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News. The senator cited not just the events of the Jan. 6 Capitol siege, but a number of actions and inactions from the outgoing president.

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