In a commentary about recent shootings at Trumbull Gardens housing project, 2011 petitioning candidate for mayor Jeff Kohut writes, “The mayoral candidates must all demand swift, decisive, state and federal action, and even permanent state and federal law-enforcement presence, including street presence on a permanent basis, until we are certain the rising criminal-terrorist element in Bridgeport has been fully subdued.” From Kohut:
The recent (June 12), gang-terrorist-style attack on apparently gang-unaffiliated persons engaging in peaceful, late-night socialization and revelry in Trumbull Gardens would seem to be an indication of a reckless rage driven by occult motives. (The term “occult” is not being used in any intentional religious sense here.)
In this attack, in which nine innocent people were shot, with one being killed, by three gunmen, the blood-chilling comment of one of the murderers being to the effect of, “Kill them all! Don’t leave anyone alive!,” must give one pause to take note of the apparently, planned, cold-blooded violence perpetrated solely for the purpose of terrorizing the residents of the Trumbull Gardens neighborhood.
Those in law enforcement must surely be brainstorming and investigating this incident to both identify the shooters and discern their motive.
To the citizen observer of this incident and its aftermath of terrorized, intimidated Trumbull Gardens residents and the Bridgeport community at large, it would seem that there had to a motive, and that the motive was (obviously) the terrorization and intimidation of the neighborhood, the city, and the city’s leadership and police force. The police have not indicated gang warfare was involved, nor have they indicated there are leads on any suspects.
One has to further ask why this neighborhood would be chosen as a terror target by persons who were probably locals, familiar with the neighborhood.
The answer to this latter question, using history as a guide in the search for a basis motive, it would seem the basis motive was to clear the surroundings of peaceful, neighborhood persons during late-night hours. The reasons for this would be, of course, to allow those terrorists to control life in Trumbull Gardens. For what purpose? The usual–to make money. The illegal vending of drugs is difficult when peaceful, law-abiding people are out and about in their neighborhood. Sequester them in their homes, through terror, and you have clear sailing for the return of a brisk, late-night drug trade on Trumbull Avenue from suburbanites and Bridgeporters willing to make a quick trip down Trumbull Avenue… A return to the “good old days” when drug-money flowed into the coffers of Trumbull Gardens drug entrepreneurs.
While this scenario–a terrifying trip back to the lawless ’80s and ’90s–is disconcerting enough for this life-long Bridgeporter, the implications of the late-night shooting of another man in Trumbull Gardens on July 6 by two gunmen, who indiscriminately fired many shots from semiautomatic weapons toward the severely injured man and the apartments in the background–with a contingent of Bridgeport Police officers within the range of the shooting–shows a recklessness and boldness that compliments the previous terror attack of June 12 in a most alarming manner.
What we are witnessing is the development of an organized criminal element in Bridgeport that is as bold and reckless as any foreign terrorist organization. We are witnessing the rise of a home-grown criminal-terrorist organization that is apparently willing–if not anxious–to engage and kill not only innocent civilians, but also police officers.
We must also ask if this new criminal-terrorist element is homegrown, or recruited to be part of a terrorist gang infiltration from elsewhere. These are questions that need to be addressed by our local police, state police, the FBI, et al., before our city is again driven into an untenable public-safety nightmare a la the late ’80s and early ’90s.
The state and federal government must pull out all stops and help our understaffed BPD secure this city, NOW!
With gun violence up by nearly 100% from last year, and murders up some 600% for the same time period as last year, and with one neighborhood the target of a bold, terrorist gang takeover with shootings and shooting injuries/murders up over 200%,
there is no time for talk and photo-ops. The mayoral candidates must all demand swift, decisive, state and federal action, and even permanent state and federal law-enforcement presence, including street presence on a permanent basis, until we are certain that the rising criminal-terrorist element in Bridgeport has been fully subdued. (Crime stats cited above were extrapolated from OIB crime stats listed in an OIB article from July 8.)Public safety threats and fears must not be allowed to derail our renaissance planning and its timely implementation… The Trumbull Gardens terrorist incidents portend citywide trouble in the near future. Law enforcement and social/economic remedies must be applied forthwith, in a coordinated manner.
State and federal representation should be working with the City, BPD, and community to secure our neighborhoods now–not after the mayoral election. This effort should draw on information/suggestions from the mayoral campaigns and their community supporters in a collaborative, pragmatic manner for the sake of the city, putting all politics aside in a show of common concern for the city and its people.
Elections, such as health studies, should suspend standard procedure and administer “medicine” when is clear effective treatments have been identified and cures can be accomplished without further experimentation. Let the good public-safety ideas from the mayoral campaigns be put to use irrespective of politics in the case of the Trumbull Gardens and potential, citywide criminal uprising. Let’s see some pragmatism, altruism, and leadership from the mayoral candidates in this regard. It could make this contentious election season our finest hour and create a spirit of collaboration even among rivals, which could only help to paint a noble face on Bridgeport, which could only help our cause.
Wake me when he stops writing …
Zzzzzzzzz
Disrespect for a good, honest, intelligent man. But then I’m not surprised, men like Jeff are far and few in between, so that childish comment doesn’t surprise me.
Please Lisa, just because you and Jeff are supporting the same candidate for mayor, that does not lend any credence whatsoever to this fantasy.
Without an arrest being made or a suspect identified, Jeff has inferred the motive to the shooting.
