You might recall a couple of weeks ago, Red Sox OF Carl Crawford claimed he was the target of racial abuse from fans attending a Portland Sea Dogs / New Hampshire Fisher Cats game during his rehab stint with the former. While WEEI helpfully gave one of Crawford’s tormentor some airtime, it turns out the Leominster, MA Police Department was less tolerant of Officer John Perrault’s explanation. From WHDH.com :
The city of Leominster said 38-year-old Perrault has been with the department for about five years. He faces a civil service disciplinary hearing next week. At the hearing he could be terminated.
Perrault is being investigated after he allegedly called Crawford a “Monday” while the slugger was rehabilitating his wrist with the Portland Sea Dogs in Manchester, N.H. on July 5.
Crawford said he heard the word and took it as a racial comment — some people do not see it as a racial comment, others do.
Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella and Police Chief Robert Healey said similar instances may have also happened to other people.
“We have included that yes in fact he did utter the word — a word — to Mr. Crawford, who took that as a slur. In addition to that, other information has arisen, whether we have uncovered it or it was handed to us, as of yesterday we have concluded that Officer Perrault would have violated several rules and regulations of the Leominster Police Department…violations of our rules of conduct,” said one official.
7News tried to speak with Perrault, but he had no comment. Perrault’s nieces, who say they are Dominican, protested outside of Wednesday’s news conference.
“[He’s not racist] because we’re from the Dominican Republic. He has a brother-in-law here…It’s ridiculous. We’re not white ourselves,” said a relative of Perrault.
If Perrault loses his job or faces additional disciplinary measures, he can always tell the media he was simply comparing Carl Crawford to these guys.
