Freelance reporter Leonardo Blair has a lot going for him. Born in Jamaica, Mr. Blair made it to New York and has a Master's degree in Journalism from Columbia and was worked freelance for the NY Post. Then he was picked up by the NYPD and temporarily thrown in jail for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and for the color of his skin. They let him go after he told them he was a reporter, but that wasn't the end of it.
From The NY Daily News:
Leonardo Blair, 28, a freelance crime reporter since May 2007, was let go just days after he slammed the NYPD in a federal suit filed on his behalf by the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Blair's suit came on the same day the Post defended the Police Department's controversial stop-and-frisk policy in an editorial.
"The Post won't have any comment," said the newspaper's spokesman Howard Rubenstein.
Blair refused to comment when reached Sunday night.
The Jamaican-born reporter was let go, in part, because the paper's editors were caught off guard by the suit he filed May 7, sources told the Daily News.
"Caught off guard" sounds a lot like they were pissed that Blair decided to fight for his rights to be treated equally under the law. The first hand account he wrote for them helped to sell papers, but taking the NYPD to court seems to be another matter for the brass at the Post. Now Mr. Blair and the Post won't comment, so the full story is going to have a tough time in coming out to see the light of day.
One thing is for certain though, if Blair were white, there wouldn't be a story to report.
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