County leaders are condemning the use of hate speech on any level after a former Yorktown Republican leader was caught on camera using a racial slur to describe one of the town's council members.

Yorktown Republican district leader Tom Pomposello was caught on camera calling Councilman Vishnu Patel a term that includes the “n-word.”

The Westchester County Board of Legislators released a statement today referring to Pomposello's behavior as "deplorable."

It goes on to say: 'We must actively confront hatred wherever and whenever we encounter it, in the moment, until it is eradicated from the heart of our nation, and before it grows into something even more destructive than words.'

The legislators say its human rights commission held a bystander intervention training event just yesterday as part of an ongoing series that teaches county leaders how to respond to hate and harassment.