St. Louis County Health Director Details Physical, Racist Abuse At Board Meeting

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The acting director of the St. Louis County Health Department said he was the victim of racist, xenophobic and threatening behavior during the Tuesday night county council meeting which focused on a mandate renewed mask.

Dr Faisal Khan shared the latest scientific data and public health advice with board members during the meeting. On Wednesday, he wrote a letter to Board Chair Rita Days, describing his experience during and after the presentation, including hearing people posing as Apu, a cartoon character from The Simpsons TV show who pokes fun at South Asian people like me, he wrote.

Others outside the boardroom shouted racist slurs at him, calling him a big brown ass and a brown bastard, Khan wrote.

On more than one occasion, I had a shoulder kick and pushed, as I tried to leave the boardroom, he wrote.

Khan said being physically assaulted by a group that used racial slurs was one of the worst behaviors he had experienced in his 25-year career in public health.

He accused board member Tim Fitch of being a leader of the crowd that included many who chanted Trump 2024. He also accused Fitch of working with US Senate candidate Mark McCloksey to stoke xenophobia against him. Khan said the two were well known to supporters of former President Donald Trump.

The abuse continued outside the bedrooms, prompting Khan to wave his middle finger at an individual who had physically threatened me and called me racist slurs, Khan wrote.

I’d like to think I wouldn’t react like that as it might create a distraction from what should be a consensus around masking and vaccines. I have to say, however, that in the face of the racist vitriol that Councilor Fitch has stoked in private and in public against me since my appointment, I can’t say I’m sorry, he wrote.

In the letter, Khan accuses McCloskey and Paul Berry, who ran unsuccessfully as a GOP candidate for various elected positions in St. Louis County, of trying to distract him during his presentation to council. . Khan says he was lectured by Days when he asked him to intervene. Such humiliating treatment surprised me, as I had heard that you are sensitive to race issues and treat people fairly, he wrote. Khan calls on Days to investigate and take action to avoid similar situations.

Tensions grew high among many with ties to the county council after county executive Sam Page renewed a mask term this week.

The board voted 5-2 at Tuesday’s meeting to rescind Page’s mask tenure. Some council members said he should have consulted them first, after a new state law was passed this year aimed at limiting the power of civil servants during a public health crisis.

Page argues that ordering masks does not violate this law because it does not prevent businesses from opening or closing.

The Missouri attorney general’s office filed a lawsuit to overturn the order.

Read Khan’s full letter to the Council President below:

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