Posted on 08/04/2012 3:20:32 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
ALBANY — Aides to New York’s first African-American governor wanted a police entourage that looked more like their boss, so they made an unusual request to the State Police: Replace at least 10 white troopers assigned to protect Gov. David A. Paterson with black or Latino officers.
The request prompted an extraordinary battle between the Paterson administration and leaders of the State Police shortly after Mr. Paterson, a Democrat, took office in 2008, according to court testimony, e-mails and interviews.
Preston L. Felton, at the time the acting superintendent of the State Police and the first African-American to lead the agency, said the Paterson administration had sent him “a typed request to remove 10 to 15 white troopers, and 2 African-American troopers they didn’t like, and it was clear to me that they wanted to remove all the white troopers and replace them with African-American or Latino troopers.”
State Police officials believed such moves would violate state law and lead to discrimination lawsuits. Mr. Felton said the dispute became so heated that he considered making a harassment complaint in Albany city court against a top Paterson aide.
“It was something I was not going to do,” Mr. Felton said. “I was not going to break the law.”
Former Paterson aides adamantly dispute many aspects of the accounts. In a statement, a spokesman, Sean Darcy, said, “There was no formal request by the governor’s office to alter the security detail.”
“When the superintendent brought this to the attention of the governor’s secretary,” Mr. Darcy added, “he confirmed there was no such request.”
Mr. Darcy also said the makeup of the security detail did not change. But, he said, three troopers who had protected Mr. Paterson when he was lieutenant governor, all of whom were black or Latino...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The key term there is FORMAL. In other words, it happened but wasn't on paper.
How could he tell? He was legally blind.
The race hustlers just keep on keeping on.
Racism! Racism! Racism!
Too bad he didn't continue along that line. Felton was busted for what became known as "Troopergate." He allowed himself to be used, and kept tracking records of Senator Bruno, who was then majority leader of the NY Senate. Felton admitted violating conduct laws for public officials. He was forced to leave his position, and retired from the State Police.
Since when did Patterson look Latino? Might as well have some Chinese guards for him.
It was one of the first things I noticed and commented on it at the time. Paterson was, is and always will be full of s#*t.
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