Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. of East Haven, Conn., has apologized but is resisting calls that he resign.
EAST
HAVEN, Conn. — The office of East Haven’s mayor was blasted with prank phone calls and a delivery
of hundreds of tacos yesterday after his now-famous quip that he would address accusations of
anti-Latino bias by eating tacos, a remark that left emotions raw in the town’s large Hispanic
community.
Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. has apologized several times but is resisting calls for his resignation
over remarks he made to a television reporter after Tuesday’s arrests of four city police officers,
men described by one FBI official as “bullies with badges.”
Maturo held regular meetings yesterday as Connecticut’s Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs
Commission called on him to resign.
“The Latino community is upset and deeply wounded in what should have been a day of redemption
for them,” the commission’s acting executive director, Werner Oyandel, said in a statement.
An immigration-rights group, Reform Immigration for America, delivered 400 tacos to Maturo’s
office in protest. A soup kitchen picked up the tacos, but one was left symbolically for the
mayor.
His office fielded a steady flow of calls, some with prank comments about tacos and others from
supporters who want him to stay in his job.
Maturo, a Republican, has been mayor off and on since 1997 in this predominantly white,
blue-collar town on the shore of Long Island Sound where Latino residents constitute about
10 percent of its population of 29,000. East Haven has been under federal scrutiny since the
U.S. Justice Department launched a civil-rights probe in 2009 that found discrimination and biased
policing against Latinos.
A federal indictment accuses the four police officers of assaulting people while they were
handcuffed, unlawfully searching Latino businesses, and harassing and intimidating people,
including advocates, witnesses and other officers who tried to investigate or report misconduct or
abuse.
The taco flap came after a reporter for New York’s WPIX-TV asked Maturo on Tuesday, “What are
you doing for the Latino community today?”
Maturo’s response: “I might have tacos when I go home; I’m not quite sure yet.”
Maturo, who is of Italian heritage, then said he might have spaghetti or any other kind of
ethnic food, growing increasingly angry as he told the reporter to “go for it, take your best shot”
to make the “taco” comment seem to imply something he did not intend.
Maturo has called himself a “jerk” for the comment, which he called an off-the-cuff quip made at
the end of a long, stressful day of interviews.
The video of his comments has spread across the Internet on social networks and media websites.
It led Connecticut’s largest paper, The Hartford Courant, to call for his resignation in an editorial that declared: “The
Mayor is an Idiot.” A Facebook page demanding Maturo’s resignation had more than 750 supporters
yesterday afternoon.
Maturo, 60, asked East Haven residents in a written apology Wednesday to “have faith in me” and
the town.
Now, the mayor says, he will no longer publicly discuss the quip. Messages left for several of
his political allies at the state and local levels were not returned Wednesday or yesterday.
Mayor’s ‘taco’ comment infuriates Latino residents
January 28th, 2012 \\ Bexley Ohio \\ Tagged: city police officers, east haven, east haven residents, infuriates latino residents, joseph maturo jr, mayor joseph maturo, mayor8217s 8216taco8217 comment infuriates latino residents, police officers, the, the hartford courant
By
Michael Melia
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday January 27, 2012 6:46 AM
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Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. of East Haven, Conn., has apologized but is resisting calls that he resign.
EAST
HAVEN, Conn. — The office of East Haven’s mayor was blasted with prank phone calls and a delivery
of hundreds of tacos yesterday after his now-famous quip that he would address accusations of
anti-Latino bias by eating tacos, a remark that left emotions raw in the town’s large Hispanic
community.
Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. has apologized several times but is resisting calls for his resignation
over remarks he made to a television reporter after Tuesday’s arrests of four city police officers,
men described by one FBI official as “bullies with badges.”
Maturo held regular meetings yesterday as Connecticut’s Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs
Commission called on him to resign.
“The Latino community is upset and deeply wounded in what should have been a day of redemption
for them,” the commission’s acting executive director, Werner Oyandel, said in a statement.
An immigration-rights group, Reform Immigration for America, delivered 400 tacos to Maturo’s
office in protest. A soup kitchen picked up the tacos, but one was left symbolically for the
mayor.
His office fielded a steady flow of calls, some with prank comments about tacos and others from
supporters who want him to stay in his job.
Maturo, a Republican, has been mayor off and on since 1997 in this predominantly white,
blue-collar town on the shore of Long Island Sound where Latino residents constitute about
10 percent of its population of 29,000. East Haven has been under federal scrutiny since the
U.S. Justice Department launched a civil-rights probe in 2009 that found discrimination and biased
policing against Latinos.
A federal indictment accuses the four police officers of assaulting people while they were
handcuffed, unlawfully searching Latino businesses, and harassing and intimidating people,
including advocates, witnesses and other officers who tried to investigate or report misconduct or
abuse.
The taco flap came after a reporter for New York’s WPIX-TV asked Maturo on Tuesday, “What are
you doing for the Latino community today?”
Maturo’s response: “I might have tacos when I go home; I’m not quite sure yet.”
Maturo, who is of Italian heritage, then said he might have spaghetti or any other kind of
ethnic food, growing increasingly angry as he told the reporter to “go for it, take your best shot”
to make the “taco” comment seem to imply something he did not intend.
Maturo has called himself a “jerk” for the comment, which he called an off-the-cuff quip made at
the end of a long, stressful day of interviews.
The video of his comments has spread across the Internet on social networks and media websites.
It led Connecticut’s largest paper,
The Hartford Courant, to call for his resignation in an editorial that declared: “The
Mayor is an Idiot.” A Facebook page demanding Maturo’s resignation had more than 750 supporters
yesterday afternoon.
Maturo, 60, asked East Haven residents in a written apology Wednesday to “have faith in me” and
the town.
Now, the mayor says, he will no longer publicly discuss the quip. Messages left for several of
his political allies at the state and local levels were not returned Wednesday or yesterday.
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Article source: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/national_world/2012/01/27/mayors-taco-comment-infuriates-latino-residents.html