Baltimore officials confirm they are investigating a city employee after offensive social media posts were flagged online last night on what appears to be his Twitter account.

A review of the posts shows they include multiple uses of the n-word, monkey emojis and chimp references when speaking of African-American people, homophobic slurs, praise for Nazi leaders and more.

The account, @cres65gizzi, which has the name and face of Department of Public Works employee, Crescenzo Gizzi, was taken down today.

Councilman Zeke Cohen said he spoke this morning with DPW Director Rudy Chow, City Solicitor Andre Davis and Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming about the employee.

“That type of racism and anti-Semitism has no place in Baltimore,” Cohen told The Brew.

Asked if he called for the employee to be fired or disciplined, Cohen said the first step is an investigation.

Cohen said the officials at today’s meeting, as well as the Department of Human Resources, will be conducting “a full investigation into whether there was any violation of city policy.”

“It is certainly a concern,” the councilman said, that Gizzi notes his employment at DPW’s Office of Engineering and Construction on the social media used to make the offensive comments.

The online city salary website lists Gizzi as a Public Works Inspector II in DPW’s Bureau of Water and Wastewater.

He was hired in February 1998 and is paid a $55,512 salary. Last year, he earned $63,681 with overtime.

Asked to comment on the matter today, DPW spokesman Jeffrey Raymond would only say, “We’re looking into it.”

Attempts to reach Gizzi were unsuccessful. A phone listing for him in southeast Baltimore was not accepting messages.

A spokesman for Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young said he would have no comment.

Gizzi has been suspended with pay pending the result of the investigation, a source told The Brew.

Following up on aspects of the account that suggest Gizzi may have been a police officer at one time, the Baltimore Police Department was asked “if he ever worked there?”

“This person is not an employee here,” spokeswoman Chakia Fennoy said.

Hate Speech

Offensive tweets abound on @cres65gizzi – along with swastikas, retweets of Holocaust denial doctrine and a variety of slurs.

“Remember the mayor of Baltimore saying rioting n_____s need ” some space to be destructive” after the Freddie Gary [sic] mass chimpout,” reads a Tweet from May 4, 2019.

Another tweet posted the same day links to infostormer.com. “Crime rises 88Percent in Baltimore Due to N_____s,” it says.

The account retweets a photo of U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, showing her dancing with supporters at rally in Columbia, South Carolina, and adds this comment:

“The zoo, monkey house.”

There’s a retweet of this observation by the account @cursedsalad: “They’re chosen alright – chosen by Satan to destroy us.”

Here are some more excerpts: