Our Readers Respond...



Editor’s Note: The following reader’s response is from a Westchester County Correction Officer who apparently took part in last Monday’s demonstration. Out of all the disciplinary charges from interactions between supervisors and officers, 87% of the officers disciplined were Black.

Dear Editor:


The Police asked us to put down the sign that had 87% on it because the stick was too big. After viewing the report in the media I understand why. They manipulated the media and us to focus on what they wanted our issue to be and only that issue.

Commissioner of Corrections Rocco Pozzi was fully aware of a large disproportionate number of arrestees coming out of Yonkers that were beaten and marred with cuts and bruises. As a legal head, Commissioner of two departments, Probation and Corrections, didn’t he have a legal responsibility to report or even question the outlandish number of people that arrived beaten, some so severely that we refused to take them until the police took them to the Medical Center.

Every one of the arrestees allegedly, “resisted arrest”, the new catch-all phrase. There is a standing joke at the jail that when an officer sees a beaten-up inmate we say to him, “you’re from Yonkers, right?” The inmate is totally surprised wondering how so many officers that he never met know where he’s from.

This behavior from the Commissioner supports the RACIAL DISCRIMINATION that goes on at the Jail. A White sergeant there wrote up several other White sergeants that attempted to recruit him into a plot to get officers, especially the “niggers.” What happened to that sergeant, and what happened to the others; one was promoted to Captain, the ring leader, and the others were elevated to lateral positions that gave them more authority over the membership.


Look closely at Joseph Spano who doesn’t have the quali-fications, but they are sending him to school to tailor him to the position after firing the Black Deputy Commissioner. By the way, did I say Joseph has a GED and the commmish that was fired has a Master’s, coming from Bedford Hills? Senator Spano was behind this. He passed a Bill in Albany that allowed his family member, Joseph, to remain in the same retirement system. That’s outlandish!

Prior to Joe it was a separate system. NO OTHER PERSON WILL BENEFIT FROM THE BILL AS MUCH AS JOSEPH SPANO. It took Joseph Miranda 33 years to climb to where he sits, and Spano DID IT IN A DAY. PLEASE DON’T USE MY NAME, I’LL LOSE MY JOB.

Name withheld


In Our Opinion...


Together with integrity of the electoral process, the certainty that no one has tampered with the outcome of elections, transparency in government is absolutely fundamental to our representative form of government. Democracy can only exist when the governed are fully informed of the activities of those who govern. The
Founding Fathers were only too well aware of that axiom, and took great pain to preserve and protect the flow of information to future citizens in the First Amendment to the Constitution, involving free speech, under Freedom of the Press.

Unfortunately, there are individuals in government, elected, and otherwise, who appear to take equal pain to avoid the possible consequences of that Constitutional guarantee. Here in Westchester, one such individual is Larry Schwartz, the appointed Deputy County Executive. And, make no mistake, Mr. Schwartz has every good self-preserving reason to want to keep his activities, and the activities of many others in Westchester Government, from public awareness. For example, he would rather not have to explain why County taxpayers are paying an extra $17 million ($87 million for what we could have continued for $70 million) for solid waste removal, for the “privilege” of dealing with a hauler that the City of New York would not do business with because of their alleged Mob connections.

In fact, one might fairly say that Larry is virtually obsessed with secrecy, and rightly so. He was one of the individuals, together with State Senator Nick Spano, and David Hebert, former DA Jeanine Pirro’s mouthpiece
and campaign director, identified by former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, as the ‘three men in a room’ who fixed the countywide election of 2001. The simple truth is that Larry has been up to his eyeballs in election fraud and manipulation, here in Westchester, for many years.

However, Larry is not content merely to determine those who will hold elective and appointed positions, including County and Supreme Court Judges. He insists upon controlling their conduct in office, specifically anything, and everything issued by them and their employees to the press and media. Together with Susan Tolchin, public mouthpiece for the County Executive’s Office, Larry Schwartz’ public information suppression operation is collectively known to County employees, and press, alike as “The Ninth Floor.”

Even the most mundane inquiry must first be cleared with him. And, it doesn’t matter that one wishes to publicize and praise the workings of a particular unit, for example, in the Department of Probation, or perhaps the Department of Community Mental Health, all responses must be cleared with The Ninth Floor. To suggest that he is a paranoid control freak is probably fair comment, except that he also has much to conceal.

The Westchester Guardian will not be intimidated nor bought off by Larry Schwartz, or anyone else. Westchester County is the residence of nearly one million people, all of whom have the right to be fully informed of the activities of local government, County Government included. In fact, it would appear that some municipalities such as White Plains, and Yonkers have been borrowing a page from Larry’s book. In a recent issue of the White Plains Times, a weekly newspaper not generally known for hardhitting investigative journalism, a front-page item complained of Mayor Joseph Delfino’s failure to be forthcoming and cooperative with them.

As with any jurisdiction the size and population of Westchester, there is much good to be encouraged, and much not so good which needs exposure. We intend to be true to our Mission Statement, and in fact, have, from our inception, continued to investigate and reveal what the public needs to know.

Police brutality in Yonkers, election fraud, problems at the County Jail, the County Homeless Shelter, there are no ‘sacred cows’ as far as We are concerned.