The Advocate
Richard Blaasberg
The Real Significance Of John Boykin’s
Threatening Phone Call To Sam Rivers
Recent Shocking Events In Mount Vernon Continue To Expose Pressure
Being Applied By Corrupt, Incompetent District Attorney
Just when we think we have seen the worst possible conduct from public officials that could come out of the City of Mount Vernon, someone steps forward to prove us wrong and, that’s no simple feat when you’re trying to top a Mayor’s Chief of Staff with a misguided loyalty to a bad District Attorney and a racially-motivated vulgar mouth; not to mention a Police Commissioner willing to abuse the powers of his office just to kiss the same dreadful DA where the sun doesn’t shine.
Nevertheless, John Boykin, Special Assistant to beleaguered Mayor Clinton Young has managed to momentarily steal the spotlight from Yolanda Robinson and David Chong. Boykin was apparently on a mission to redeem himself in the eyes of Janet DiFiore’s henchmen, having previously honestly disclosed the unlawful motives and actions of Robinson and Chong, acting under orders from DiFiore, to retaliate against Westchester Guardian Publisher Sam Zherka.
Boykin would attempt to “put the fear” into Samuel Rivers; would talk the talk to his contemporary; would make him understand that a man who would go against DA Janet DiFiore and her Mob could get hurt, even killed, like former Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, and nobody would even investigate.
Yes, Boykin would keep Sam Rivers, a likeable young real estate agent and Mount Vernon Democratic Committeeperson, on the phone for more than an hour, trying to get him to mend his ways, to fall in line if he knows what’s good for him and his business. He went so far as to remind him that the Mount Vernon City Building Department, and other City agencies, could delay any real estate project Rivers might bring before them, by weeks, or longer, if they were ordered to.
All because Rivers had expressed support for Tony Castro and had hosted a get-together with members of the City’s Democratic Party for Castro, who is expected to announce his candidacy for district attorney. John Boykin, in truth, is merely a foot soldier in a corrupt organization. What is truly tragic is his resignation, his surrender, to a life of sleaze and deceit at the tender age of 26. How very pathetic his willingness to do the dirty work of Mayor Clinton Young and Mount Vernon Democratic Committee Chairman Devereau Cannick by attempting to intimidate and chill Sam Rivers with the following:
• “If something happens to you, you’re just going to go away. No one will investigate”,
• “When your Range Rover was burned up [an act of arson], there was no investigation. No one is being investigated”,
• “Ron Brown was killed by the Democratic Party. His plane went down. No one was investigated. Do you understand what I mean?”
• “You have been marked with a ‘red dot’, (a reference to an aiming device on a laser-equipped firearm),
• “You have earned a ‘red bulls eye’, (a reference to Plaintiff’s status as a target of anticipated retaliation),
• “You’re f--king with people”,
• “You’re causing a lot of s--t”,
• “Be careful who you choose as your friend”, (a reference to Sam Zherka, who Boykin had previously cautioned Plaintiff to stay away from because Zherka is “controversial”) “and you [Plaintiff] do not want to be controversial”,
• “Be careful, the cost is greater than you expect it to be”,
• “You’re making a lot of enemies”,
• “You don’t make waves against those who appointed you”, (a reference to Devereau’s appointment of Plaintiff as a District Leader),
• “You need to resign as District Leader”,
• “The stuff you want to do [reporting City corruption in a column in the Westchester Guardian] has not come out yet”,
• “In the jungle there are lions. Even lions stay in packs. Even rogue lions die. You will die if you roll alone”,
• “ The people who are rolling with you [including Sam Zherka] are not your friends. If you are being financed by Ni--ers, what are
they saying behind your back?”,
• “Lay low and learn the ways of the Godfather”,
• “You are threatening people’s money, the power structure”,
• “You are about to do some s--t [writing for the Westchester Guardian] that will have you in the s--tter”,
• “S--t will get worse for you if you try to effect change”,
• “You must abide by the rules when in politics”,
• “Your name is in a lot of places it shouldn’t be”,
• “Your name is in [District Attorney Janet] DiFiore’s mouth”,
