Controversy; Anger Issues
In January 2005, Parker was arrested after punching a traffic agent in the face during a dispute over a traffic citation that he had been issued. He was subsequently charged with third degree assault, a misdemeanor. The charges were dropped after he agreed to take anger management classes.
In 2008, an aide filed charges against Parker, claiming he pushed her during an argument and smashed her glasses.
On May 8, 2009, Parker was charged with felony criminal mischief for attacking a New York Post photographer and damaging the photographer's camera and car door. According to prosecutors, the photographer's finger was broken in the alleged attack. Parker was charged with a felony due to the value of damage to the camera and car door. As a result, he was stripped of his leadership position as majority whip and chair of the Energy Committee. Parker was convicted of a misdemeanor charge, criminal mischief, and on March 21, 2011 was sentenced to three years probation and a $1,000 fine. Had he been convicted of the felonies, he would have automatically lost his seat in the Senate, and the Senate had already expelled Hiram Monserrate for misdemeanor charges earlier in the year. The Senate Democrats have indicated an unwillingness to expel Parker as they did Monserrate.
In February 2010, Parker was restrained by his colleagues during a profane tirade against Senator Diane Savino, in which Parker referred to Savino as a "b****".
In April 2010, Parker launched into an outburst while colleague John DeFrancisco of Syracuse was questioning a black nominee for the New York State Power Authority. "Amid the nearly two-minute tirade, committee chairman Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) told Parker he would be removed from the hearing room if he didn't settle down." Parker accused his colleagues of racism, and followed up in a radio interview by accusing his Republican "enemies" of being white supremacists. Following the tirade, Sen. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) was quoted as saying that Parker "need help."
In March 2012, Parker used his Twitter account to denounce Governor Andrew Cuomo, State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver as "Three White guys in the room making all the decisions. Of course that what Skelos wants #businessasusual #dysfunctionalAlbany" Parker then sparred with other Twitter users, including an Orthodox Jew, whom he told, "there is nothing shameful about pointing out power inequities. You would feel different if one of the guys wasn’t orthodox."
Read more about this topic: Kevin Parker (politician)
Famous quotes containing the words anger and/or issues:
“Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.”
—Bible: Hebrew Ecclesiastes 7:9.
“The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)