John Perreault (pictured below), a Leominster, Massachusetts police officer was booted off the force for spewing racial slurs at Boston Red Sox star player Carl Crawford (pictured left), reports the Union Leader.
The outfielder, who is Black, was signing autographs in front of the dugout on July 5 at the New Hampshire Fisher Cats game against the Portland Sea Dogs in Manchester, where he began a rehabilitation assignment with Boston’s Double-A affiliate. Perreault, who was off-duty, was spotted heckling Crawford from the stands and shouting the term “Monday.”
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The derogatory word is used to describe blacks and is the equivalent of the N-word. The term originated from having an aversion to the first day of the work week and is often used in the hope that the intended target will not know they have been insulted.
Reportedly, Perreault has been checked before for being racially offensive and the Mayor of Leominster, Dean Mazzarella, decided that his racist reign had to come to an end. In a termination letter to the ex-cop, Mazzarella stated:
“Your actions are so egregious that severe discipline is warranted. There is simply no place for your behavior in the workplace and there is no place for someone who exhibits such objectionable behavior in the Leominster Police Department. As a sworn police officer, you are held to a higher standard. Your actions have not lived up to that high standard,” Mazzarella wrote. “You have demonstrated through your racist comments that you cannot continue as a patrol officer with the Leominster Police Department”
The mayor, who is also a former patrol officer, also made mention of the fact that Perreault’s Facebook account was chock-full of racist content. The former officer also touted on the social medium that his “Monday” remarks towards Crawford were “priceless.”
In the letter dated Thursday, Mazzarella also noted several instances when Perreault was accused of using racist language, including referring to African-Americans as the “N-word” at a bar during NBA season. Joseph Sandulli, Perreault’s lawyer said, the city did not provide the name of the witness who said his client used the term.
A disciplinary hearing was held on Wednesday, but Perreault opted not to testify on his own behalf. He is, however, contemplating an appeal. Sandulli contends that his client’s comments didn’t have any racial bias attached to them and insists that he used the term to criticise Crawford’s injurious and lackluster first year as a Red Sox.
“He understands it to mean something of poor quality, something bad, something disagreeable,” claims Sandulli. “The chief pulled one meaning out that claimed it had a racial connotation.”
Yeah, right!
