Mayor Cracks 'Taco' Joke on Racial Profiling Scandal

Connecticut's Joseph Maturo has apologized
By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 25, 2012 2:39 PM CST
Mayor Cracks 'Taco' Joke on Racial Profiling Scandal
U.S. Attorney David B. Fein, left, speaks about an indictment charging four East Haven police officers with federal civil rights offenses during a press conference in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday.   (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post, Ned Gerard)

The mayor of East Haven, Connecticut, is not helping his scandal-stricken town. The FBI just charged four of East Haven's police officers with terrorizing Latino residents. When asked by a reporter, hours after the news broke yesterday, what he was doing to assist the Latino community, Mayor Joseph Maturo replied, "I might have tacos when I go home, I'm not quite sure yet." Connecticut's governor has already blasted Maturo for the quip, and Maturo has issued an apology, reports the Connecticut Post.

The four East Haven cops have entered pleas of not guilty on accusations of harassing Latinos with false arrests, unreasonable searches, and intimidation. Maturo, a Republican, said he stands by his department and described his controversial remark on a radio show this morning: "It was stupid, it was insensitive and I gave my detractors ... a reason to make matters worse with a 'gotcha' and an insensitive and stupid answer to something I should have never said." (More East Haven stories.)

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