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Apology by Councilman Fernando Irizarry

May 11, 2016

Madam President, I want to begin my comments with an apology to you, and the rest of the Council, for my outbursts at the caucus meeting. I recognize that your job is hard enough and that there is no need for me to make it harder. In the future, I will endeavor to control myself.

I try not to react in any way to the statements that some of other constituents make in these council chambers. I must admit that I bristled when a constituent suggested that the conclusions of the prosecutor’s investigation of Dixon Rodriguez’s demise would have been different had he been a member of a councilperson’s family or of their socioeconomic status.

I did so because the implication of the suggestion is that the prosecutor’s conclusion would have been different had Mr. Rodriguez been of Caucasian or Puerto Rican descent. That in my opinion, is very divisive and inflammatory. It is also my opinion that this City was wounded by what happened to Dixon Rodriguez. What this City needs is the opportunity for the wound to heal. It does not need for the wound to be picked at to make it raw and keep it from healing.

Madam President, until there is EVIDENCE to the contrary, what I will believe is that the county prosecutor’s office conducted a fair and honest investigation and that the conclusions of that investigation were based solely on the evidence. Not race, socioeconomic status, or politics. What I will also believe, until there is EVIDENCE to the contrary, is that those who were involved in the tragedy conducted themselves in a professional manner, within the parameters of the law and the procedures of their department.

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