Boston Metropolis Councilor Sharon Durkan mentioned she’s been attacked mercilessly and fat-shamed on-line after posting a defiant response to frame czar Tom Homan’s vow to convey “hell” to the sanctuary metropolis over its lack of cooperation with ICE.
Durkan, an ally of Mayor Michelle Wu who’s set to testify on town’s sanctuary insurance policies and their affect on public security at a Congressional oversight listening to subsequent week, drew intense backlash after reposting a video of Homan’s remarks about Boston final weekend. Her put up directed an insult on the border czar’s regulation enforcement background.
Finally Wednesday’s Metropolis Council assembly, Durkan grew to become visibly emotional over the expertise, and questioned whether or not she would have been “attacked” so intensely by the general public had she been a male politician making related remarks.
“My actual experience being a woman in office is very different from the strides that we’ve seen,” Durkan mentioned. “Obviously, the past three days I have been attacked by thousands of people online who have called me fat, who have just attacked me to my core, looked up where I went to high school, did sort of horrible things.
“And I just have to ask myself if those comments would happen if I was a man,” Durkan, a Georgia native, added. “I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but the reality is, being a woman on the City Council and being a woman elected official is very, very, very different from being a male elected official.”
She went to say that, “Even if you can rise to the top, people are waiting for you to fall, and they’re waiting and they’re critical. I’ve had men come up to me at events that said you should really wear black more, because you just don’t have the body type to wear pink. It’s disgusting.”
Durkan’s feedback got here amid dialogue round a Council decision recognizing March as Ladies’s Historical past Month. Her remarks had been aware of the backlash she mentioned she’s obtained for a social media put up she made a day after Homan’s fiery speech on the Conservative Political Motion Convention in Washington, D.C.
In his speech, Homan vowed to convey “hell” to the sanctuary metropolis of Boston and slammed Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox for turning into “a politician” and the division’s restricted cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
“I read a story last night that the Boston police commissioner, you said you’d double down on not helping law enforcement officers of ICE,” Homan mentioned final Saturday. “I’m coming to Boston and I’m bringing hell with me.”
Homan added of Cox, “You’re not a police commissioner. Take that badge off your chest, put it in the desk drawer because you became a politician. You forgot what it’s like to be a cop.”
In Durkan’s X put up, which has practically a quarter-million views, greater than 1,200 feedback and a whole bunch of likes and shares, town councilor mentioned it was “laughable that someone who spent their career policing a town smaller than a Fenway Park crowd thinks they can lecture Boston on public safety.”
“Commissioner Michael Cox serves with distinction and earns trust with integrity,” Durkan wrote on X final Sunday. “Tom Homan should know, we don’t scare easy.”
Previous to being designated “border czar” by President Donald Trump, Homan was a police officer in West Carthage, a New York village with a inhabitants of lower than 2,000, for a few yr earlier than turning into a federal border patrol agent.
Homan was a high immigration official within the Obama administration, and was appointed performing director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by President Trump in 2017.
He retired from that place a yr later and was designated border czar by Trump following his November 2024 election to a second time period.
Durkan, seemingly responding to feedback on her put up about Homan’s background, acknowledged his regulation enforcement expertise in a follow-up put up on X final Sunday, however doubled down on her criticism of the border czar.
“Yes, I understand that Tom Homan spent his career as a federal agent within Border Patrol and ICE, but that’s a world away from the realities of policing a major city,” Durkan wrote. “His background is in immigration enforcement, not community policing — where trust and accountability are key.”
Durkan, who labored for Wu previous to being elected as a metropolis councilor, is a staunch ally of the progressive mayor, who is predicted to be grilled subsequent Wednesday by a Republican-led Congressional oversight committee.
The committee is “investigating sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States, and their impact on public safety and the effectiveness of federal efforts to enforce the immigration laws of the United States,” per a letter from its chair James Comer.
Wu bashed Homan’s feedback final weekend as “foolish,” whereas defending town’s police commissioner and public security file.
She is about to hitch three different sanctuary metropolis mayors from Chicago, Denver and New York Metropolis for testimony on the D.C. listening to.
