Those were some of Bridgeport’s craziest years — 1979-82 — with the mob war (with the shoot-outs on the Merritt and Madison Avenue, and Frank Piccolo gunned down on Main and Jewitt…). And then there was the FBI-Joe Walsh reverse sting; the Melanie Law red-light-house raid and its client list; Tommy Marra executing members of his adolescent-car-thieves ring… And then came the crack cocaine era and the Reagan Administration abandonment of the cities when Bridgeport really went over the deep end…
Lennie; a writer like you could craft a play, a TV series, or a War and Peace-length book — or all three — about this place…
Jeff it was riotous to cover as a young reporter. Mandy wore a bullet proof vest during the ’81 mayoral election, cars firebombed in his driveway; another in front of Paoletta headquarters. No wonder you led a neighborhood security patrol!
Lennie, any word on where they buried the woman in the Nissan? I can imagine her getting tied up on a chair and Hell’s Angels taking turns with a rifle.
Are we out of the crazy years, yet?
Do people use the limited chances to speak up and share their issues? Or are they so starved for CIVICS participation that the information and data do not reach them?
Folks on the City Council are not recognized by those in their Districts too often. Why are they not more active indicating what they stand for, or what they will actively attempt to defeat that is part of the ‘current’ status quo?
Where is community leadership that calls for the ‘common good’? Time will tell.
If people are starving for CIVICS participation where information is not reached? It is fair to say they are either fasting, participating on a hunger strike or they don’t like the bullshit that is being fed to them.
If you are not fed, do you realize that you are starving “your rights” and that the death of rights without pushback foreshadows the death of the citizen?
Or if your diet eliminates quality information and exercise of citizen rights, you can become malnourished, too weak to be generally responsive to voting, absent at the polls regularly, without a narrative to connect the scarce dots, you become the “walking wounded”.
If you accept every narrative offered, uncritically, without question, do you become so “full of ..it” that you become overweight, bloated, and without enough energy to even raise an eyebrow?
When will adults in Bridgeport look for the info that is just below the surface? An opportunity exists through CASUAL CIVICS CONVERSATIONS held in each of ten voting districts? Ask you City Councilperson for the dates, place, and time. All questions deserve a response, and enough listening to indicate understanding and needed action. Time will tell.
Have, you ever felt the hunger pains of starvation, not voluntarily, That government block of cheese can only go so far before being reloaded, though thing seem to have improved on that front.
Your rights, are on the back burner, if the gas is on in such hunger pains, I think we dress up the concepts of one’ s rights, Isn’t one’s rights just another thing being served/fed?
Perhaps, voters seem to view voting not as a means self nutrition but more as a meal to fatten those in the political game, though not without a worm in the hook as beat.
Thought, in such a human jungle where rights are viewed more as a sport than of humanity. Though those rights tend to come from fierce battle depending on the food chain you find yourself on, wouldn’t you say mama bear/LV?
Great stuff Lennie.. interesting read
Those were some of Bridgeport’s craziest years — 1979-82 — with the mob war (with the shoot-outs on the Merritt and Madison Avenue, and Frank Piccolo gunned down on Main and Jewitt…). And then there was the FBI-Joe Walsh reverse sting; the Melanie Law red-light-house raid and its client list; Tommy Marra executing members of his adolescent-car-thieves ring… And then came the crack cocaine era and the Reagan Administration abandonment of the cities when Bridgeport really went over the deep end…
Lennie; a writer like you could craft a play, a TV series, or a War and Peace-length book — or all three — about this place…
Jeff it was riotous to cover as a young reporter. Mandy wore a bullet proof vest during the ’81 mayoral election, cars firebombed in his driveway; another in front of Paoletta headquarters. No wonder you led a neighborhood security patrol!
Lennie, any word on where they buried the woman in the Nissan? I can imagine her getting tied up on a chair and Hell’s Angels taking turns with a rifle.
Are we out of the crazy years, yet?
Do people use the limited chances to speak up and share their issues? Or are they so starved for CIVICS participation that the information and data do not reach them?
Folks on the City Council are not recognized by those in their Districts too often. Why are they not more active indicating what they stand for, or what they will actively attempt to defeat that is part of the ‘current’ status quo?
Where is community leadership that calls for the ‘common good’? Time will tell.
John, we have to define “Crazy”
If people are starving for CIVICS participation where information is not reached? It is fair to say they are either fasting, participating on a hunger strike or they don’t like the bullshit that is being fed to them.
Part 1
click count. 😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1F3Z2knF4s
My bad,
Think about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgBIaIRRXKM&t=211s
If you are not fed, do you realize that you are starving “your rights” and that the death of rights without pushback foreshadows the death of the citizen?
Or if your diet eliminates quality information and exercise of citizen rights, you can become malnourished, too weak to be generally responsive to voting, absent at the polls regularly, without a narrative to connect the scarce dots, you become the “walking wounded”.
If you accept every narrative offered, uncritically, without question, do you become so “full of ..it” that you become overweight, bloated, and without enough energy to even raise an eyebrow?
When will adults in Bridgeport look for the info that is just below the surface? An opportunity exists through CASUAL CIVICS CONVERSATIONS held in each of ten voting districts? Ask you City Councilperson for the dates, place, and time. All questions deserve a response, and enough listening to indicate understanding and needed action. Time will tell.
Have, you ever felt the hunger pains of starvation, not voluntarily, That government block of cheese can only go so far before being reloaded, though thing seem to have improved on that front.
Your rights, are on the back burner, if the gas is on in such hunger pains, I think we dress up the concepts of one’ s rights, Isn’t one’s rights just another thing being served/fed?
Perhaps, voters seem to view voting not as a means self nutrition but more as a meal to fatten those in the political game, though not without a worm in the hook as beat.
Thought, in such a human jungle where rights are viewed more as a sport than of humanity. Though those rights tend to come from fierce battle depending on the food chain you find yourself on, wouldn’t you say mama bear/LV?
https://youtu.be/tzgWffU9keA?si=ayyAafd68msYgYfB