Monday, May 19, 2008

BLACK REPORTER FIRED FOR SUING


After Telling His Racial Profiling Nightmare in the Post, Black Reporter Gets Canned For Suing Over It

Earlier this month, one of those media meme’s popped up that worth a few seconds of your slack-jawed reaction: The New York Post published an editorial, about how racial profiling by the police was on the wane, on the same day one of its own writers filed a lawsuit against the city for racial profiling. Now, that freelance crime reporter, Leonardo Blair, is out of a job.

Just days after Blair, who is black, filed the suit against the city, stemming from an incident last year where the police stopped, frisked, and arrested him, the Post let him go.
In a first-person feature that ran in the Post in December, Blair detailed how two cops stopped and searched him near his Bronx home moments after he parked his car on the street.
The incident came amid a spike in complaints lodged against the NYPD by minority-group members claiming they were stopped and frisked by police based on nothing more than skin color.

Blair, who earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, charged in his suit that he was the victim of racial profiling. On the lookout for car burglars, two cops stopped Blair on Nov. 28, 2007, after he parked his car and began walking toward his Allerton home.

The officers, William Castillo and Eric Reynolds, cuffed Blair and took him to the 49th Precinct stationhouse, where he was given a summons for disobeying a lawful order and making unreasonable noise. Blair was released after he told cops that he worked for the Post.
The charges against him were later dismissed by a judge. [NYDN]

Might somebody have another lawsuit, of the wrongful termination/racial discrimination variety, on his hands? Or at least a juicy Post expose?

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