Rafael Martínez Alequín is not a vegetable.
He’s been called a lot of things since he started covering City Hall in the late 1980s: gadfly, gnat, mayor torturer, jerk, racial arsonist, heckler. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani once called him “an embarrassment.”
But the names slung at him are almost compliments compared to the names he has for City Hall reporters and politicians. He calls Speaker Christine Quinn, “Bloomquinn.” He refers to Mayor Michael Bloomberg “Bloombito the mother ****ito.” He says the reporters are “sheep” and calls them “factory workers” who are owned by the establishment.
“I’ve got the trifecta. I’m despised by the mayor. I’m despised by the speaker. I’m despised by the press,” he said.
The 79-year-old reporter and Amalgamated resident, who runs the blog www.yourfreepress.blogspot.com, does not believe in being objective. Objectivity, he proclaims in his heavy accent, is “for vegetables.”
Mr. Alequín is a short Puerto Rican man with messy gray hair. Two crucifixes, one that belonged to his mother, the other his wife, (for sentimental value; he’s an agnostic) constantly escape the shirt he never buttons all the way up.
It’s easy to see what sets him apart from the pack of reporters covering city politics. Aside from being at least twice the age of most of the reporters, he’s emotional. During the Pedro Espada Jr. trial earlier this year, the case seemed destined for a hung jury. After the judge read aloud a note from the jurors saying they were deadlocked, Mr. Alequín stood up from the front row of the press section of the courtroom and scowled. He punched the air in frustration because it seemed Mr. Espada, who he had been following for years with his video camera, might get off. His disdain for the Espadas is not only political, it’s personal. He sued Mr. Espada’s son, Alejandro, and won when Alejandro pleaded guilty to smashing Mr. Alequín’s video camera at a campaign rally in 2008. He was beside himself at the notion that his nemesis might walk. But as deliberations continued, things swung in his favor.
