A Revere city councilor threatened to ‘beat the s*** out of’ one of his critics during a meeting
"You got me?"
Revere’s politics have gotten rather messy ahead of the city’s elections next Tuesday. And the tensions particularly came to the surface this week.
During a City Council meeting Monday night, City Councilor George Rotondo threatened to “beat the s*** out of” a critic, who he accused of harassing his family.
Rotondo — who has recently been accused by Muslim rights groups and a fellow Revere city council candidate of making Islamophobic and anti-immigrant attacks — was requesting a state investigation into a public records request in September about a years-old “domestic event” involving his children, which he said was a politically motivated attempt to “harass” and “discredit” him.
“If they’re going after my kids to get to me — I’m a public official. It’s disgusting,” he said, calling for an investigation from the Massachusetts State Police and state auditor’s office into Revere police’s procedures for fulfilling public information requests.
Rotondo then turned to Brian Riccio, a local political activist in attendance at the meeting.
“And you sir, if you go near my kid again, I’m going to beat the s*** out of you,” Rotondo said. “You got me?”
City Council President Arthur Guinasso objected to the threat, pounding his gavel. Rotondo went on.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sick of Mr. Riccio going near my kid. I’m sorry. This should not stand. I’m sick of the harassment from him, online, bullying my kid. My kid is in fear because of you, sir. You’re a disgrace.”
Rotondo apologized again to the hearing room, and Guinasso said his motion would be referred to the committee on legislative affairs.
In a Facebook video after the meeting, Rotondo acknowledged that the event got “loud, at the very least.” But he continued to complain about the public records request, which he said contained information that should have remained private. Rotondo also alleged the person who made the request was connected to Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo, with whom he has clashed on local housing issues (Arrigo’s office did not reply to a request for comment this week).
During a brief phone call Thursday night, Rotondo said his dispute with Riccio was “unimportant.” In his Facebook video, Rotondo said he “was told” that Riccio had tried to interview one of his daughters.
“At this point, it’s bordering on harassment,” Rotondo said.
In a Twitter message, Riccio said a supporter of Rotondo was spreading false innuendo in an attempt to deflect from Rotondo’s own political vulnerability in the coming election.
“He’s about to lose his seat,” Riccio said. “That outburst at the City Council came after he was told that only 15-20 people were appearing at his fundraiser.”
Rotondo is one of four at-large councilors seeking re-election to one of the five council seats. He placed third in the city’s preliminary elections in September. Rotondo has particularly been at odds with Dimple Rana, the city’s director of Healthy Initiatives and an at-large city council candidate, in both public meetings and on Facebook, where they’ve traded barbed accusations.
Riccio, a Medford resident who says he plans to move back to Revere, has worked to draw attention to Rotondo for the councilor’s policies (including a proposal requiring voter ID) and personal attacks against his opponents.
The flare-up also comes as former Revere mayor and at-large City Councilor Dan Rizzo, who Rotondo supports, campaigns to win back his office from Arrigo.
In an interview with Riccio last month, Arrigo said Rotondo’s actions had been “erratic and all over the place for a number of years now,” after the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for an investigation of the councilor’s social media posts. However, Arrigo said it would be up to Revere voters to hold their lawmakers accountable.
“Elected officials, myself included, have to be held accountable to our actions, to our comments, and to the things that we say and do,” the mayor said. “We have to be held accountable by the residents of the city.”
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