Paris: Cops See The Best And Worst Of Humanity And Everything In Between

Chuck Paris
Chuck Paris. CT Post photo Ned Gerard.

Chuck Paris, president of the Bridgeport Police union, has seen a lot in his years on the force as well as the roughly 400 others who currently put on a uniform. In this commentary that first appeared in the CT Post, Paris shares his perspective on the death of 15-year-old Jayson Negron in a police-involved shooting. “Understanding what the world looks like from our vantage point will be helpful as we piece together the tragic shooting of Jayson Negron and its devastating impact on everyone involved, including the dedicated officers who responded to the call of danger.”

The events of Tuesday, May 9 and their aftermath deeply impacted our community and also served as a reminder of the challenges police officers face on a daily basis. As president of the Bridgeport Police Union, AFSCME Local 1159, I’d like to offer my account and my perspective.

It was that day that an officer-involved shooting occurred in the area of Fairfield Ave and Park Ave. According to what I’ve been told, Bridgeport police officers responded to the location after a call for assistance was requested by other officers in the area who observed a stolen vehicle that was occupied. Officers attempted to stop the vehicle but the operator refused to stop.

Within minutes, the vehicle was stopped and the officers exited their cruiser in an attempt to detain the occupants. The operator refused to leave the vehicle when ordered by the officer. The incident resulted in two individuals being shot, one fatally, and three police officers getting injured. Trust me–this is an outcome you never want to see happen.

The next day I attended a press conference at the mayor’s office in city hall. Several citizens, clergy, reporters and police officers attended, everyone had the same opinion: the incident was tragic and the loss of a young life was overwhelming.

I listened to several accounts from the invited speakers. Most had the same message that we all need to do better. Others wanted to turn this into a community against the police. One gentleman talked about how parents need to do better and teach their children that they should respect authority, further observing that Jayson Negron did not wake up in the morning expecting to die.

That caused me to think about the police office involved in the shooting. When he woke up that same morning, put on his uniform, and drove to work, the fact that he would have to make a life-changing decision was the last thing on this mind.

I have heard all kinds of comments about the shooting, including the suggestion that the officer in question only had limited time on the streets. This kind of criticism is misleading, because the process to become a police officer is lengthy and demanding and filled with real-world training. Your life changes forever when you make a commitment to protect and serve.

It begins with rigorous preparation that includes testing, followed by months of background checks, physical, psychological and medical exams. When you are finally accepted, more than a year has elapsed. You then go through seven more months of training, followed by three months in field training with a veteran officer. Only then can you be put in a patrol car for assignment.

Not everyone can be a police officer. It is truly a calling. You see the best and worst of humanity and everything in between. Our officers field over 400 calls for service a day, everything from noise complaints to domestic violence calls, suicide responses, car stops, counseling children and older adults about crime prevention and so on. We are asked to protect lives, homes and businesses.

The badges we wear may symbolize law enforcement, but we are often assigned the additional roles of social workers and bridge-builders. We go to work each day to keep our neighborhoods safe, unsure whether we will come home in one piece. When disaster strikes, we come to the rescue. We face down criminals with automatic weapons–entire arsenals in some cases–while carrying only a service weapon. When others run from danger, we run directly into it.

Understanding what the world looks like from our vantage point will be helpful as we piece together the tragic shooting of Jayson Negron and its devastating impact on everyone involved, including the dedicated officers who responded to the call of danger.

I am proud of the men and women of the Bridgeport Police Department who put on the blue uniform every day. We will never quit on our city. I am proud, too, that our community held together after May 9, and did not listen to any outside influences motivated by hate rather than by healing.

