By JOHN T. WARD
An animal-control specialist who has a backup role with Red Bank government came under fire over the weekend for a racist post on Facebook.
But Randolph Tashman, who was appointed to provide supplementary animal control services to the borough in 2019, denied to redbankgreen that he wrote the post.
The offending comment, above, followed the Facebook post below. (Screen grabs from Reddit. Click to enlarge.)
The alleged Tashman comment appeared beneath a post on the Facebook page of AJ+, maintained by Al Jazeera International as a self-described “digital news and storytelling project promoting human rights and equality.”
The post concerned reporting on far-right extremism by senior producer and presenter Imaeyen Ibanga.
Below the undated post, “Randy Tashman” commented:
“Unga bunga unga bunga you so cool and down with mother Africa you ought to go back … see how long your gang raped and tortured”
Contacted Sunday, Tashman told redbankgreen:
I guess I was hacked because I would not write that and Can’t believe the amount of threats I’m receiving I don’t even know how to check things I barely know how to log on I barely know how to read and do all this Internet stuff I’m kind of an old fart.
He declined to say how old he was or answer other questions, and said he was was calling the police to report the threats.
“I am the victim here,” he said, later adding: “it’s pretty funny because I’m a Jewish man with mixed race children so I’m sure whoever investigates will get to the bottom of it I have no political views even closely aligned of that stuff.”
The comment was revealed Saturday on Reddit by a commenter who wrote: “Animal Control Officer in Red Bank. He needs to not hold a publicly funded position.”
In August, 2019, the borough council designated Tashman as “the back-up/call-in animal control officer,” to be called in when borough Animal Control Officer Henry Perez is not available. He’s paid $50 per call.
In a review of council bill payments, redbankgreen did not find any to Tashman or the business through which we contacted him, Randy’s Animal & Rodent Control in Freehold. Borough Business Administrator Ziad Shehady did not respond to a request for additional information.
“We do not tolerate this type of behavior and will be investigating and dealing with this immediately,” Council President Hazim Yazzin wrote on Reddit Saturday.
Reddit commenters said the offending comment vanished from Tashman’s Facebook account Saturday. He told redbankgreen:
I shut everything down and reported it to everybody I saw was posted on read it with my name and I find it atrocious that’s my only comment
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