Watchdog: Former DPW Employee Posted Racist, Anti-Semitic Tweets While On Clock

A Baltimore City Department of Public Works employee was forced out after posting more than a dozen tweets that the city inspector general found could be seen as "intentionally racist, anti-Semitic, or derogatory."

In a letter to city residents, Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming wrote that her office confirmed the existence of a Twitter account linked to the employee. Her staff found 17 tweets posted between April and May that, based on a review of the employee's timecard, may have been posted while on the clock.

DPW policy, cited by Cumming, advises employees not to "bring scandal, expense or annoyance upon the city through... improper or notorious behavior." She said she has been informed that the employee is no longer working for the city.

Though Cumming neither identified the employee nor quoted the tweets, Baltimore Fishbowl reported in July that DPW was looking into tweets apparently posted by Crescenzo Gizzi. A Facebook profile that shared the same cover photo as the Twitter account, Fishbowl reported, listed his employment as a project analyst for the department. Gizzi was hired in 1998, according to city salary records.

Several of Gizzi's tweets praised Nazis. He made numerous tweets comparing African Americans to monkeys. He claimed a planned renovation of Lexington Market would build it up for "the blacks to destroy again."

The Baltimore Brew reported Gizzi had been suspended with pay pending the result of an internal investigation.

"Without question, the postings were not representative of all City employees or of the environment of inclusion and respect that are hallmarks of Baltimore City government employment," Cumming wrote.