Democratic Officials Want Philadelphia Mayor Kenney to Resign
July 6, 2022 | Pennsylvania
Jim Kenney wishes he wasn’t Philadelphia’s mayor. City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart and Councilman Derek Green – like Kenny, both Democrats – now wish the same.
Kenney drew their reproaches after confessing to reporters on Monday, July 4, that city violence has made his job a displeasure that he looks forward to concluding.
“There’s not an event or a day when I don’t lay on my back and look at the ceiling and worry about stuff,” the mayor said. “So everything we have in the city over the last seven years I worry about: I don’t enjoy Fourth of July; I [didn’t] enjoy the [2016] Democratic National Convention; I didn’t enjoy the [National Football League] Draft. I’m waiting for something bad to happen all the time, so I’ll be happy when I’m not here – when I’m not mayor – and I can enjoy some stuff.”
When reporters asked if he truly happily awaits his administration’s end, he laughingly answered, “Yeah, as a matter of fact.”
Kenney proclaimed his glumness after two police officers suffered gunshot wounds amidst a July Fourth celebration on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. So far, 2022 has been an especially violent year for the City of Brotherly Love, with over 940 nonfatal shooting victims, 236 gun-related homicides, and 267 murders in total.
Green, one of seven at-large members of Philadelphia’s City Council, responded to the chief executive’s self-pity unequivocally in a Twitter post.
“@JimFKenney We are all exhausted by the level of gun violence in our City,” he wrote. “However, our City needs someone now with the passion and vision to lead us forward. Resign.”… (Excerpt from The Pennsylvania Daily Star)
