From Dan Tepfer, CT Post:
Charles “Chuck” Paris, the longest serving president of the city’s police union, is hanging up his holster.
After 26 and a half years as a police officer in the city, Sgt. Paris is set to retire next Friday.
“My time has come,” he said in his typically blunt fashion. “I did my best to make things better.”
Police Chief Armando Perez said he has known Paris most of his life.
“He is a man of great integrity, a true servant of the people who cares about the men and women in the police department,” Perez said. “He and I went to war and back together and I’ve always had great respect for him. He will truly be missed in this city.”
Full story here.
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Chuck Paris……..THANK YOU for your 26 1/2 years of service to the People of Bridgeport. However,I cannot agree with his leadership of the BPU. A culture of “what’s in it for me” has been allowed to develop. Unfortunately, IMHO,the same attitude and culture is pervasive amongst City employees and even some “civic” leaders. I have referred to this in the past as the “Testa Virus.”
He’s been one of the problems with the force for decades. Folks are quick to talk about overtime abuse. Who do you think works to keep it going? For a guy who’s never been a real cop (Union Pres is a desk job with no policing duties) I’ll be his pension is stacked with overtime.
Keep in mind that first of all it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks of him. He was the leader of his union and as such his job was to get the best possible deals that he could for the people he represents.
Complaints that anyone has with ANY benefits gained by ANY union should be directed at the entities that agreed to grant the negotiated items in question, NOT at the unions who were crafty enough to have obtained those gains. Be it political patronage, friendships, underhanded deals, or ANY other means used to obtain contractually agreed upon items, it’s ultimately in the hands of elected officials to grant and distribute those benefits.
Cheers!
I’m hopeful the dedicated women and men of Local 1159 can aspire to do better. Your view, is it’s ok to be greedy as long as someone rewards that? Pretty typical…
No that’s not my view, that’s a fact. You are ill-informed. I don’t know what he did as a police officer so I can’t speak to that but for you to generalize that a union president in charge of a police union has never done anything police related shows that you have no idea what you’re talking about. I was my police union president for four years. I made significant gains for my union using whatever tactics I could to do so. That’s what I was elected to do in each of my 1 year terms. Prior to that I was in narcotics and street crimes and when I was in uniform division i patrolled the housing projects. I had some years where I made over 300 arrests. So for you to make that statement is just wrong and shows that you’re just pissed off at the benefits that were bargained for by him and his union, Which as I said before had to be agreed upon by YOUR elected officials. The only reason that so much money is spent on police overtime EVERYWHERE is because that there is no police department that is adequately staffed. The politicians understand that it’s actually cheaper to pay for one person to do more, then to hire a second person. Go research and find out for yourself. If you’re that angry at what police officers make and the benefits that they receive then make sure that you elect politicians who will be able to strip those benefits and thin out those contracts and then good luck to you and them trying to hire new police officers.
Cheers.
Thanks for the bio, genius.
Yes you’re quite welcome. Try living without police protection and then get back to me!!
Similarly, try it without fire department protection, etc etc etc.