News release from Mayor Joe Ganim:
On Saturday, June 13th an organized protest at McLevy Green began at 2pm. First, the group of demonstrators participated in the protest then marched to the police department at 300 Congress Street where they have been camping since Saturday. Mayor Ganim shared his thoughts on the protest as well as the demands for change.
Mayor Ganim stated, “I think this is a very difficult time in this Country, and Bridgeport is not unique. The challenges here are no different and we stand in solidarity with peaceful protests, against bias, with Black Lives Matter, and we stand in solidarity.”
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Bullshit
LOL @Joe…Tomorrow he’ll be standing in solidarity with the police force,he’s just blowing in the wind…And what is going with his hair plugs?’looks like he took them out.
Pandering again Mayor?
Another day,
another pandering opportunity.
Come-on, Joe! You decided to abandon real Community Policing the day you were first elected in 1991. Your administrations have never wanted the real community involved in close cooperation/interaction with BPD… That is one of the main reasons that you worked so hard to get rid of BPD Chief Sweeney in G1/’97 — because he reached out to the whole city and worked with a variety of neighborhood people in reining-in the drug gangs. Sweeney, through his reorganization/restructuring of BPD and planned/intentional organized, structured outreach/cooperation with the community (especially with the churches and affiliated groups and individuals) was the reason the city was taken back from the drug gangs and positioned to regain viability… (It never did, but that’s a whole other story!…). But because Sweeney wasn’t YOUR Chief, and had become more popular than you, and had begun to turn the political power structure in Bridgeport on its ear, you decided that he had to go. You failed, and he finished-out his term…
And then, the Finch Administration played the same game with the young, very smart, modern, enlightened, and innovative Bryan Norwood… He wanted too many changes and too much community involvement, and became a political threat in the same context as Sweeney — but even more of a threat, because, being black, he was developing particularly strong support within the black/minority community in the city, even as he was very popular with whites… So he, too, had to go… And so began the stealthy, but earnest deconstruction of community policing in Bridgeport… It has actually been totally extinguished in Bridgeport — in any real form — and exists only by reference in BPD/City Hall grant writing and the bs, perfunctory meetings held by Chief Perez to divert attention from BPD dysfunction/failure, by rehashing never-solved Bridgeport problems, such meetings being held before elections and when given neighborhoods become particularly terrorized by warring drug gangs that have been given virtually free-rein… (Its not very difficult to drive through Bridgeport neighborhoods — any neighborhood — at any given hour, and see open drug dealing at some of the many drug/speak-easy houses present in all Bridgeport neighborhoods… [Of course, with proliferation of the SHU-student drug market in the N. End and Upper East Side, along with local and suburban drug-business, business is (had been) quite good and steady for the largest Bridgeport employer — the drug trade… Really; drugs should just bee legalized, anyway, but that’s also a whole other topic…]
So: The real involvement of the Bridgeport community is extremely unlikely in the present administration. Very little is likely to change in Bridgeport without radical political change in DC, Hartford, and the city… And I doubt if the trust-fund “campers” that were staked out at BPD, as good-hearted and well-intentioned as they might be, would endorse the radical political change that is needed for the real reform that only a real, grass-roots political revolution could bring about for cities like Bridgeport…
But, to be a little optimistic, these are strange times and it just might be we will emerge from our present Twilight Zone world-situation as a fundamentally changed (for the better) country, with Connecticut, and even Bridgeport, being brought along for the ride by the inexorable inductive forces of the socioeconomic/political change that THE VIRUS has determined must occur.
Time will tell….
So Lennie,
What did the do nothing City Council do at last night’s meeting?
Nothing???
Mayor Ganim1 and Ganim2…..solidarity with “all the people deserving fair and equal rights from City governance and ultimately justice”? Not!!
SOLIDARITY with “status quo” non-community policing PD? Solidarity with City attorney office that is handling legal matters that are currently expensive to taxpayers and potentially with settlements much more so? Solidarity with “no principles” promoted and so never turns into change activity for the community?? In light of current Republican “policy” on the national scene, you are acting like a current Republican with concern for yourself and those “in power” with you and not for “all the people” as is expected. by our national documents and popular history.
When you fail to provide policy with action that stands up to oversight that meets the needs of the people fairly and with justice, your solidarity with personal interests is seen as the fall back. And why shouldn’t that be?
Ganim2, here is the exact list of items that need full exploration by all of the folks in the City. Listen to the stories, activate an energetic Police Commission that stands in for City residents when they have not been heard, and can get from Office of Policy Management the detailed financial data and assumptions that have kept too many City tax revenues going to PD instead of the needs of 25,000 young folks in public, charter and private schools who reside in Bridgeport. Where is your integrity on these issues? Time will tell.
OIB Readers- Does Ganim2 have solidarity with the areas of concern outlined in the Draft Report of Chief Charles Ramsey?? If these aren’t Ganim’s concerns, should we know that now? Want to expand on this list? What have you discussed with your Council person? It is a time for questioning and listening and lots of thinking before coming to decisions on change that we may have to live with for decades into the future.
Citizen Problems, Issues and/or Concerns
Relating to Police Department and Public Safety: “Protect and Serve”
Based on Draft Outline of Consultant Charles Ramsey:
• Building Trust
• Community Policing/Engagement
• Use of Force
• Training
• Policy Updates
• Communications
• Wellness Programs for Officers
• Facilities/ Equipment / Technology
• Staffing
What issues might you note to attach to any of these nine (9) headings? Are there other subjects you would add to this list?
Time will tell.
Showing solidarity with those who make demands as opposed to requests might have costly politcal results but showing solidarity with those who sleep on concrete might make the mayor dream of a lumpy mattress.
JML
Take a pill and lie down. I’m afraid you might explode. Did you get to address the council last night? Is that why you are so out of control ???
Troll,
You are unafraid of anything pragmatic for Bridgeport residents and voters. A question for me? That you cannot answer? When you looked at those signed up to address the Council, I guess you could see my name was not there, but you still asked the question and then suggest my emotions put me at risk of exploding rather than deal with the multiple reasons revealed in the outline why citizens are concerned. When you go on attack with others whom you cannot have an intelligent or logical discussion, you resort to name calling or amateur psychology. The attempts at put-down regularly says more about your personal state of mind,, rather than mine, IMO. TIME WILL TELL>
Jeff Kohut, you have pointed out some key points about Joe Ganim and the police department and his continuing effort to control the BPD. Ganim worked hard to get rid of the special master and this history that the City Council knows little or nothing about.
The Bridgeport Guardians, a group of black police officers, in 1978 they sued the city and its police department in 1978 claiming racial discrimination of black officers. Following a trial, Chief U.S. District Judge T.F. Gilroy Daly, now deceased, found widespread discrimination in terms of the assignment, promotion and discipline of black officers. He appointed William Clendenen, a New Haven lawyer, as a special master to oversee the treatment of black officers within the department.
Over the decades, Clendenen conducted numerous hearings and wrote several rulings critical of the department and its management. Damages, as well as Clendenen’s fees, were paid by Bridgeport. A $900,000 fine was imposed against the city for violating court orders, but never paid.
The BPD took one step forward and one step back and they are right where they started out from. Don’t look for reform and change with some of old guard like David Dunn keeping testing as business as usual.