Local News

Everett councilor makes racially insensitive comments in leaked video

Councilor Anthony DiPierro previously received backlash for a separate racially insensitive incident.

Councilor Anthony DiPierro (center) during a city council meeting held at Everett High School.

May 14, 2022

An Everett councilor was found saying racially insensitive comments along with other city officials in a leaked Zoom recording, according to The Boston Globe.

The leaked video — which was released by a whistleblower to the Globe and on an Everett Facebook page — shows Councilor Anthony DiPierro and city employees making comments about bringing Black people to events to avoid being called racist.

DiPierro, 27, the son of Mayor Carlo DeMaria’s cousin, was previously criticized for sharing a racist meme.

The Globe reports that the Zoom video comes from a private meeting in 2020 or 2021 involving a group of councilors and city employees. In the meeting, the group reportedly discussed how they can show they are not racist.

In the video, the mayor’s spokeswoman Deanna Deveney asks DiPierro to recruit “one of your dark friends,” according to the paper.

“I don’t have a lot of those friends,” DiPierro responded, according to the Globe. “I’m just saying.”

Devaney reportedly responded, “No problem, we’ll find one.”

Former City Councilor Rosa DiFlorio also reportedly told Devaney in the video to “hire a Haitian boyfriend to come with you,” according to the Globe.

The whistleblower reportedly sent the video to the mayor’s office and other city officials on March 28, but no disciplinary action was taken since city officials said the video violated the state’s wiretap statute, the Globe reports.

Residents and the Mystic Valley Area Branch of the NAACP have called for DiPierro’s resignation in the past month, the paper reports. The NAACP reportedly cited DiPierro’s “frequent and consistent use of the n-word in his communications” calling it systemic.

The Globe said that DiPierro did not respond to the Globe’s request for comment. DeMaria reportedly stood by DiPierro.

“What he did was wrong,” DeMaria said to the paper. “It wasn’t like he put it on his public page and was public about it.”

Gerly Adrien, a former city councilor and the first Black woman elected to that position, is also calling for DiPierro’s resignation, according to the Globe.

“If this was any other city, they would have been gone by now,” Adrien said.