Porngate online petition from NOW goes live Tuesday

The National Organization for Women’s Philadelphia chapter went live with an online petition calling on DA Seth Williams to fire three city prosecutors involved in the Porngate email scandal and “restore public trust” in his office.

NOW president Nina Ahmad said on Monday night that the petition would be pushed out on Tuesday to members and women’s groups around the country, Philly.com reported.

More than 100 people had signed the petition as of midday Tuesday.

It remains unclear whether the prosecutors – Frank Fina, Marc Costanzo and Pat Blessington – have participated in any program since Williams decided that their behavior called for sensitivity training and no other punishment.

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“They are just taking it like a joke,” Ahmad told Philly.com, referring to DA Williams’ office. “They think it’s going to go away, but it’s not. It’s going to get bigger.”

“I think he should have fired [the three prosecutors] a long time ago, and many of us have said as much,” state Sen. Anthony Williams said to WITF in a related report. “What has been described as ‘Porngate’ should be described as ‘Hategate,'” he said.

The emails included fake motivational posters with a pantsless woman performing oral sex on her boss and another engaged in anal sex, captioned: “Take advantage of every opening,” Philly.com reported

“These are legitimate, real questions,” Ahmad said about the specifics of the prosecutors’ sensitivity training, according to Philly.com. “Did [Seth Williams] put a bid out for the training? Was there a budget for it? Which company provided the training? How many hours did they spend with each person or did they do it in a group?”

The NOW petition was quoted by Philly.com, “It is time for decent people in Philadelphia to step up and put an end to an environment of impunity in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, where perpetrators of misogyny, racism and homophobia continue to have the jurisdiction over the prosecution of crimes.”