NJ Towing Company Loses Government Contract After Worker Uses N-Word on Camera
Ajaco Towing Recovery, a towing company in New Jersey, lost its government contract with the township of Parsippany-Troy Hills after one of its employees was caught calling another man the n-word, a racist slur, on video.
In the video, posted onto Instagram by a user named mr_str8money, police tell a white Ajaco employee to go inside of his office building while he yells at the man recording the video.
"Get the f*ck off of my property!" the employee yells. "Get him out of here. Get him out of here," he repeatedly tells the police.
"Take your pictures. Stick it up your *ss," the employee yells at the man recording the video. "I'll drop that motherf*cker," the employee tells police while gesturing to the video recorder. "Go ahead. Go ahead, pull the racial card," he tells the recorder.
The man recording the video says, "You threatened me right in front of the police."
The employee responds, "I threatened you. Suck my d*ck. How does that sound? I can say whatever I want to say. You know why I can? Freedom of speech."
As the employee begins re-entering the building, he says, "F*ckin' [n-word]."
The man recording says, "Whoa! He called me an [n-word]. He called me an [n-word].... It's on now. I got it on camera.... If that's not racial profiling, then what is?"
The man recording the video had reportedly had his car towed after getting into an accident, WNBC reported. When the man came to Ajaco to get his car back, he allegedly stayed around for an hour and began arguing with employees after he couldn't pay the towing bill, Ajaco's owner Jason Cleffi said.
The man who recorded the video then departed and returned with police. At that point, the argument escalated. The man recording the video then threatened the employee, Cleffi said.
The man who posted the video on Instagram included paperwork that seemed to show that he paid to get his car back. The Ajaco employee has been suspended as the company investigates the incident, the Morris County Daily Record reported.
"Two men got into a heated argument that never should've happened," Cleffi told the aforementioned news outlet. "I take it very serious. I have to apologize for my employee's action, I have to apologize to anyone who had to be subjected to that. I do not tolerate that."
After reviewing the video, the Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills and the Parsippany Police Department decided to no longer use Ajaco Towing effective immediately, the town's government wrote on its Facebook page.
"Racist language used by anyone who works for or with the Township is inexcusable and will never be allowed," the town's Facebook post said. The town immediately removed the company from its lists of towing businesses used for municipal purposes.
The Parsippany Police is also conducting an internal review to ensure that its officers properly responded during the incident.
The Parsippany-Troy Hills township is 58.3 percent white and 3.7 percent Black, according to the U.S. Census.
Newsweek contacted the Parsippany Police for comment.
