Bensonhurst - Community Leader In Furor With Traffic Agent

Bensonhurst - Community Education Council President Santa Maria double-parked his car in front of an 86th Street bakery so his wife, Sharon who workes in City Hall, could pick up bagels, when traffic agent Erik Shaw, who is black, issued a $115 ticket as Santa Maria sat in the car waiting for his wife.

When Sharon got out, she contacted "a friend" in the Transportation Department, but the plea to that friend fell on deaf ears, because traffic agents are part of the Police Department.

Thats when Santa Maria wrote a column in a local Brooklyn newspaper saying "Boy, this gorilla dressed in a Traffic Enforcement Agent's suit must do Billionaire Bloomberg proud," I guss Kong only understood Gorilla grunts and didn't understan English," he wrote.
The remarks drew ire from Community Board 11 District Manager, and Local 1182, the union representing the city's 2,400 traffic agents.
"To me, a gorilla is black, right? Our workers black. So, without a doubt it's racist. He's just ignorant."

U/D: 01/26/06
Maria apologized for calling a black NYPD traffic agent a "orilla".