New CUNY Hall's Ceremony Disrupted By Barron, Trustee

In a ceremony earlier today, Mayor Bloomberg and other officials hailed the rebuilding of CUNY's Fiterman Hall, a Borough of Manhattan Community College building on West Street, which was badly damaged on September 11, 2001. However, more people may remember it for the part when City Councilman Charles Barron and CUNY trustee Jeffrey Wiesenfeld got into a shouting match that included "You shut up!" "You're a disgrace!" and "You're a sickening racist!"

Apparently Barron felt disrespected that he wasn't originally seated front and center with other officials (he had to sit in the audience) and that Bloomberg didn't acknowledge CUNY students or the City Council. The Daily News offers this exchange between Barron and Wiesenfeld, which started after Barron expressed his unhappiness:

This prompted CUNY trustee Wiesenfeld to shout down Barron from his seat in the front row. "You're a disgrace!" Wiesenfeld shouted.Barron then yelled back, "You just be quiet. Ain't nobody talking to you. Whether you like it or not, I'm here and I'm not going anywhere. You sit there. You shut up!"

Wiesenfeld, a former staffer for Mayor Ed Koch and Sen. Al D'Amato, was a senior aide to Governor Pataki, who appointed him to the CUNY board.

A principal with the firm of Bernstein Global Wealth Management, Wiesenfeld was confirmed by the state Senate in 1999 despite allegations that he referred to blacks as "savages" and Hasidic Jews as "thieves."

And here's video of the shouting:

Wiesenfeld later told the News, "This individual has no civility. He has no personal decency. All of us can have a persecution complex. My parents, my wife's parents were in concentration camps, I'm sure his ancestors were subject to slavery, but that is no excuse for his ill-fitting conduct in public, the way he deals with other public officials." And Barron said Wiesenfeld was "a right- wing, racist, ignorant fool," who "should not be sitting on the board of trustees of CUNY."

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By Jen Chung in News on December 1, 2009 6:27 PM

Comments [rss]

Boogie Down

I wonder why Charles Barron expects any respect when he says things like "Ain't nobody talking to you" and "I'm not going nowhere". If he would like people to take him seriously, he may want to start by learning how to speak English.

Oh, and I like how he ALWAYS resorts to calling anyone who dares to disagree with him a racist. This guy is a joke.

jpeditor

" he may want to start by learning how to speak English."

Thats racist! English is thelanguage of da man!

( :>)

5borough

I just wish Barron would come out already, he's not fooling anyone.

thefacts

Oh, you noticed that too? I thought it was just me.

One minute he is posturing thug-style, the next he is acting like a voguing drag queen.

Btw, "Ain't nobody talking to you." Is that tuff talk or queer talk?

5borough

He is like half of "Men on Film" from "In Living Color."

Potty Boy

"Apparently Barron felt disrespected..."

"Disrespect" is NOT a verb!

Mr Mel

It is to the undereducated.

newport27

weisenfeld is a typical racist, hate-filled, sickening zionist jew that NY is teeming with

jpeditor

baron (and his acolyte Newport27) is a typical racist, hate-filled, sickening, white–hating, commie & jihad kissing, poverty pimp that NY is teeming with.

Makes more sense now.

newport27

"white hating" and "jihad kissing"?

I know zionists are supposed to be good with manipulating words and playing blame games but aren't we getting too typical with the responses? come on, get more creative!

@ longacre - it is not hypocritical at all because I never claimed to have or not to have any of those characteristics.. although I do detest zionists (who wouldn't?). and you might be surprised at the number of people in NYC who share my feelings

jpeditor

PS -"although I do detest zionists (who wouldn't?)."

Hey, before you give sloppy kiss to a suicide bomber, THROW AWAY YOUR COMPUTER AND YOUR CELL PHONE, as they use software and chips made BY ZIONISTS IN ISRAEL.

jpeditor

"come on, get more creative!"

You mean my posting YOUR words with the races reversed was too DEEP FOR YOU?

longacre

Your sentence is not hypocritical at all.

felixthecat2

Let's get ready to rumble!

wow 14th street

Barron is one big anti-Semite , I still wonder

why he gave up his Afro,Moo Moo.

Anyway he has to act like the people that voted for him.

In show business you learn to dress like your audience.

HOTCUP

ugh, you idiots. you're both idiots.

Mr Mel

Barron is a racist plain & simple.

S.K.

Both Barron and Wiesenfeld are CUNY alums.

But Barron is right, give the students credit, give them seats at the event. It is their college, their tution, and their taxes that pay for Fiterman Hall.

That being said, Barron is a hypocrite for railing against Bloomberg's term limits repeal, but then running for a third term.

S.D.

IMO, they're both way out of line.

As for Councilman Barron, when you're a hammer, everything is a nail. I'm betting he calls anyone that disagrees or objects to his antics a racist.

Bernie Madoff-Goetz

Charles Barron calling someone else a racist is like fire calling an oven hot.

JacqueMehoff

HA! You Lie!

when did this shouting from the audience start?

maybe he is a rightie.

longacre

Charles Barron makes Clay Davis look like Ned Flanders.

Son of Spam

well sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee it.

longacre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrfCixsd2N8

ItchyGoiter

"Apparently Barron felt disrespected that he wasn't front and center with other officials (he had to sit in the audience)..."

"This prompted CUNY trustee Wiesenfeld to shout down Barron from his seat in the front row..."

So they were both in the audience? Looks like Barron is at the podium, no? You should clarify.