Phil Reisman: Local lawyer 'Twit of the Year' for racist tweet

Twitter is a powerful thing. In the hands of idiots it's dangerous.

That's why I think there ought to be a protective feature included with Twitter, similar to a safety on a loaded gun.

Call it the "Weiner Widget," in honor of the former congressman from Queens who will forever be remembered for tweeting lewd selfies to young women he didn't know.

Here's how it would work: Whenever you compose a pithy remark in 140 characters or less and then click the tweet button, a warning message instantly pops up on the screen saying, "Do you really think this is a good idea?"

Theoretically, you would pause and consider the potential consequences of letting that tweet escape into cyberspace. A moment's hesitation might save you from soiling yourself before the body politic.

This is a roundabout way of introducing the latest Twitter abuser — a White Plains attorney by the name of Andrew Barovick. I left a message at the Alegria & Barovick law office on Wednesday, but no one got back to me.

At any rate, he's one guy who should break the Twitter habit.

During the recently concluded governor's race, Barovick was an avid supporter of the Democratic incumbent Andrew Cuomo. Moreover, he enjoyed eviscerating Cuomo's opponent, Rob Astorino. His weapon of choice was Twitter. All told, he has composed 20,500 tweets and has 3,119 followers.

Never funny, he was snarky at best. He was also vicious.

At 9:12 p.m., Monday, election eve, Barovick tweeted: "In light of election, .@SheriffMoss mulling offer to be new spokesmodel for either Cream of Wheat, or Uncle Ben's Rice."

In case you weren't paying attention, Chemung County Sheriff Chris Moss is an African-American who ran for lieutenant governor on the Astorino ticket.

Barovick's ridicule was obvious and crude. By tying Moss to products whose packaging included stereotyped images of black men, he had finally crossed the line.

The blowback was instantaneous. Barovick was widely condemned by other Twitter users.

At 7:28 a.m., the next day, Astorino campaign spokesman Bill O'Reilly, tweeted: "I'll give you 'till noon to retract this racist tweet. After that, I'll assume you really meant it. "

Barovick should've cut his losses right there. Instead he threw gasoline on the fire with another snotty tweet at 9:20 a.m., telling O'Reilly, "Let me save you the trouble of waiting, Mr. O'Reilly. I meant it. Oh, and sorry about your campaign's loss."

Then Moss, himself, joined the fray with a series of tweets. He called Barovick's comments "a blatant racist smear" and blamed the Cuomo campaign for attempting "to gin up racial disharmony."

Moss said Barovick was one of Cuomo's "key cheerleaders in Westchester County."

In a statement, Cuomo's campaign spokesman Matt Wing disavowed Barovick. "This person is in no way affiliated with our campaign and we find his comments abhorrent."

(On Wednesday, O'Reilly said, "We're satisfied with the governor's clear denunciation of Mr. Barovick's remarks.")

Still, Barovick doubled-down. In an interview Tuesday afternoon with Capital New York, an online news service, he said he was only being "humorous." Then he smeared Moss again, calling him an "Uncle Tom." The story was posted at 2:22 p.m.

Interestingly, six minutes later, Barovick relented. At 2:28 p.m., he tweeted, "What I tweeted earlier (about Moss) was dumb & insensitive, and I apologize for it."

Somebody must've knocked some sense into him, but it was glaring that the apology came only grudgingly and more than 17 hours after the original offense. It was too little, too late.

That was the assessment of Richard St. Paul, an African-American attorney, who with two other men — John Burnett of the New York Republican State Committee and Mark McLean, president of the Gathering Men of New Rochelle — held a press conference outside Barovick's law office on Wednesday.

St. Paul said Barovick's tweets "violated the trust of the First Amendment."

Though "even hate speech is protected," he said, "the court of public opinion certainly doesn't have to tolerate what you said about people of color."

The three men demanded Barovick's removal from any professional leadership positions he might hold. It was initially believed that he was a professor at Cardozo Law School in Manhattan and headed a committee at the New York City Bar Association.

No one returned my call at the bar association.

But John Denatale, the assistant dean of communications at Cardozo, said Barovick was not a teacher. "He's not on the payroll and he's not an adjunct."

Barovick was among 200 lawyers and judges who participated in a "practice trial" program for law students that is held annually between semesters. But Denatale said he was not invited to participate this year, or last year.

You have to wonder what Barovick was thinking. What is it about Twitter that makes twits out of people who should know better?

One more thing to ponder: Barovick's law partner is a man named Anselmo Alegria. If you go to the law firm's website, you'll see his photo.

He's a black man.