Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Giordano: Elites are too easy on Kenney pal Lloyd, too tough on Mummers

IN THE SPIRIT of the Christmas season, I'd like to help Mayor Kenney out of the dilemma he faces in deciding what to do in the case of Duncan Lloyd, an assistant city solicitor, captured on surveillance footage in an anti-Trump vandalism incident on a new grocery store building in Chestnut Hill. Kenney has said of this activity: "It's still working out. It's certainly hateful and inappropriate and unacceptable . . . But people make mistakes, and it's a dumb mistake."

Giordano: Mayor Kenney has talked a good game about the need in Philadelphia to challenge hateful messages and incidents. Two cases to look at: Mummers (left) and Duncan Lloyd (right).
Giordano: Mayor Kenney has talked a good game about the need in Philadelphia to challenge hateful messages and incidents. Two cases to look at: Mummers (left) and Duncan Lloyd (right).Read more

IN THE SPIRIT of the Christmas season, I'd like to help Mayor Kenney out of the dilemma he faces in deciding what to do in the case of Duncan Lloyd, an assistant city solicitor, captured on surveillance footage in an anti-Trump vandalism incident on a new grocery store building in Chestnut Hill. Kenney has said of this activity: "It's still working out. It's certainly hateful and inappropriate and unacceptable . . . But people make mistakes, and it's a dumb mistake."

With this tepid condemnation, it's clear that Kenney might not even feel that Lloyd deserves a slap on the wrist. How about if Kenney appoints Lloyd to be the head legal counsel for the city's mural arts program? Since he was carrying a wine glass as he strutted down Germantown Avenue with his friend who was carrying a spray can, he might be a good fit as the city liaison to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.

Philadelphia Republican Party chairman Joe DeFelice did not see the humor in Lloyd's actions and Kenney's response. He unleashed some of the funniest lines imaginable.

"If the image of an upper-middle-class attorney clad in a blazer and sipping wine while vandalizing an upscale grocery store with an anti-Trump message strikes you as perhaps the most bourgeois sight imaginable, that's because it is," DeFelice said in his statement. He went on to say, "Did the extra glass of Shiraz give him some sort of delusional confidence that there are no cameras on Germantown Avenue?" He then called on Kenney to fire Lloyd from the city's Law Department immediately.

DeFelice joined me on my radio show and pointed out that Lloyd represented to him a certain elitist attitude that is not being challenged. He linked it to the fact that, as all this was playing out, the people who entertain in the annual Mummers Parade were being forced into re-education seminars on cultural appropriation, homophobia and other insensitivities connected to last year's parade.

He made the point that many people who are fans of the Mummers and often vote for the Democratic Party are seeing the micromanaging of the Mummers by the Kenney administration as part of a pattern of liberal elitists looking down on white ethnics in the parade and in Philadelphia.

I'm not a fan of the Caitlyn Jenner satire in last January's parade, and I think the parade is often redundant from year to year. But the Mummers have a rich history in many parts of Philadelphia and should reflect the mentality of the people who have made the parade.

Some parade insiders have told me to expect a lot of Donald Trump/Hillary Clinton presentations this January. I'm sure that if Trump is mercilessly satirized, there will not be much of an outcry, but kid gloves better be used on Clinton.

I think some clever satire of Trump will add fun to the parade.

Post-election, I don't think that a tsunami of hate incidents have been unleashed nationwide and in our area solely by Trump supporters. First, the media hype of widespread Trump-fueled hate incidents is largely unproven. Yahoos such as the male Trump supporter aboard a Delta flight attacking Clinton supporters was seen and dealt with. However, the incident of a Villanova African-American woman allegedly being intentionally knocked down in a SEPTA tunnel by white Trump supporters chanting "Trump" has been dropped, and I think Villanova and the police should clearly tell us what happened.

This plays into some of the anger and mocking around the graffiti incident in Chestnut Hill.

Kenney has talked a good game about the need in Philadelphia to challenge hateful messages and incidents. However, he has gone soft on the antics of Lloyd and his colleague, as seen on video. There is no doubt that if we saw Trump supporters doing this and they worked for the city, Kenney would sing a different tune.

I know it's late in planning, but I hope the Mummers work Lloyd into their satire. The ascot, blazer and the wine glass are too good to pass up.

Teacher-turned-talk show host Dom Giordano is heard 9 a.m. to noon weekdays on WPHT (1210-AM). Contact him at www.domgiordano.com

@DomShow1210