Letter from Sheri Mitchell about Accused Racist Sheriff Candidate, Joe Price

 

This letter was written by Sheri Mitchell about the disturbing allegations against a man trying to become Sheriff in a community with a substantial African American population.  To read more about Joe Price, click here.  I, Dr. Boyce Watkins, do not support Price’s candidacy and believe that his hiring this week of a black campaign manager is nothing more than a publicity stunt.  Sheri Mitchell’s letter is below.

 

Last Tuesday I witnessed what I thought was the most shocking political setback of my lifetime: the New York State Republican primary win of Carl Paladino.  This man has admittedly sent racist, sexist and pornographic emails to friend and associates, and has a “brilliant” plan to refurbish prisons to house welfare recipients to teach them life skills, such as, how to bathe.  Early in Paladino’s campaign, people like myself sat around reading about his latest exploits and laughed at the silly little man from Buffalo who was politically un-savvy enough to think he could possibly be taken seriously by mainstream voters.  I thought most voters would also think his actions were unacceptable and not support someone so problematic.  To my surprise, Paladino is now the Republican Gubernatorial Candidate for the NY election in November.

That’s okay I’m a Democrat, we don’t have people who would throw around rhetoric like that in my party right?  Surprise again.  I was recently sent an email from a local human rights activist, Kathleen Rumpf.  She has worked hard to uncover human injustices and inequality for years.  The email contains posts to Syracuse.com that are being linked back to a recent Democratic primary winner, Joe Price, who happens to be running for Onondaga County Sheriff.  A few of the posts that I found particular issue with are as follows (the comments are first, and the title of the story the writer was commenting on are after): 

“Excuses, excuses, excuses!
Our government has slowly caused this. We have enabled these low-lifes to multiply through our welfare program. We provide health care to these animals, then let hard working blue collar Americans struggle to get by and go without. How many laborers do you know that went to work sick or hurt because they couldn't afford insurance? We have it backwards in this country!”

Syracuse police say string of shootings possibly tied to hotter weather on 7/27, 2009, 7:10 AM
“Yet another black eye for the foster parenting program. I say leave them in the ghetto.”

Posted on Tires slashed on 37 vehicles in Baldwinsville; arrests to be made next week, police say on 05/09/09, 10:47 AM
“When I went to college (SUNY system) they had clubs for Blacks, Jews and Hispanics,. Money was given to these clubs for concerts, picnics, field trips and dances. Their were NO exclusive clubs for my race.
When I graduated, I took the NYS Police exam. It was my dream job and all I ever wanted to be since childhood. I scored a near perfect, 99%
I was a college athlete, and had a 4 yr. college degree in Criminal Justice
I never even received an interview, because I was a white male. I was told by ranking officials that they were only going to hire minorities due to strict quotas. Was I discriminated against?
I had a dream too, but it was squashed because I was WHITE!”

Posted on OCC plans Black History Month events on February 01, 2009, 11:09 pm

“Don't worry Tommy, the tax payers of this wonderful State of New York will provide for your illegitimate kids, and all those babies mommas.”

Posted on Vigil held for man killed Wednesday night in Syracuse on 7/25/2009 8:23 AM

According to Ms. Rumpf, she has spoken with Joe Price and he has not denied that this is his ID on Syracuse.com and he has admitted to making some of the posts.  But Price claims that someone else used his login ID to post the others.  I find it interesting that if he was hacked as he claims, he wouldn’t post something about the hacking or remove the offending posts.  What random individual would have so much specific information about Mr. Price that they could create posts with such personal details as test scores, etc.  If I were running for County Sheriff, I wouldn’t stand for someone posting things to my account without saying something, or making a lot of noise about it.  The Ron Paul, {someone wrote it and put my name on it} defense doesn’t work, if the posts don’t belong to Mr. Price, then he should be able to prove that they do not. 

The bottom line is that there is a long history of racial problems with the Sheriff’s department and county jail here in Onondaga County and Syracuse.  There were two deaths this year and some questionable uses of force on the streets by the Police and Sheriff.  We don’t need anyone Republican, Democrat or other in office as County Sheriff who thinks like the person who wrote these posts.  We also don’t need someone representing us who is so naive that they would leave their Syracuse.com account open so that anyone could post to it, which is Joe Price’s story.  We need someone who can represent the good men and women who wear the uniform everyday on the street and in the jail.  We need someone who will represent ALL of the people in our County and not just the ones who live in the desirable areas. Joe Price, if you want to keep saying that these messages weren’t written by you, I will give you the benefit of the doubt, but I still think Onondaga County needs someone smart enough to click “logout.”