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19 comments

  1. First let me say this , I have no use for the 7nion president and I firmly believe Police Chief Perez should be fired.
    That being said I back Police Officer James Boulay 100%. I am sure he did what had to be done.
    The CT Post is a fucking rag that is trying to start a lot of civil unrest
    with their articles on this incident they make it sound like the 2 officer came into work that morning and said we have been slow so lets go shot a few PR’s. What total bull shit by the post. They are showing a dirt bag lawyer and the dead boys father who are saying they might sue the city. BTW the post states that this kids father is a tattoo artist well if he is he is the only one with no tats. Lets let the State Police do their job and lets hope that some day the post reporters will do their jobs. I am sorry a young kid died but you have to obey the law.
    Office Boulay THANK YOU

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    1. Hey Butthead, I don’t think anyone should demonize to “JOB” of what the police forces does. I am sure that the cops see more of the worst of humanity in their job in what they have to deal with. Let’ face it, people don’t call 911 want things are going well.

      The key word here is “HUMANITY”, are cops not human too. What about the best and worst in their HUMANITY? How many cops themselves fall under Chuck’s description of what they see daily, from domestic violence, suicide response, and everything in between, when they themselves put on that badge and uniform and when they take it off? Form Racist letters, Beardsley Park beating, finder bender beating, etc. etc., and that is only what we read in the paper or see on a video. Imagine what we don’t see and don’t know.

      We hear this all the time, “don’t let a few bad apple spoil the bunch” There are many questions that revolves around this. What do you do with these bad apples? Do these bad apples spoil other apples? Are these apples placed in the basket on purpose? I know body cameras for officers are a tool to prevent the worst of humanity those bad apples, at least when they put the uniform on.

      Yet it is fought vigorously to hinder officer’s form requiring cameras as part of their uniform. It shows how far up those bad apples advanced. Unless you view the police force as gangsters in organize crime using the law. What are we really talking about?

      However if not, I do have few questions for any officers how puts on the uniform and who is reading this. If the car was the threat and the diver was the person wielding the treat why did the passenger get shot? If you are trained to shot at critical mass did the shot that hit the passenger missed its mark? Could this have been two deaths instead of one?

      More importantly if it was your grandson shot and potently killed in an incident like this where he was not a threat to any officer as a passenger, will you still stand behind the needed deadly force in this incidence because of a crime of (well we’re not quite sure) riding in a stolen car, and the warranted death of your grandson because the badge and uniform you put on?

      Chuck cops do see the best and worst of humanity and things that no human should ever see or experience, but was these the worst where death is warranted? It is not my realm so I leave it up to YOU to decide on what is appropriate.

      PS Butthead.

      https://www.tenor.co/view/middlefinger-jesus-gif-5722443

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  2. This guy’s barely a cop, as he’s been hiding at his full-time union job forever. I’m glad about one thing… he got someone to write for him.

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  3. *** I don’t know, unless you were right @ the scene during the police shooting, how anyone who is not bias one way or another can have a clear cut opinion on what really happen & weather or not the shooting was justified. I will wait for the independent investigation & all the rest of the info. To be released in the near future before I make my decision and give my opinion! ***

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  4. Hey Rosnick it has been proven that this vehicle was stolen in April of this year and reported as recovered the day after the incident. Now What???

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    1. Hey Butthead, I am far from a rocket scientist. This is a serious incident though. I can see the lawyers manipulating the case. I can’t see lawyers making a bold falsehood that can be easily proven by the police in the case against them. It can’t be that hard for the cops to determine the status of the car. As soon as the lawyer made that statement the police would have or should have countered the claim with factual evidence, and not a Carfax. http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/check-carfax-18743237

      A car doesn’t have to be stolen for the operator to use it as a weapon on a police officer, and a stolen car doesn’t automatically make it a weapon used against a police officer.

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  5. Listen you fucking idiot the cops are not going to present their case in public so that dumb asses like you can write about it. You have no training (yes I do). It became a weapon when they tried to run the officers down. Haven’t you read anything correctly on this incident. Do us all a favor and shut the fuck up. You can bet the cops knew it was a stiolen car that is why the tried to stop it Dah.

