Alec Baldwin Allegedly Goes on Race-Laced Rant Against Black Photographer: 'Crackhead, Ex Jailhouse Paparazzi

UPDATE:

A source close to Baldwin has given more details and clarification to TheBlaze. See our follow-up story here.

--

Host Alec Baldwin speaks onstage at the 2nd Annual NFL Honors on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013 in New Orleans. (Photo: AP)

Alec Baldwin is once again in the spotlight for an altercation with the paparazzi, this time allegedly hurling "racist" slurs at a black photographer.

The New York Post has the story:

Actor Alec Baldwin allegedly called a black Post photographer a racial epithet, a "crackhead" and a "drug dealer" during a confrontation on an East Village street yesterday morning, prompting police to intervene.

Baldwin had first been approached by a Post reporter while walking his dogs outside his East 10th Street pad at around 10:50 a.m...

The “30 Rock’’ star grabbed the reporter, Tara Palmeri, by her arm and told her, “I want you to choke to death,” Palmeri told police, for whom she played an audiotape of the conversation.

He then called G.N. Miller — a decorated retired detective with the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau and a staff photographer for The Post — a “coon, a drug dealer,’’ Miller’s police statement said.

At one point, Miller showed Baldwin ID to prove he’s a retired NYPD cop, which Baldwin dismissed as “fake.”

Cops were called, and Miller, 56, and Baldwin, 54, both filed harassment claims against each other.  ​[Emphasis added]

“He was saying some serious racist stuff,” Miller said after the encounter. “He said some choice words about my mother, and he was telling people in the street that I’m a drug dealer...He could have said a lot of other stuff. But he used all of the stereotypes associated with black people.”

Miller worked for the NYPD for nearly 15 years, the Post says, spending most of that time in narcotics.

(Photo: Twitter/@ABFalecbaldwin via Twitchy)

Baldwin reportedly took to Twitter to give his own version of events, writing: “Moments after I tweet about the Post, Ralston, the ex-crackhead ‘photographer’ shows up at my door w 1 of Murdoch’s nieces in tow.”  In another tweet, he added: “Ralston claims he’s ex NYPD!! That can’t be!!! Ex NYPD don’t become crackhead, ex jailhouse paparazzi!”

The tweets have since been deleted.

Baldwin is now claiming that he is the victim, saying he was "assaulted" by the photographer.  Of the "racist" remarks, Baldwin told Gothamist: "If you want to put words in my mouth...I've certainly had my moments. But this is not one of them. I don't think I've ever uttered a racial epithet to someone in my lifetime."

The actor concluded with some choice words for the New York Post: "The Post will stop at nothing—that's what The Post is. Their function is to denigrate people, humiliate people, reduce people, make excuses for people who are their political partisans. It's a highly biased, highly politisized group of people. However, I'm stunned that they would resort to that...Even for The Post, this is a new low."

Baldwin's spokesperson, Matthew Hiltzik, has also denied Miller's accusations: “That’s one of the most outrageous things I’ve heard in my life.’’

--

Related:

• Update: Alec Baldwin Tells His Side of the American Airlines Story, Apologizes to Fellow Travelers
• Alec Baldwin’s Latest Twitter Rant Against Conservatives: ‘Gun-Loving, War-Mongering, Trolls….Bring It!!’
• Alec Baldwin: 2012 Signals End of ‘White, Middle Aged, Christian Male’ Power