Greenburgh cop investigated for racist Facebook post

GREENBURGH – A town police officer was placed on modified duty and is under investigation after apparently making a racist post on his Facebook page during the height of the Baltimore rioting this week.

The Journal News obtained a screen shot of the post made Monday night on Officer Brad DiCairano's page. It juxtaposed two photographs: one of blacks on a minivan during last year's protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and the other of baboons swarming a car driven by a white woman.

The caption on the post reads: "what can I say!"

Police Chief Christopher McNerney said members of the department brought the post to his attention Wednesday evening, at which point the Web page, under the name "B-rad Di," had already been deactivated.

"The timing, the nature of it ... it's all really, really disturbing," McNerney said.

DiCairano could not be reached for comment. McNerney said the veteran officer is on vacation and would be interviewed on Monday when he returns.

"I am very troubled and disappointed by this," McNerney said. "Members of this department are held to the highest standard and we take all allegations of misconduct very seriously. I want to assure the members of the public and the men and women of this department that we will investigate this swiftly and appropriately."

The chief said that, to his knowledge, other members of the department had neither liked nor shared what DiCairano posted on Facebook.

DiCairano, 54, joined the department in 1987. He was on light duty, assigned to the staff services division, after returning from a work-related injury. His responsibilities will be limited further pending the internal investigation, the chief said.

Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner condemned the Facebook post, which he learned of Thursday, and said he was confident McNerney was taking it "extremely seriously."

"Law enforcement people have to interact with all aspects of the community and it's totally inappropriate for them to be encouraging, even privately, any forms of hate or racism," Feiner said.

The incident is the latest in the Lower Hudson Valley involving questionable sentiments expressed by police and others, largely through social media.

• Pelham Manor Police Chief Alfred Mosiello was forced to retire in March after it was discovered that he forwarded racist emails to colleagues and friends in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The emails included crude jokes depicting African-Americans as prone to incarceration and uninterested in working.

• Fairview Fire Chief Anthony LoGiudice announced he would retire after court documents revealed he had made anti-Semitic remarks aimed at Feiner in April 2014.

• Pleasantville Police Officer Peter Burns in January 2014 was suspended for 60 days without pay, docked 25 vacation days, compelled to undergo a psychological evaluation and receive diversity and sensitivity training after posting a vulgar, racist tirade about President Barack Obama on his Facebook page.

• Last month, a Facebook video of a Purim display at Yeshiva Degel Hatorah in Spring Valley, showing a black-faced doll hung out of a school window, touched off a controversy when it was interpreted by the African-American community as a depiction of a lynching. Officials said the doll represented the hanging of Haman, a Persian who plotted to kill the Jewish people in ancient Persia. His defeat is commemorated during Purim. Nevertheless, an NAACP official said, it was "extremely surprising that they had no knowledge of African-American history or lynching."

Twitter: @RichLiebson