Prosecutor Fired After Attending Meeting of ‘White Preservationists’
| More news stories on Censorship |
|---|
Carolyn Thompson, AP, March 2, 2006
BUFFALO, N.Y.—A Southern Tier attorney was fired from his job as a county prosecutor Thursday over his attendance at a conference of “white preservationists.”
Michael Regan was terminated following an investigation by his boss, Allegany County District Attorney Terrence Parker, who said he had received numerous e-mails expressing concern about the assistant district attorney’s presence at a meeting of the New Century Foundation in northern Virginia last week.
“It has become clear that his recent activities will continue to significantly disrupt and impair his effectiveness as an assistant district attorney and the operations of the entire district attorney’s office,” Parker said.
Regan did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.
Regan was quoted in Saturday’s Washington Post as calling participants at the conference “white preservationists” rather than white supremacists, and saying U.S. policies on immigration, trade and demographics have put the country on the wrong path.
He declined to comment in the days that followed.
The Anti-Defamation League characterizes the New Century Foundation’s ideology as “intellectualized, pseudoscientific white supremacy” and said the group promotes “genteel” racism.
The ADL’s regional director for New York was among those who wrote to Parker, noting the article also quoted Regan as saying: “You can see European Christian Americans are an endangered species.”
“Those kinds of comments are absolutely inappropriate for a public official,” Joel Levy said.
A New York City lawmaker asked state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to investigate whether racism has “contaminated” the district attorney’s office in the rural western New York county.
“An assistant district attorney within the boundaries of our state who openly ascribes to a racist ideology is a threat to every minority citizen in New York State,” wrote Larry Seabrook, chairman of the New York City Council’s Civil Rights Committee.
He asked Spitzer for an immediate investigation “to determine if racism has contaminated the prosecutorial operations and decision-making of the office.”
{snip}
Email Allegany County District Attorney Terrence Parker at parkertm@alleganyco.com.
Readers might point out the double standard according to which a prosecutor of any other race would have been encouraged to attend a meeting of people like himself. The prosecutor's office no doubt claims to encourage "diversity" but apparently not of opnion. Please remember rude or insulting comments will do more harm than good. [Update 8:15 pm March 4: We have changed the email address for Terrence Parker, as someone told us he had disabled the previous one we had up. If you sent an email to the address we had up before, you may want to send a copy to this one to make sure Mr. Parker gets it.]
(Posted on March 3, 2006)