We understand that Bernard Spitzer, father of former Governor Spitzer is gravely ill and for that we are very sorry. But we appeal to Mr. Spitzer now... before God... to do the right thing and settle the racial discrimination lawsuit pending against him. Instead Bernard Spitzer's high-priced lawyers have been fighting four African Americans since 1999 to deny us simple justice. We are four men of African American descent who were employed in a high-end luxury residential building owned by Bernard Spitzer and managed for him by Gumly Haft. We were initially hired as doormen and maintenance workers by the management company. After Bernard Spitzer became aware of our employment, each of us was terminated within two weeks of each other, for no apparent reason. In each case termination was preceded by an orchestrated campaign of harassment that was designed to induce the four of us to quit. This campaign of harassment included the assignment for doormen to clean the building toilets with a toothbrush, in one case being told "your kind should be use to it by now," and "clean it good, boy" by his supervisor. One of us was told by his supervisor when he protested, "you don't get it - Mr. Spitzer told us to get rid of all the niggers." All statements have been sworn to in a lawsuit which Mr. Spitzer is trying to get dismissed. Not coincidentally, we were terminated just prior to our qualification for union membership and union protection. We were each terminated just before becoming eligible to become members of local 32 BJ, which would have given us protection from being fired without probable cause. All of this came after direct confrontation with Bernard Spitzer himself on the building property. He refused to respond to any of us - even to a simple "good morning Mr. Spitzer." On one occasion when he saw one of my African American co-workers at the front desk filling in for a concierge who was in the restroom, he went out of his mind yelling, turned real red and stomped off. Nonetheless, we wrote to Mr. Spitzer to appeal to him about our jobs and he never responded. We called his office and we were told, "There is nothing he can do." Mr. Spitzer's lawyers now claim falsely he knew nothing about the situation - a blatant lie. (view source to read entire letter)

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