Jeff has determined this is a terrorist action. And in Jeff’s mind it has already spread beyond Trumbull Gardens and is a citywide plot.
Is he suggesting we call in the National Guard?
Suspend civil liberties?
Institute a NYC stop and frisk program throughout the city?
Just a tad over the top, don’t you think or is this the new Ganim solution? Instead of police substations he will now open up campaign sponsored National Guard camps throughout the city to counter this terrorist action.
Jeff, are you reading what the candidates are saying? You have two candidates doing photo-ops for a police substation and another candidate who has given a detail plan on how to address those shootings.
Next, how many of the Bridgeport police officers live here, how many were not born here? When have you read anywhere a police officer turns in another police officer for doing something wrong? Now we want the residents of Trumbull Garden to speak out on who committed those shootings when the police can’t do that and who is going to protect them after they speak up? How many of these police officers ever lived in Trumbull Garden or have family or friends living there? Trumbull Garden is slowly turning into “New Jack City.”
Bob, you should know me better than that. I never heard or read Jeff is supporting Ganim. I speak from personally knowing Jeff as a friend who is entitled to his opinions. I was just surprised at your frivolous response. There are many who deserve your critical observations and your ability to make a point with wit. Not Jeff.
Jeff has provided a thoughtful expression of the situation at Trumbull Gardens and Bridgeport in general. Scholars and practitioners have been warning society of the alarming cultural norms in public housing projects for decades. The mission statement in the documents establishing Yellow Mill Village (which later became the infamous Father Panik Village) said the purpose was to “provide clean, affordable housing for the workers of Bridgeport.” “Workers?”
Public housing projects, including scattered site and the various forms of rental assistance have become the housing component of a failed social welfare system. The behavior, including violence in the drug-based criminal underworld, has been a concern for decades and predates more recent concerns with the eroding of employment in urban centers such as Bridgeport. Reduction in density, such as the transformation from Beardsley Terrace to Trumbull Gardens has not changed the culture associated with public housing projects, that of a population dependent on government entitlements taxpayers are burdened with.
The solution? Long term, it certainly is not police ‘posts’ or gun buyback programs. These are just lame feel-good programs created by politicians to give the appearance of action being taken. There is a serious social problem with no quick solution to undo behavior set in motion by well-intended government programs. It would take statesmen, not politicians in leadership roles.
Thank you Tom and Lisa.
Bob; it is clear you didn’t read the commentary thoroughly or effectively. If you had, you would have seen I gave all candidates credit for ideas and admonished them to work together, as part of a unified local, state, federal initiative to nip what looks like a potentially disastrous situation in the bud.
Bob: It would appear you are very anxious and having a hard time focusing. Try a re-read and think of how your candidate and her campaign can be part of the effort to address the aforementioned situation in a timely way.
Ron: Please read my commentary again. I don’t want to put anyone at risk–quite the contrary, actually.
Jeff, I know you were not trying to put anyone at risk and I understand what you and Tom White are saying. Public housing was not design for families to live there for life but for 5 to 7 years, enough time for a family to get on their own to save and to move out. But life changed with a number of wars, drugs and a bad economy over the past 70 years.
“With gun violence up by nearly 100% from last year, and murders up some 600% for the same time period.”
Show your work on murders up 600% please.
Bridgeport Rising (you liked my campaign slogan from 2011–thanks!): I made an inadvertent error in calculating the increase in the murder rate for similar periods in 2014 and 2015 to present; in 2014, there were two murders as of this date and in 2015 there have been eight–that would translate to an increase of only 300% from year to year. Sorry! Good catch!
What is the residents’ responsibility in this?
Quentin: The residents often have very little choice in regard to their response to criminal activity in high-crime neighborhoods. Without the resources to relocate–especially in regard to people with children–they have to opt for keeping a low profile and not risking retaliation from criminals in response to resident’s cooperation with the police. They are between a rock and hard place, which is why they need government intervention on their behalf. Among the principle reasons for the existence of government is to protect us from each other (which is a very, very sad testament regarding the dark side of human nature).
Now if individuals who have only themselves to consider want to step up to the plate and cooperate with the authorities in a reactive or proactive way, that is an ideal situation for crime-ridden neighborhoods.
But truly, we now have the technology and public-safety expertise to deal with situations on behalf of citizens without putting them at undue risk. We have government and elected officials for the purpose of the implementation of necessary measures to protect us from situations such as the Trumbull Gardens situation. A proactive city government could have, and should have had measures in place that would have prevented that situation. (Of course, society’s problems can’t all be solved by government–but there are some basic things that can be effected through government that will go a long way in making society safer and more “civilized.”)
Jeff, President Johnson made a bold attempt to tackle America’s social problems with the signing the 1965 and 1968 Civil Right laws. His efforts with the war on poverty were never fulfilled because of the Vietnam War, America could not afford to fight two wars at the same time. Today America will not fight those unsolved social issues because people will think there are others out there who will get something for free and they will say, what about me, can I get something?
You’re right, Ron. Our priorities as a country and society were screwed up and confused then, and they’re still screwed and confused today. We get ourselves bogged down sticking our nose where it doesn’t belong (and killing innocents as collateral damage–making enemies in the process), while at the same time neglecting the home front and allowing our own culture and society to regress and decay. Like the song asks, “… when will they ever learn? …”