In a situation in which East Haven police are accused of violating the rights of Latino residents, many of them Ecuadorean - and in a town that in the past has been accused of discriminating against blacks - Maturo appointed just one minority member to a new eight-member committee formed to look for ways to improve the Police Department.
That man, Jose Velasquez, is Puerto Rican.
In an extensive discussion that followed a reporter's observation that Maturo didn't appoint any of the Ecuadoreans who appear to make up the bulk of East Haven's fast-growing Latino community and own most of the Latino businesses along Main Street, Maturo questioned why anyone would need to choose "a certain type of Latino."
"If there's a certain type of Latino that I should have picked, well then let somebody write it down on paper," Maturo said. "'I want a 5-foot-2, I want a certain sex.' You tell me what you guys want. You want me to order it?"
When it was noted that Puerto Ricans are born as American citizens and travel freely to and from the mainland, while Ecuadoreans come from another country on another continent, are not automatically U.S. citizens and face immigration issues when they come to the U.S., Maturo responded, in part:
"I mean, if I had to pick an Italian, do I pick a northern Italian? A southern Italian? We're Italians. I picked a Latino. Did it have to come from a certain section of the country? You know what? I think that's a foolish statement to make. And I feel bad that you made it.
"I wouldn't make a statement like that," Maturo said. "I brought in a Latino. Is he not dark enough for you? Light enough for you? I don't know. ... I wouldn't have said that."
So now in Mayor Taco's world, all Latino's are from the same country, even though individuals from Puerto Rico are American citizens who don't have the luxury of going through many of the hardships Ecuadoreans endure in the United States. Comments like this reminds me of my childhood growing up in Hartford's North End and dealing with people who labeled me as West Indian or Jamaican, although I was born in Tennessee, based simply on my appearance...and this was BEFORE I grew dredlocks (NOTE: Hartford's North-End has one of the largest concentration of West Indians in the country).
It's one thing to hear ignorant, racist comments like this from the xenophobes I encounter on a daily basis in Danbury, not from a chief elected official of a city like East Haven. There's really no excuse for this type of ignorance and reinforces my strong belief that in order for East Haven to move forward, Mayor Taco should do the right thing and resign.
There's so much more I can say but I'm honestly at a loss for words...my heart goes out to the residents of East Haven who are deeply embarrassed, disgusted, and ashamed by the actions of their ignorant mayor.
In the wake of Maturo's taco comment last week, I wrote that what the mayor was really saying, in the context of the FBI arrests earlier that day, was "I am a full human being and you are less than one ... If you don't look like me, if I don't understand the language you speak; if your customs are not my customs, you are not a member of this community."
Others have taken Maturo's comments as not so much hateful as just ignorant and stupid. With an implied, shaking of the head, "innocently" stupid.
But there's nothing innocent, or excusable, about this kind of hate, or this kind of ignorance, or this kind of stupidity, in the words, actions or character of the mayor of a modern American town. Especially one with the deep, scary problems that East Haven has created by allowing its police force to operate as an unaccountable racist goon squad.
Whether he's racist, arrogant, ignorant, stupid, or all of the above, Joseph Maturo Jr. should not be overseeing a department that carries guns and has the power to arrest and detain people who live in or travel through East Haven. And he has proven by his words and actions so far that he is not capable of overseeing reform of that department.
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