Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro has condemned a graphic image of her circulating on the internet. In the photo, DeLauro’s head is pictured as if decapitated and being held by the statue of Christopher Columbus that formerly stood in Wooster Square in New Haven.
DeLauro said the photo has nothing to do with Italian heritage or ethnicity but rather a culture of hate.
“We have an individual -- and maybe it goes deeper than that -- who felt the need to distribute a bloody photo, depicting me of being beheaded. I don’t believe it has anything to do with heritage,” she told Connecticut Public Radio.
The statue of Columbus came down in June. Pro- and anti-statue protesters attended the removal. Wooster Square has historically been at the heart of the Italian American community in New Haven.
DeLauro compared the threat to the kidnapping plots against the governors of Michigan and Virginia in recent days. Those plots were thwarted by FBI agents.
“[It] really is the environment, the culture, that’s being fostered by the president as you look at what happened, of what happened in Michigan and Virginia,” she said. “It’s unacceptable, it can’t be what our politics are about.”
The photo surfaced on Facebook and Twitter, and DeLauro thanked those platforms for its speedy removal.
