A senior law enforcement official of a New Jersey county who made disparaging comments about America's first Sikh-American state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, has resigned after a week of uproar.
The controversy was triggered after a slew of audio clips surfaced in local media containing recordings of Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino’s conversation with his subordinates, secretly recorded on the day of Governor Phil Murphy's inauguration in January this year.
In the recording obtained by the radio station WNYC, the sheriff is reportedly heard saying Governor Murphy appointed Gurbir Grewal as the Attorney General because of "the turban."
“He didn’t do that to help our county, he did that because of the turban,” he reportedly said.
Further in the recording, he then goes on to criticise Governor Murphy's policies saying they "would allow blacks to "come in, do whatever the (expletive) they want, smoke their marijuana, do this, do that. And don't worry about it. We'll tie the hands of cops."
He also comments about New Jersey’s Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver. “Is she gay? Because she’s never been married. Is she gay?” he said as published in the New York Times.
In a post on Facebook, the Bergen County Sheriff's Office announced that Mr Saudino has resigned from his post along with four of his staff members.
Mr Saudino, who has been the sheriff for the past eight years was elected in 2010 as a Republican, but he later swapped parties to run as a Democrat in 2016, and is up for re-election in 2019.
Initially, when the recordings were released, Mr Saudino apologised for his comments, but at the time didn’t say he would step down triggering widespread condemnation, which eventually resulted in his resignation.
Reacting to the development, Mr Grewal said “the resignation is an important first step in repairing the relationship between the Bergen County Sheriff's Office and the diverse communities it serves,” reported the New York Times.
"But our work does not stop there. The fact that a top official could make racist comments about the African-American community -- and that no one in the room would challenge or correct him -- raises serious concerns."
This is not the first time that the Attorney General has dealt with racist slurs.
Earlier in July this year, two radio hosts of a popular show were temporarily pulled from the airwaves for repeatedly calling Mr Grewal a "turban man" on air.
Mr Grewal’s position is the second notable accomplishment of Sikhs in New Jersey, and in the United States.
Previously, Ravinder Bhalla was elected mayor of Hoboken becoming the first Sikh to hold that office in New Jersey.
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