Tuesday evening, following two weekend murders, mothers assembled in front of the Troop G Barracks Downtown urging State Police assistance to supplement city police ranks. Troop G was relocated from Westport to Bridgeport more than 20 years ago by then Governor Lowell Weicker in response to violent crime.
From Fausto Giovanny Pinto, CT Post:
In 1993, Theresa Grant lost her son after he was shot 24 times in front of her home.
The death was one of numerous killings that plagued the city as the murder rate shot up in the ’90s, hovering around 50 per year.
“I saw the State Police come in and it slowed down,” said Grant, a member of YANA, a group of parents who have lost their children to gun violence in the city. “We need to do as much as we can to save the next child.”
Full story here.
All this stuff about the police department. We have Ganim’s idea and we have Finch’s idea and neither one is worth a damn.
Why can’t we train a class of 100 police candidates at one time? Why is 40 the magic number? In NYC they train over 2,000 officers at a time, why do we find it so difficult? Rent the necessary space from one of the colleges and train 100 new officers. This is not rocket science and let’s get it done with a minimum of bullshit. BTW if the PD training division or person can’t do it. give him a walking beat and put someone else there.
Andy, great point, the City is getting federal funds for this exam but they don’t want to put up any funds. There is federal funds with FEMA and Homeland Security the City can apply for to get training funds.
Ron, money for parks and recreations fields comes from where? But it is found routinely this year. Money to increase the City taxpayer component from $2800 per student to begin approaching what New Haven and Hartford pay from City revenues? Can’t be found, but money for terminated City employees wrongfully terminated? Legal defense of bad City judgments like Wheelabrator case where our “experts” cannot justify their own valuation in courts? Driveways in Stratford? Expensive attorney fees from non-local counsel? But money to train officers even though you have a training division? Sharing the real fiscal story? Time will tell.
Now this is irony. Residents marching to the State Police barracks to demand they supplement city cops. Way to go, Chief Gaudett.
Mary-Jane Foster called for assistance from the state police immediately following the shooting up in Trumbull Gardens but Bill Finch never followed up on that in a formal request to the state. Why is that?
Too macho for him and Gaudett to admit they really screwed up with manning on the BPD?
Too cocky to admit they would not solve this quickly???
My heart and compassion are with the mothers who lost their children, period. I praise them for their efforts to prevent others from feeling that unspeakable loss. I lost my son, not in that way, but the loss of a child is the loss of a child, the way and why don’t make it any easier. You are left to live the rest of your life as a different person because of it. The substance of the effort is admirable, and those parents are sincere. I hope nobody ever experiences this unnatural loss. God bless them!
There will be many excuses why the city cannot run a class for 100 rookies at one time. They will say they don’t have enough instructors, then hire private instructors. If New York can do it so can we if we want to.
Here is the problem as I see it. By hiring just 40 police officers but budgeting for 100, Finch has a slush fund. This is a dressed-up version of ghost positions.
hmmm, just a thought. Trying to get guns off the street, bla bla bla, how about if you are caught using a gun for other than self defense, why not 30 yers in prison? 40, 50, gets some seriously harsh punishment.
Andy,
The extra money is being used for OT which is being eaten up like candy at Halloween.
The deputy chief in charge of OT can’t be doing his job. The phasing in of new classes is always a budget gimmick that Sherwood uses but this time it’s not working.
Why doesn’t Ganim open up more of his make-believe substations and try milking that cow some more?
Then Secrest can remind us Ganim is an ex con.
And Ganim isn’t going to say anything because he promised the police union unlimited OT in return for their endorsement.
Andy,
What did we do 40 years ago, before police OT? What have other towns and cities done to provide safe traffic direction with regards to EXTERNAL OVERTIME? Just saying. Time will tell.
John, the question that needs to be answered is how many able-bodied cops are inside doing paperwork? How many are riding bicycles or ATVs or doing anything but riding in a patrol car?
How long are we going to pay officers to ride horses while the killers are riding in cars? Put the seven officers back on the street.
Andy Fardy, some years back you wrote on OIB about staffing and how many police vehicles are on the road and on duty during a 24-hour day, well would you repeat that information?
