City Councilman Joseph Addabbo, who represents portions of Rockaway, at least for now, is having his political problems on the mainland. That's not good news for Addabbo, who is widely expected to run for the State Senate against Serph Maltese in the next election. His problems stem from his comments about an alleged bias attack in Hamilton Beach. A family was having some problems with the neighbors and alleged that the neighbors were trying to force the family out of its home for racial reasons. The family claims that some of their property has been vandalized and that neighbors constantly call the authorities to the home on false pretenses. In addition, the father claimed that a neighbor assaulted him with a baseball bat and spewed racial epithets. Addabbo made a televised statement in which he seemed to suggest that the family brought the harassment on themselves by committing a series of building code violations. That spurred Addabbo's would-be political rival, Albert Baldeo, to call for Addabbo's resignation. "Councilman Addabbo is reckless and perverted," Baldeo told reporter Brendan Brosh of the Daily News (Brosh was once a Wave staffer). "He should set a better example and not pit people of different races against each other." Addabbo said that WABC reporter Jim Dolan asked him a question while he was responding to another question and his response was taken out of context. Addabbo added that he did everything he could to work with the parties to come to an amicable conclusion, but to no avail.
http://www.rockawave.com/news/2007/0907/community/012.html
