NEW CITY – A Facebook video posted by the Rockland County Republican Committee, that linked overdevelopment in the county to Orthodox Jews and drew the ire of the state attorney general, has been taken down.
County Executive Edwin Day, also a Republican, said Thursday that the video “set a troubling tone for a necessary conversation about overdevelopment in our county.”
He said while the content of the video is factual, “the tone and undercurrent is unacceptable.” After listening “closely to the concerns raised by residents and community leaders, I have contacted GOP Chairman Lawrence Garvey to request its removal and he assured me that he will.”
The video was taken down a short time later.
Day said he has “a great deal of respect for our Jewish neighbors and want them to know that as their county executive, I will always stand up against hatred.”
But, he noted that the concerns raised about overdevelopment are “accurate, well-grounded and desperately need to be addressed, but this must be done free of rhetoric and rancor.”
Garvey told Mid-Hudson News Wednesday night that he hopes Attorney General Letitia James “will take a closer look at the real problems of overdevelopment and corruption that are plaguing our county.”
James called the video “deeply disturbing” and anti-Semitic.
Senator David Carlucci (D, Nanuet), said, “Hateful rhetoric must be denounced wherever it is seen. Words have meaning. This video is an attempt to create fear and division, while offering no solutions. In Rockland, we must rise above party politics and work together to combat over development and lax code enforcement.”
