September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11) were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda against the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The attacks killed 2,996 people, injured over 6,000 others, and caused at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage. Additional people died of 9/11-related cancer and respiratory diseases in the months and years following the attacks.
John Kavanagh (Arizona politician)
Kavanagh was the lead sponsor of a bill to remove eleven controversial phrases from Arizona's controversial 911 Monument. As a retired Port Authority police officer, Kavanagh was upset by the controversial phrases because he personally knew many of the 37 Port Authority police officers who died at the World Trade Center on September 11. One of the phrases involved the name of Balbir Singh Sodhi, a victim of a racist retaliatory attack in Arizona after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Claiming that Sodhi, who was murdered four days after the attacks by a white supremacist seeking revenge for the 9/11 attacks, he said Sodhi was "not a victim of 9/11," Kavanagh further stated "It's part of a myth that, following 9/11, Americans went into a xenophobic rage against foreigners. That's not true. America's reaction towards foreigners was commendable." The bill passed, but was vetoed and did not take effect. Kavanagh did meet with Sodhi's family, recognized his error in proposing to remove Sodhi's name and had agreed to keep his name on the memorial.