What would you do if it turned out members of your city’s police forces had been embarking on a campaign of harassment against Latinos, including situations where:
They stopped and detained people, particularly immigrants, without reason, federal prosecutors said, sometimes slapping, hitting or kicking them when they were handcuffed, and once smashing a man’s head into a wall. They followed and arrested residents, including a local priest, who tried to document their behavior.
And also:
They rooted through stores looking for damning security videotapes of how they had treated some of their targets, described by one of them on a police radio as having “drifted to this country on rafts made of chicken wings.
If you were mayor of a town where things like that happened, you might understandably be shocked and horrified, and vow to root out the hateful prejudice poisoning your city.
Or you could go another route, and make a joke about tacos:
When WPIX reporter Mario Diaz asked Maturo what he plans to do for the Latino community, Maturo said, “I might have tacos when I go home. I’m not quite sure yet.”
Maturo added: “When you ask me what I would do for Latinos, I may go out and have a Latino dinner in the Latino community. There’s nothing wrong with that and you can twist it and turn it whichever way the press decides to do.”
Just think: Some time in the past, this man Joseph Maturo was capable of organizing a campaign, formulating a political message and persuading voters that he was the best choice to run their city. There’s something about racism that turns people into babbling ninnies.
Maturo has since apologized, so now that this story has its scapegoat it can go away now! All racism is the fault of individual actors!
