If the Italian-American mayor of East Haven, Connecticut, ordered a taco from an Hispanic restaurant and got spaghetti inside a taco shell, it would be a sign of racial bigotry.
Mayor Joseph Maturo showed how he feels about the Latino community of his town, where Ivy League school Yale University calls home. Currently, East Haven has four police officers under federal indictment for using "excessive force against undocumented immigrants and covering up abuses."
Asked by a television reporter "what are you going to do for the Latino community today?", Mayor Maturo responded:
"I might have tacos when I go home, I'm not quite sure yet."
Maturo obviously thought he could get away this kind of comment without criticism. Surprise, Estupido!
The Latino community in East Haven, according to the Census, make up 10.3% of the town's approximate 130,000 population.Yet out of a police force of 50, only one speaks Spanish and he's not even Latino, reports Huffington Post.
Police treatment of Hispanics in East Haven, has been under federal investigation since 2009, when the U.S. Department of Justice launched a civil rights probe that found a pattern of discrimination and biased policing.
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy released a public statement, saying:
"The comments by East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo are repugnant. They represent either a horrible lack of judgment or worse, an underlying insensitivity to our Latino community that is unacceptable. Being tired is no excuse. He owes an apology to the community, and more importantly, he needs to show what he’s going to do to repair the damage he’s done. And he needs to do it today."
Interviewed on WPLR-FM radio, Maturo said, "It was stupid, it was insensitive and I gave my detractors... a reason to make matters worse with a `gotcha' and an insensitive and stupid answer to something I should have never said," reports the Hartford Courant.
The previous link is for the newspaper's editorial on Maturo. It begins with this:
"For those who are wondering why the East Haven Police Department is out of control, one possible explanation is that Mayor Joseph Maturo is an idiot."
by Sharon McEachern
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