By Josh Resnek
Five months ago Anthony DiPierro finally stepped down from his city councilor’s position after a public outcry that ensued following revelations that he had been trading hard core, N-word racist materials and memes with friends and other members of the administration.
As the mayor’s cousin and his chief supporter, DiPierro enjoyed considerable insulation and protection from the outside world.
When the racist, anti-Black memes he had sent around on the Internet came back to bite him, the public outroar here was historic.
Neither the mayor, nor his colleagues on the city council nor school committee members asked for his resignation.
That only came after Black, Brown and Hispanic Everett High School students left their classrooms and marched down to city hall en masse where they held a demonstration outside.
More than 300 high school kids chanting and holding signs demanding DiPierro’s resignation made an impact.
That demonstration and widespread media coverage of it, led to the mayor ordering DiPierro to resign.
A short time later, DiPierro handed in his resignation.
A short time later US Attorney Racheal Rollins announced she was conducting a probe of the Everett city government’s racist acts, and that if enough evidence of wrongdoing came to the fore, she would begin an official investigation into racism, discrimination and retaliation in Everett.
What followed was classical Everett crisis media controls being put into force for and by the former councilor.
He apologized for spreading around the racist memes. He apologized for his racist remarks. He said he would be attending classes or programs to improve himself, to aid him in understanding racism.
We are not certain how many classes or programs DiPierro has attended.
We know this, DiPierro is trying to come back.
He has recently spoken out and led efforts to denounce perceived enemies of the mayor.
He has apparently participated in citywide mailings and efforts to shore up the mayor but in a more likely effort to shore himself up.
Another publication recently printed a DiPierro letter to the editor. In that letter DiPierro stood solidly against keeping Pope John as an educational facility, siding with his cousin the mayor that the affordable housing is more important.
He said he wanted to see the city commit to using another facility, to allow Pope John as affordable housing, and to wait for the new high school to come through.
The new high school is ten years away, if at all. Other city owned buildings don’t fill the bill for added classroom space as well and as cheaply and quickly as the former Pope John facility.
DiPierro’s effrontery at becoming involved in the political life of the city from which he was exiled so soon after his embarrassing resignation is an odious sign.
Those who know DiPierro say he will be coming back to city government at the first opportunity – and that he might be elected, again.
This is a very real possibility.
However, the city is a far different place today than when he resigned – and should he run again and win – DiPierro will find this out, and so, too, will those sorry souls supporting him.