From State Senator Ed Gomes:
Current occupant of the late Sen. Alvin Penn’s legislative seat calls for full enforcement of the 1999 Racial Profiling Prohibition Act
State Senator Ed Gomes (D-Bridgeport) today offered comment on the recent arrest of four East Haven police officers for racial profiling, and offensive comments on the subject made by East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo.
Senator Gomes also called for the 1999 Racial Profiling Prohibition Act, known as the “Alvin Penn Act,” to be fully enforced.
“The overwhelming evidence of racial profiling in East Haven must be taken seriously by everyone, including public officials, police officers, and citizens of every race. Mayor Maturo might have wanted tacos for dinner, but he ended up eating crow instead,” said Senator Gomes.
He continued, “The FBI has intervened in East Haven, and justice will be served there. Yet racial profiling still exists in countless other places, and typically goes unreported and unpunished. The indifference of Mayor Maturo and others toward the civil rights of their fellow citizens emphasizes the need for the decade-old Alvin Penn Act to finally be enforced.”
Senator Gomes now represents the 23rd Senatorial District of Bridgeport and Stratford, the same seat once held by the late Senator Alvin Penn.
In 1999, Senator Penn won passage of the Racial Profiling Prohibition Act, which requires municipal police departments to report traffic stop data to the State of Connecticut on an annual basis to be analyzed for evidence of racial profiling.
Yet according to 2010 data, only 27 police departments have consistently submitted reports. There are 92 municipal police departments in Connecticut.
“It is truly dispiriting how many of our law enforcement officers and organizations are openly flouting the law,” said Senator Gomes.
A Profile of Courage!
Thank you Senator Gomes for your statement. The late Senator Penn caught hell from police all over Connecticut when he ran for re-election but he didn’t back down. Now Senator Gomes is stepping up to ask for full enforcement of the Penn Act on racial profiling. Once again, thank you Senator Gomes.
*** Time for all 92 municipal police depts in CT to be required to get on board with the profiling act, no? *** POWER TO THE PEOPLE! ***
*** Where are the other Bpt legislators on enforcing this act? *** TEAMWORK ***
East Haven Police chief throws in the towel.
www .msnbc.msn.com/id/46189893/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
Grimaldi out-scooped again!
Mayor Maturo has shown his total ignorance and lack of respect for his constituents. Asshole would be be too kind a description for a very foolish man. His comments were beyond outrageous.
East Haven hired this jerk Gallo to run its police department. Gallo was a former New Haven cop who got busted down to working in animal control. It sounds to me like East Haven officials went to the Bridgeport school for hiring assholes.
The majority of Latinos living in East Haven are of Ecuadorian descent. According to a story posted by WPIX 11,
“For Mayor Joe Maturo, Monday meant a new week, a new Police Chief, and, believe it or not, a new racially insensitive comment just days after his infamous, ‘I might have tacos when I go home,’ comment.
“It all revolves around the selection of Jose Velasquez, a Puerto Rican that he first met approximately two months ago, to an advisory board. In a Latino community dominated by Ecuadorians, the New Haven Register reporter essentially asked why a Latino of Puerto Rican descent was selected as opposed to one from the dominant group of Ecuadorians? Maturo’s response, ‘I picked a Latino. Did it have to come from a certain section of the country?’ He then added, “Is he not dark enough for you? Light enough for you?'”
This is disgraceful. After a governor and several big-city mayors went to prison on corruption convictions, after New Haven’s notorious Beat-Down Posse, Joseph Maturo opens his big mouth for all to hear that he’s a bigot.