By Dan Murphy
The story about how a Yorktown Town Councilman Vishnu Patel, who lost his re-election bid after serving for 10 years, was called a sand N-**** at an election night celebration held by the Yorktown GOP, has now moved beyond Yorktown.
As we reported yesterday, someone in the crowd at the Yorktown GOP celebration was caught on the audio portion of a video tape yelling “That mother****r. That fu****g sand n****r.”
The comments were immediately rebuked by Town Supervisor Matt Slater and other republicans in town, but the damage had been done. Upon their review of the voice, the Yorktown GOP quickly identified the racist, his name is Tom Pomposello, a Yorktown GOP district leader who resigned his political position.
Pomposello told Yorktown News, tapintoyorktown.net after the video was shared across social media, “I want to apologize. It was disgusting. It was something I don’t remember saying. I watched it and listened to it and said, ‘Oh, my God. It’s me. I’m embarrassed for my family. I am horrified by this, I plan on apologizing to Vishnu in person, to both the Republican and Democratic parties, and to the people of Yorktown.” He added that he had been drinking that night.
Yorktown Supervisor Matt Slater said, “I applaud the swift action of the Yorktown Republican Town Committee in immediately accepting the resignation of Tom Pomposello as a Republican District Leader. Racism and hatred have no place in the Yorktown community or in the Republican Party.
“Upon receiving the video I spoke to Councilman Patel directly to express my disgust with what had transpired. Having grown up here in Yorktown I ran track with Councilman Patel’s daughter and graduated Yorktown High School with his son. I consider Councilman Patel a personal friend, valued colleague and an incredible public servant.
“While we cannot take back the words that were said, we can be sure to send a clear message that racism will not be tolerated and people will be held accountable for their actions. We need to combat racism and hatred together as a community and the Town should not partner with anyone who fails to uphold these values,” said Slater.
Pomposello has been involved in the Town of Yorktown San Gennaro Festival, and other community events. It is unclear if he will be forced to resign entirely from public life.
Pomposello’s comments raced across Westchester County. County Legislator Vedat Gashi gave a suitable summary of the type of person that Pomposello cursed and called a “Sand N-****.”
“It just goes to show, for some people, it won’t matter if you’re a renowned scientist, a selfless philanthropist, the father of TWO national heroes, a Yorktown public servant for three terms, and worked harder than anyone I’ve ever seen in that role. I’m disgusted. “Sadly, that individual was entirely comfortable shouting that racist ignorance and hate in that room,” Gashi added. One Yorktown resident added to Gashi’s comments, saying “if he feels comfortable shouting that out in front of hundreds, what is going on behind the doors of his house, his family?”
Councilman Patel’s two sons attended West Point.
State Senator Peter Harckham commented, “We should all be totally disgusted by the hate language directed toward Yorktown Councilmember Vishnu Patel on an Election Night video made at the town’s Rep. HQ. We need more than pro forma apologies here. A serious soul-searching about racism in our communities is required.”
Another strange fact was that this video was discovered by someone on the Yorktown GOP Facebook page, and the vile comments were only discovered five days later. Yorktown GOP Chair Kevin Byrnes posted, ” I apologize that such an offensive video was on our Facebook page for five days, but I can assure that had I known about the comments, the video would never have been posted. When I first watched and listened to the video, I was focused on what the candidates were saying, not on the background conversations, and I simply did not hear the slurs. I can also assure that if I heard those comments being made on Election Night, I would have taken immediate steps to correct the situation. I informed Mr. Marschhauser that I would conduct an immediate investigation to see if we could determine the identity of the person making the comments, and if it turned out to be a member of the Yorktown Republican Town Committee, disciplinary action would commence.After listening closely and speaking to a few people who were present, it was quickly determined that the person who made the comments was YRTC District Leader Tom Pomposello. Mr. Pomposello was informed that these comments were unacceptable and inexcusable. Mr. Pomposello was asked for his resignation from the Yorktown Republican Town Committee, and he complied.On behalf of the Yorktown Republican Town Committee, I would again like to offer an apology to Councilman Patel and anyone else who was unfortunate enough to view this video and hear the despicable comments. Comments like these are unacceptable and do not reflect the values of the Yorktown Republican Town Committee,” said Byrnes.
The Westchester Asian American Democrats also released a statement, “It is shameful that no one spoke out against Pomposello’s deplorable actions at the event, and apologies were issued only after the incident was publicly reported. For years, a sitting Republican president spewed racist, xenophobic and bigoted language about immigrants and anti-China rhetoric that unleashed an unprecedented wave of violence and hate incidents against our community during the pandemic. We will not tolerate this behavior in Westchester. We have reached out to Westchester County Republican Committee Chair Douglas Colety to discuss this incident and how GOP leaders must be accountable for combating hate in our county, starting with their District Leaders.”
No comment yet from Chairman Colety, and according to Yorktown Democrats as of Nov. 9 at 12 noon, Councilman Patel had not been contacted by Pomposello.
