Sarasota Politician Who Confronted Puerto Rican Junior Tennis Players Allegedly Had Previous Racist Incident

Dec 3, 2019
1:27 PM

The saga of Sarasota, Florida, conservative politician Martin Hyde continues. Just days after a viral video showed Hyde berating two Puerto Rican junior tennis players, a new story published Tuesday by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune noted that a February police report said that two construction managers told local police that Hyde “was on their property yelling, ‘You need to tell your fucking Mexicans to turn off their Spanish music.’”

Here is a copy of the second page of that report, as shared by the Herald-Tribune:

This is what the Herald-Tribune reported:

Hyde disputed that he said “f***ing Mexicans.”

“No, no and if you print it and it’s unsubstantiated be ready,” Hyde said when asked if he used those words.

Asked whether he remarked about the workers playing “Spanish music” Hyde said: “I can’t remember what I said nine months ago, who knows. I can’t confirm or deny.”

“I can confirm I would have told them to turn the f***ing music down because that sounds exactly like me,” Hyde said.

You can read the entire Herald-Tribune story here.