• “When Ni--ers start losing their livelihood they will lash out”,
• “Tread lightly”,
• “There is a price to pay for some glory”,
• “Ruffling feathers is not good”,
• “You’re dealing with lions. Lions are after your a-- right now”,
• “This is not about palm cards. It’s about money”,
• “You can’t f--k with people’s money”,
• “You put a person in a corner and he becomes a lion, a beast”,
• “No judge, no one will hear your case. It will not be heard. No one will hear your case”, (a reference to any possible litigation that Plaintiff might commence by reason of Boykin’s threats),
• “You are disturbing the force, I have received calls”,
• “You are a major disturbance in the force, your interrupting the bigger picture”,
• “Mount Vernon is a crucial place - - 25,000 votes. The Governor comes here. The Majority Leader [Malcolm Smith] hangs here. Things are connected. They fit together like a puzzle”,
• “I don’t know how it’s going to happen. They’re gonna plan it. No one is beyond being touched”,
• “The Governor needs something done. The Governor wants something. It’s not free. The governor needs us. I got seven or eight Ni--ers in the Governor’s office”,
• “There are seven Ni--ers meeting in a restaurant, or a basement or in City Hall; they’re going to get you f--kin’ ruffled. That’s how they handle a gangster”.
• “There’s a difference between you and Sam Zherka. Do you need this kind of exposure to get what you need to get?”
• “If you [in connection with Plaintiff’s real estate business] go to the Building Department, they will add a week or two to your wait”,
• “We are the f--king government. You are going against the f--kin’ system”,
• “Abe Lincoln did a lot of controversial s--t and got killed for that s--t”.
What we have, in John Boykins’ tape-recorded telephone threats, while important for the explicit content of the message, an act that clearly will not be investigated or punished by a district attorney who is the central figure, the tyrannical force instilling fear enough to compel obedience, is something even more significant for the vivisection of the corrupt creature that is Westchester Politics. It lays bare the arteries through which
the money must be kept flowing; and with it the power and influence to control City, County and State Government; the power to grant contracts and employment, to control the lives and loyalties of families as much as any Organized Crime enterprise imaginable.
At his press conference, Rivers told reporters that Boykin warned him, “You’d better be careful driving. Your name was in Janet DiFiore’s mouth. If you get pulled over they will plant drugs on you, and that’ll be the end of you.”At 26 years of age, Boykin, who just a few weeks earlier had stood up to racism and tyranny, speaking openly with publisher Zherka and revealing the truth about the premeditated plot hatched by Robinson and Chong, under orders from Janet DiFiore, had now been brought into the fold, made to comply with dictates from the “Queen Bee” herself. He would make his “friend” and contemporary, Sam Rivers, realize that he could not be bringing Tony Castro, the man who ran against her, around, to meet with and speak with concerned citizens.
Boykin alludes, in his conversation, to the supposed twenty-five thousand votes in Mount Vernon. History, particularly the history of elections in Westchester over the last 15 years or more, reminds us that the kind of “insiders” Boykin was warning about, would, in fact, stop at nothing, employing any and every form of election fraud, to hold onto power.
Everyone knows by now that Andrea Stewart-Cousins had to win twice, once in 2004 by 355 votes and again in 2006 by more than 1800 in order to take her seat in the New York State Senate. It took the United States Justice Department, with monitors and marshals, to bring about an honest
result.
Boykin knows about the role Reggie LaFayette, so-called part-time Election Commissioner, at $155,000 a year, (not to mention what he grabs from the Chairman’s Fund) plays in carrying out whatever scheme it will take to keep a lying, incumbent DA such as Janet DiFiore, in power.
Janet, show us the tapes, the unredacted tapes of the Ridley murder!
Soon, every conscientious, self-respecting resident of Mount Vernon will be demanding, “Show us the tapes!” Somebody needs to remind the newly-minted Democrat of what the first Republican president said about not being able to “Fool all of the people all of the time.”
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