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ITALIAN AMERICANS CHARGE BOSTON POLICE LEADER WITH ETHNIC STEREOTYPING
Press
Contact: Kylie Cafiero, (202) 547-2900 kcafiero@osia.org
WASHINGTON, July
21, 2004
Tom
Nee, president of the Boston Patrolmen's Association,
has been charged with stereotyping Italian Americans,
reports the Commission for Social Justice (CSJ),
the anti-defamation arm of the Sons of Italy,
the largest Italian American organization in
the United States.
The charges followed a comment
Nee made to Boston Globe reporter, Joan Vennochi
that appeared in the June 10 issue of the newspaper.
Vennochi reports that Nee said working with Boston
mayor Thomas Menino is like "working with the
Mafia."
The CSJ wrote to Nee on June 25, asking
him to publicly apologize to the mayor and to
the estimated 800,000 Italian Americans in Boston's
greater metropolitan area. It was signed by the
CSJ national president, Albert DeNapoli, Esq.,
who practices law in Boston, and Kevin Caira,
president of the Massachusetts state chapter
of the Order Sons of Italy.
In their letter, DeNapoli
and Caira noted that Menino is the city's first
mayor of Italian heritage. "Since there is nothing
in his past that would link him in any way with
organized crime, we can only assume you did so
because of his Italian heritage," they wrote.
DeNapoli
and Caira informed Nee that the Massachusetts
state chapter of the Order Sons of Italy also
has taken action. At its June convention, the
delegates circulated and signed a petition demanding
an apology. A copy of the petition was attached
to the letter to Nee.
Nee denies he made the remark.
But reporter Vennochi stands by her story. "It
might be a question of 'he said, she said,' but he knew he was talking on the
record and I have the remark verbatim in my notes," she says. "I remember
he laughed when he said it."
Nee has not returned repeated calls the CSJ made
to his office over the past several weeks. To date, he has not responded to the
CSJ letter.
"While some may question the need of the Italian community to engage in the battles
it wages against stereotyping, actions such as the statement by Nee underscore
the insidious nature of the constant portrayal of Italian Americans as associated
with gangsterism (e.g.: "the Sopranos")," says DeNapoli.
"For the head of the Patrolmen’s Union, the spokesperson for the good officers
serving Boston, to associate the top official in the City with actions likened
to dealing with the Mafia, and then fail or refuse to respond to news stories,
letters, petitions and repeated telephone calls, is beyond any political issues
that may exist in the City between the Mayor and the Patrolmen’s Union, but instead
shows a profound lack of respect for law-abiding Italian-Americans. We will ask
the Police Commissioner to undertake an investigation of these statements and
Nee’s refusal to respond," DeNapoli says.
The Commission for Social Justice is the anti-defamation arm of the Order Sons of Italy in America (OSIA), the largest and oldest national organization in the U.S. for men and women of Italian heritage. Founded in 1905, today OSIA has 600,000 members and supporters and a network of more than 700 lodges or chapters coast to coast.
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