By Katherine Coviello and Stacie Guevara
SANTA ANA, CA – Rick Callendar, President of the California State Conference of the NAACP called for the resignation of Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer this week after the DA allegedly made racist remarks.
According to the Los Angeles Times, a former colleague of Spitzer alleged that the DA made racist comments in the case of a Black murder defendant.
The colleague said that during a meeting of top prosecutors, Spitzer said that he knows “many Black people who get themselves out of their bad circumstances and bad situations by only dating white women.”
NAACP President Callendar said Spitzer’s behavior “disqualifies him from being an elected official at any level.” He added that Spitzer’s comments show “disgusting and atrociously racist beliefs” that “no member of modern civilized society would support or even condone.”
Callendar also said Spitzer’s racist remarks “reek of Jim Crow views.”
The call for Spitzer’s resignation comes after a tenure characterized by allegations and scandal.
Spitzer was allegedly involved in an evidence book scandal, a jailhouse informant scandal, then defamed a mass shooting victim and defended a coercive DNA collection program dubbed “unconstitutional” by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Additionally, multiple women have come forward with complaints regarding Spitzer.
Four women who filed claims alleging that an employee of Spitzer, who was also the best man at his wedding, was promoted despite multiple sexual harassment complaints that Spitzer knew of. Later, Spitzer allowed this employee to retire with top-flight benefits.
Spitzer was also removed from a high-profile sexual assault case after he attempted to drop the charges.
For two and a half years the survivors of the assault were “dragged through the mud” and “grossly mistreated” by Spitzer, according to a state prosecutor as documented in The Orange County Register.
Eventually, this treatment led two of the sexual assault victims to abandon their cases. The culmination of these allegations and recent racist comments has been the tipping point for many.
“Every day Spitzer remains our top law enforcement official is another day during which racism undermines the integrity of our criminal justice system. Spitzer must resign. If he refuses, voters will vote him out of office this June,” concluded Former Marine Judge Advocate Pete Hardin, who’s running for the DA spot against Spitzer.
