Just as republicans across Westchester celebrated a good night of election results in Yorktown, Eastchester and Harrison, some moron at the Yorktown GOP celebration shouted out, “That mother****r. That fu****g sand n****r.” The reference was to Yorktown Town Board member Vishnu Patel, who has served the people of Yorktown for the past 10 years with honor. Patel lost his re-election bid on Nov. 2, as republicans in Yorktown swept the night, winning the Supervisor’s race unopposed and two council races.
The story was fist reported by the Yorktown News, TapintoYorktown.net. Apparently, the video was posted on the Yorktown GOP’s Facebook page without anyone realizing what was said during the celebration. Only after someone watched the video and listened carefully, was it taken down.
Yorktown Republicans quickly disavowed the racial slur at their gathering. Yorktown Republican Town Committee Chair Kevin Byrnes said, “The Yorktown Republican Town Committee condemns these comments in the strongest possible terms, and will conduct an immediate investigation to ascertain the identity of the individual. If the person is determined to be a member of the Yorktown Republican Town Committee who uttered these disgusting comments, disciplinary action will commence.”
“No matter who uttered these comments, I would like to issue a public apology to Councilman Patel on behalf of the Yorktown Republican Town Committee,” Byrnes continued. “Comments like these are absolutely unacceptable, and do not reflect the values of the Yorktown Republican Town Committee.”
Town Supervisor Matt Slater said the comments “absolutely does not reflect the values of this community, the Republican Party, or our elected officials,” Slater said. “Hate has no home here. I urge party officials to get to the bottom of this terrible incident immediately and hold the individual fully accountable for this terrible stain on a successful night. On the day after the election, I personally called Councilman Patel and thanked him for his service to our community. I consider Councilman Patel a personal friend and valued colleague who has served our town with distinction. He deserves to be recognized and honored for his contributions to our community.” Slater also called Patel after the slur was found on the video to aplogize for what happened.
Yorktown Democrats posted the following on their Facebook page. “On Tuesday, November 2nd, the Yorktown Republicans celebrated their victory. In that room, an individual spurted a chock of racial ignorance towards Councilman Patel. It is reprehensible that this person felt comfortable at a Republican celebratory function to gleefully shout disgraceful words that carry tremendous ignorance and hate. Councilman Vishnu Patel has served Yorktown with the utmost integrity and distinction. His love for our Yorktown is seen through his numerous contributions over the years.The YDC condemns this disgusting and blatant display of hatred. We call upon the Republican Party leaders and candidates to do the right thing and have the individual state a public apology towards Councilman Vishnu Patel. We are of strong mind that there needs to be a show of zero tolerance for any form of racism or discrimination in our community. This can only happen when leaders take action to denounce such racist speech in our backyards,” said Marni Rabin-Marron, Mark LiebermanCo-Chairs, YDC
Councilman Patel said, “I remain hopeful that a new generation of Yorktown Republicans will appeal to the best instincts of people and not the worst.”
The request from the Yorktown Democrats, and from Chairman Byrnes and Supervisor Slater appears to be all the same. Let’s find out who said this and punish him in the court of public opinion. Perhaps there is someone with voice recognition capabilities to help us get to the bottom of this.
Yorktown Demoratic Co-Chairs Rabin-Marron and Lieberman renewed their call for the person to come forward and make a public apology.