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    1. The police won’t present their case but union president makes a public commentary in the paper about this incident to the citizens ,and how cops see the best and worst of humanity, and address comments on social media but doesn’t call out the laying lawyer of the father of the child has died about their claim the car was not stolen. and I’m the idiot.

      PS Butthead if I have read anything correctly it was because no one is writing correctly.

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  6. The way I see if this car wasn’t stolen, the City’s on the hook for some serious lawsuites. For the grace of God lets just say these cops and the lack of training put themselves and other officers endanger that created this tragic but avoidable incidence.

    He should not continue to be an officer, bodycameras needs to be issued to all officers, and some heads in the BPD are going to roll

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  7. Let me get this straight according to you this was not a stolen car? You base this on what? There is no grace of guard here what the fuck do you think this is TV and if it don’t go right you get a do over? This REAL there is no make believe here. You really are clueless BTW change the foil in your buck rogers helmet

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    1. I don’t know if the car was stolen. I would think the police would refute the claim that it wasn’t and counter the lawyers claim the car was not stolen in his commentary that we are posting on. So far we have to CTpost, who you called a fucking RAG and report on the Carfax.

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        1. Butthead, I won’t say I’m the brightest bulb in the chandelier but you are a genuine idiot. No one said the BPD would do their investigation through the paper or blog. In fact they’re not even doing the investigation into this incident.

          However the president of the Bridgeport Police Union, AFSCME Local 1159, wanted to offer his account and his perspective in the incident vie Ct post and Lennie of OIB shared.

          “It was that day that an officer-involved shooting occurred in the area of Fairfield Ave and Park Ave. According to what I’ve been told, Bridgeport police officers responded to the location after a call for assistance was requested by other officers in the area who observed a stolen vehicle that was occupied. Officers attempted to stop the vehicle but the operator refused to stop…”

          Chuck said according to” what he has been told” the car was stole, there was a pursuit, and an office shot the occupants of the car, killing one and injuring the other, because he feared for his life and his fellow offices.
          We were also told by the father’s attorney of the deceased kid that the police account was wrong. The car appeared not to be stolen, there was not pursuit, and the officers life was not endanger.

          Since the president of the BPD Union is just going on what he was told about the incident and shared it to the Ct Post. We really don’t know if the car was stolen or not. The lawyer placed doubt on the car being stolen. The police didn’t provide evidence to show it was a stolen car. We have just had a story from the “RAG” CT POST about the Carfax in the vehicle.

          There are two words that need to be addressed, “perspective” and “intent” From chuck’s perspective, from what he was told, the shooting officer, Bouley felt his and his fellow officer life were endangered so he shot the suspects. One also has to look at the intent of the kid who was driving the car. Was his intent to run down and kill or harm these officers? And why did the passenger get shoot if he was never a treat to any officers?

          My opinion is simple if the car was not stolen as the father’s lawyer suggested the “intent” of the 15 year old kid driving in a car wanted to run down to kill or harm these officers to get away from a motor vehicle violates. It is hard for a community to comprehend the death of kid for driving a car, For the most part they can’t comprehend a 15 kid wanting to run down and kill or harm an officer if the was stolen.

          The status of the car is one of many questions as to what happen and how this incident was handled, but it should be the easiest to resolve. I stand by assessment if the car was not stolen it’s even worse for the City and BPD. If our police department had bodycams for its officers the city and the community would know if the shooting was righteous.

          PS. Butthead.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=871-3XMhtAk

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          1. You really are clueless please don’t answer this because you don’t know shit. How would the body cam tell the fucking community the car was stolen. The community should be wondering what a 15 year old is doing riding around with a 21 year old in a stolen car

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  8. Butthead,
    You are an idiot. The pressing question for the community is why an 15 & 21 year olds are driving in a stolen car? Not how they they got shot by the police where the 15 year old died? I said body cameras would show the community if the shooting was righteous.

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