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Arnold Mayor Refuses To Resign Amid Outcry

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ARNOLD, Pa. (KDKA) – There have been repeated calls for the mayor of a local town to resign for a social media post about those protesting the shooting death of Antwon Rose.

On Tuesday night, there was a rally and a meeting in Westmoreland County, and embattled Arnold Mayor Karen Peconi was present. As expected, a large crowd turned out in downtown Arnold calling for Mayor Peconi's resignation.

Karen Peconi
Photo Credit: KDKA

Mayor Peconi said she doesn't plan on resigning and she attended the city council meeting and had a statement prepared to read to her hurting community.

The cries were reaching a critical mass before Tuesday's city council meeting, which was moved outside the fireman's training and social center to accommodate the crowd.

Peconi's statement read, in part, "I am not planning to resign from the city of Arnold …," before she was drowned out by boos.

KDKA's Meghan Schiller Reports:

 

In the city of 5,000, the diverse crowd of all ages had one voice. The community pleaded with Mayor Peconi for two hours to step down, and when she refused, city council took action.

"I made a motion for our solicitor to write a letter to Gov. [Tom] Wolf and the senate requesting Karen Peconi's removal from office," said Arnold City Council member Phil McKinley.

Some of the community is outraged over what they call a racist and controversial Facebook post the mayor put on her personal page following the shootings death of Rose. Peconi's said that protestors should be hit with water cannons. She followed up that post with a comment that protestors don't care about jobs for Pittsburgh because none of them work them.

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