The mayor of St. Louis issued an apology after revealing the personal information of her constituents during a broadcast.
Mayor Lyda Krewson, who removed the broadcast conducted over social media in which she read aloud the names and home addresses of citizens who called for defunding the police, is now facing pressure to resign.
“In an effort to be transparent and accessible to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic, for more than three months now, I have been doing tri-weekly community updates on Facebook. Tonight, I would like to apologize for identifying individuals who presented letters to me at City Hall as I was answering a routine question during one of my updates earlier today,” Krewson said in a statement. “While this is public information, I did not intend to cause distress or harm to anyone. The post has been removed.”
The Washington Examiner received a video of the part of Krewson’s online address in which she shared the names and addresses of her constituents.
Near the end of her briefing, Krewson’s spokesman Jacob Long read a question from a woman named Rachel.
“Rachel has a question, Mayor, about your meeting today with some demonstrators outside City Hall,” Long said. “She wants to know: How was that meeting, and what did you talk about?”
“Well, thank you for that, Rachel,” Krewson said in response. “So, there was a demonstration here, in front — sort of on Tucker and Market here — and the demonstrators wanted to meet with me. So, I went outside City Hall in the circle, on the Tucker side of City Hall. The conversation wasn’t really a two-way conversation, I’ll be honest with you, because there was a very loud, um, very loud response from the demonstrators. And so, they gave me some papers about how they thought, uh — in fact, I’ll go pick it up off my desk, hang on.”
Krewson then walked away from the camera to grab papers, and when she returned, the mayor read funding demands from several people.
“I agree with all these things, by the way,” Krewson said in regard to police reform. “Except we’re not going to take all the money from the police. I think we need our police department.”
A petition calling for Krewson’s resignation has earned over 15,200 signatures. Local officials, including St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones, also urged Krewson to resign her post.
“I echo the calls for Mayor Krewson’s resignation. Constituents should not fear retaliation for expressing their opinions on how our government aligns its spending priorities. #ResignNow,” Jones wrote on Twitter.
I echo the calls for Mayor Krewson’s resignation. Constituents should not fear retaliation for expressing their opinions on how our government aligns its spending priorities. #ResignNow
— Tishaura O. Jones (@tishaura) June 27, 2020
