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Cop fired for slurring Carl Crawford
The Leominster cop who authorities said called Red Sox outfielder Carl Crawford a racial slur has been fired, the city’s mayor announced today in a sharply worded letter that chastised the officer for bringing “discredit” to his department.
“Your actions are so egregious that severe discipline is warranted,” Leominster Mayor Dean J. Mazzarella wrote in a termination letter dated today to now-ex cop John Perrault. “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, or any city department, for that matter.”
Leominster Police Chief Robert Healey recommended yesterday Perrault be fired for comments made at a July 5 minor league game in Manchester, N.H. Officials said Perrault, off-duty at the time, called the star outfielder a “Monday,” a lesser-known racial slur before allegedly flashing his badge when cops arrived at the ball park.
In today’s letter, Mazzarella said Perrault’s Facebook page also included “racially insensitive” content and even a comment by Perrault himself calling his comment to Crawford “priceless.”
Perrault’s lawyer, Joseph Sandulli, said his client didn’t mean to use a racial slur against Crawford, and called the situation “an overreaction by the ballplayer, by the public and by the city.”
But Mazzarella wasn’t buying it.
“I have concluded, based upon other incidents where you uttered racist remarks, that you called Mr. Crawford a ‘Monday’ because he is African-American, not simply because you do not care for him as a baseball player,” the mayor wrote in the letter. “In arriving at this conclusion, I did not check common sense at the door.”
Perrault can appeal through civil service.
His lawyer was not immediately available.
Source: Boston Herarld