Minority Legislators Suggest Bias as Targets of Corruption Investigations

As corruption scandals continue to enshroud the State Legislature, some minority lawmakers are suggesting that black and Hispanic legislators are being targeted to weed out corruption, writes the Times-Union.  

Over the past five weeks, three black and Hispanic legislators were indicted, another two admitted to wearing wires for federal investigators, and four more learned that they had been taped by their colleagues.  

"I would hate to think that as Black and Hispanic leaders who are elected to represent our communities ... would be targeted to weed out corruption only in our backyards, and that we would be held to a higher standard than the non-Black and Hispanic leaders,” Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., a Bronx Democrat wrote in a newsletter.  

Assemblyman Karim Camara, a Brooklyn Democrat who chairs the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, said he sees no pattern, either on behalf of the electeds or the U.S. Attorney's office that's investigating.  

“If you think about it, whether you're an elective official or not, your colleagues and people in your social circle tend to be similar in ethnicity," Camara said.  

Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant, noted that two federal prosecutors leading the investigations are not white. Neither is the U.S. president or his attorney general.  

"Wiretaps don't discriminate," Sheinkopf said. "They're inert."