(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez survived an attempt Monday to strip a committee chairmanship from him after he attended an event where an American flag was burned.
Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, spoke at a left-leaning organization’s Israel-Gaza war protest outside Chicago City Hall last month. But he said he did not know an ex-Marine who attended would burn an American flag as a protest of U.S. policy.
Twenty-ninth Ward Ald. Chris Taliaferro was among alders asking Sigcho-Lopez to be removed as chairman of the City Council’s Housing Committee, and a special council meeting was called.
“Every now and then we have to call ourselves to a higher standard to say whether or not we should associate with certain groups in order to express our rights or when we exercise our rights,” Taliaferro said.
Ald. Maria Hadden, 49th, said the issue some council members had with Sigcho-Lopez should have been settled in a more low-key fashion. She urged council members to think before they file resolutions for special meetings, hold news conferences or “before you call someone un-American.”
The effort to pull Sigcho-Lopez’s committee chairmanship failed 16-29.
Sigcho-Lopez apologized for attending the protest but did not condemn the former Marine who set fire to the flag. Mayor Brandon Johnson has stood by his council ally.
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