The Feast of San Gennaro, Without the Stereotypes As the president of Figli di San Gennaro, the nonprofit organization that has operated the annual San Gennaro Feast in Little Italy since 1996, I am disappointed and shocked by "Officials Say a Little Italy Tradition Is Back: The Mob at San Gennaro" (news article, April 19). The article discussed a federal indictment in Brooklyn of 11 men who had absolutely nothing to do with the Feast of San Gennaro. Your article relies upon and rekindles old, derogatory stereotypes. It leaves the impression that the Feast of San Gennaro is rife with criminal activity when in fact it is not. The Brooklyn indictment does not name one person associated with the feast, nor does it even implicate the feast, except to say that there was one unsuccessful attempt four years ago by one of the defendants to extort some participants of the feast. As Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said, the feast was "used." In a very real sense, the feast is a victim. Since its inception, Figli di San Gennaro has donated approximately $1 million to charity from the proceeds of its annual Feast of San Gennaro. More important, all members of Figli di San Gennaro's board are upstanding members of the Italian-American community, including judges and lawyers. Your article is laced with innuendo, sarcasm and offensive phrases, such as La Cosa Nostra and Mafia, that perpetuate stereotypes. Your implication that crime is an Italian-American "tradition" is, in short, very offensive. JOSEPH MATTONE College Point, Queens, April 20, 2012