Investigating Threats to Comrie, Barron
The City Council is beefing up security for two Council members who were the subject of separate (but related) death threats, Christine Quinn told reporters at a press conference earlier today.
The first threat was directed towards Leroy Comrie by Viola Plummer, who is the chief of staff to Charles Barron.
The second was directed at Barron by an anonymous commenter on a popular police chat board.
Quinn said, "We are taking both of these sets of statements incredibly serious. In both matters, we have spoken to the Council member in question. My director of security has spoken to both Council member Comrie and Council member Barron and offered them whatever additional security they believe they need. We’ve offered to do security assessments of their offices."
Quinn said she's spoken to top police officials about whether a police officer may have made the comment about Barron. As for Plummer, Quinn said they are looking into whether she, as an employee of the City Council, can be punished.
"We are researching what our legal options are as a speaker and as an institution to take action," Quinn said.
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anonymousnyc
It seems that Ms. Plumer's statement itself may be considered harassment or other conduct that is prohibited by the Council. So that if Council Member Baron takes no action to dismiss her, the Council may be within its rights to dismiss her and/or take action against Baron for failing to uphold the rules on harassment and/or other forms of misconduct.
Quinn could fire her if she wanted to. She probably wants this whole thign to go away though, and firing her would just keep it alive.
That figures. Plummer's threat inside City Hall is downplayed but as soon as some yahoo on the internet threatens Barron it's code red.