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City Council's MJ Tribute Draws Walkouts
By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 30, 2009
Modified Jun 30, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 30, 2009
Modified Jun 30, 2009
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The King of Pop's death and legacy was honored by the City Council today. But PolitickerNY, which took video (below), noticed that some City Council members walked out—Republicans Jimmy Oddo, Vinny Ignizio and Eric Ulrich and Democrats Peter Vallone Jr. and Lew Fidler—during fellow members Inez Dickens' and Helen Diane Foster's tributes.
Vallone joked that he left because he was looking for coffee while Fidler told PolitickerNY's Azi Paybarah, "Clearly his death is a tragedy, [but] I’m the chairman of the Youth Services Committee in the Council and the man was probably a serial pedophile, may have well died of a drug overdose," noting that as talented as Jackson was, he's not necessarily "a role model. While we can mourn his death I don’t know that standing up on the floor of the Council to pay tribute to a life I wouldn’t want my kids to aspire to was appropriate."
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City Council
King of Pop
michael jackson
tribute
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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