LI civil rights leaders criticize Ryder comments on lack of diversity Email
Four Long Island civil rights leaders said that Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder relied on negative stereotypes of Black and Hispanic families to explain in a Newsday interview his department’s failure to attract greater numbers of minority hiring candidates.
Two of the leaders – NAACP Long Island Regional Director Tracey Edwards and Luis Mendez, formerly Nassau’s deputy director of minority affairs urged County Executive Laura Curran to ask for Ryder’s resignation.
“As a daughter of a Black police officer and proud aunt of a Black doctor, I am totally disgusted by the police commissioner’s ethnic stereotypes and blind ignorance,” Edwards said, adding: