'There's Now a Feeling That You Have to Be Black to Get Ahead On the Governor's Squad'

Of course mentioning this might be called racist.

MEMBERS of Gov. Paterson's State Police security de tail are privately claiming to have been victims of racial discrimination by New York's first black chief executive, The Post has learned.

The allegations, outlined to State Police union leaders and widely discussed among the troopers themselves, stem from a shakeup in their ranks ordered after Paterson took office in March. The shakeup led to the assignment of a large number of new, non-uniformed State Police officers to Paterson's security detail, nearly all of whom are black, State Police sources said.

State Police insiders contended that Clemmie Harris, a former trooper and longtime friend and paid adviser to the governor, has repeatedly told State Police Superintendent Harry Corbett who should be assigned to the governor's security detail.

Both Harris, who retired on an unexplained full medical disability from the State Police 10 years ago and collects an $82,400-a-year annual salary, and Corbett, named to his post by Paterson, are black.

"There's now a feeling that you have to be black to get ahead on the governor's squad," a longtime State Police official told The Post.

"A majority of the non-uniformed travel team is minority under Paterson, which it wasn't before," said another source who is close to the State Police leadership. "The professional future for the troopers in the detail, which is a prestigious one, was always moving up to the travel team, but the white officers say that's not possible anymore."

Just 8 percent of State Police officers are black, according to official figures.

State Police Lt. Glenn Miner declined to provide a racial breakdown of the governor's security detail but quoted Corbett as insisting that all hiring for it had been done on the merits and not on the basis of race.

Paterson spokesman Errol Cockfield also denied the allegation, insisting, "The notion that any member of the administration has had a hand in selecting the makeup of the governor's security detail is a baseless claim that is absolutely false. The State Police makes those decisions independently."

A source close to Paterson called the allegation "sour grapes" by the once politically favored troopers and said, "You mean it was OK when the governor's security detail was mostly all white?"