I think I still have the exact exchange somewhere but I would prefer not to embarasss him any further without good reason.

I remember that exchange as well and he is not the one who should be embarrassed by it. Al said he witnessed a theft or robbery by persons he recognized as being of eastern European extraction by their appearance and accents. You immediately branded him a racist and other members of the pack joined in lecturing him on his purported racism. I myself am of full blooded eastern European extraction and I saw absolutely nothing racist in what he said. As Mark Twain said; 'To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.'