Feds hammer Teamsters in 'Top Chef' extortion rap

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/09/feds_hammer_teamsters_in_top_chef_extortion_rap

Mayor Marty Walsh facing awkward questions

Feds hammer Teamsters in 'Top Chef' extortion rap
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Matt Stout, Antonio Planas and Laurel J. Sweet

The bombshell indictment yesterday of four Teamsters accused of trying to shake down a “Top Chef” crew left Mayor Martin J. Walsh fielding awkward questions about City Hall’s place in the scathing sweep and his ties to the oft-troubled union.

U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz slammed members of Teamsters Local 25 for engaging in “old-school thug tactics” after her office said they tried intimidating the TV crew of the popular Bravo network cooking show to give the union jobs while it filmed in Boston in 2014.

At one restaurant in Milton, the Teamsters chest-bumped members of the crew, yelled “racial and homophobic slurs” and loitered near their cars, whose tires were later found slashed, authorities said.

“This kind of conduct reflects poorly on our city and must be addressed for what it is — not union organizing, but criminal extortion,” Ortiz said in a statement.

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