Ron, a few years ago our TC met with Chief Gaudett and he stated there were 21 police officers on patrol per shift. There are five shifts in the PD thus there are a total of 105 cops on patrol. There were at that time specialized units but they were a joke and got nothing done.
Ron, the police department is badly managed, the chief is where the buck stops but he has a number of chiefs who do absolutely nothing. There are four deputy chiefs who basically answer to no one. They should have been negotiated OUT OF THE UNION AND SERVE AT THE PLEASURE OF THE CHIEF. RIGHT NOW THE CHIEF CAN HAVE A GREAT IDEA BUT IF THE FOUR DEPUTY CHIEFS DON’T LIKE IT THEN IT’S NOT GOING TO FLY BECAUSE THEY WILL BURY IT.
Andy, I still find what you wrote amazing and disturbing. I’m sure most City Council members and the residents of Bridgeport are not aware of those numbers. Plus it gets worse, if someone needs a police car to respond to a crime the police have a list of priorities they respond to so you might not get a police officer because the priority of your call is not important enough.
Ron, I can tell you this happened to me three times. The only way anyone from the PD came here was when my wife went to the PD and told the desk person she wanted to file a complaint. He asked a complaint against who and when she said the Bridgeport PD he just shook his head. My wife told our story and in a few hours a sgt showed up.
The Finch Campaign’s rallying cry is “JOE GANIM IS A CONVICTED FELON!” Never mind the union representing rank-and-file uniformed police officers endorsed the same convicted felon for mayor. Police officers endorsing a felon over the incumbent mayor. Once the irony has sunk in, take a stab at explaining what’s wrong with that picture. Is it because Ganim promised to hire 100 more police officers if elected? Wild Bill Finch tried to take the initiative for that, announcing he was hiring 100 new police officers by 2016. Too late, Bill. Can’t unring a bell.
And what about that police substation in the community room at Trumbull Gardens? You and Big Joe Gaudett notified the press of its opening only 45 minutes or so before its opening. Ganim had one there first. Can’t unring a bell.
WHAT ABOUT AN UPDATE ON TRUMBULL GARDENS???
WHY ISN’T THE CT POST ALL OVER THAT PART OF THE STORY?
NOTHING. NO LEADS. NO NEWS. NO NOTHING!
That my friends is the biggest disgrace.
That is unconscionable.
A Mayor and a Chief of Police who do not have the balls to at least face the public humiliation by saying we need help. Desperately. We are lost in this investigation.
AND YOU KNOW THIS WOULD NOT HAPPEN IN BLACK ROCK!!!
Bob,
The report on changes in City procedure when major snow storms face us? The report identifying who knew who, and who knew what, and exactly what the lawyers said and when regarding Sikorsky Airport and the special driveway built for an out-of-town contractor, friend to many, and who took the fall? The revaluation report prepared a year ago but never released? Is the City sitting there with a serious case of “Reportitis,” the inability to routinely disgorge information vital to the health of the municipality? Early signs include regular attempts to ignore the subject or switch the conversation to another topic; repeated comments on how “the City is getting better daily;” on occasion it may be blamed on a backup in the City Printing office.
Bob, what’s your cure for this revolting disease? Time will tell.
I think the symbolism of these ladies marching outside the State Police barracks sends a powerful message to the city and the State. Young people are being killed in Bridgeport and the Mayor and the Police Chief are unable or unwilling to use every resource available to stop this crime against humanity.
These ladies fully understand the Mayor and the Police Chief are more concerned with the perception of Bridgeport rather than the reality of Bridgeport, where young lives are snuffed out and everything isn’t being done to address this situation.
Why wouldn’t as the chief stewards of public safety for the city of Bridgeport, the Mayor and the Chief use the State Police to help stop these deaths?
Finch and Gaudett don’t like following suggestion or following up on complaints. They don’t give a shit about the people living in subsidized housing, the people living in neighborhoods that have become ghettoized or degenerated into slums. The people who live in those areas don’t vote or pay taxes so why should the mayor’s office care? “They didn’t vote for me so fuck ’em.” The mayor and the police chief do not care if the people in those neighborhoods kill each other. It has nothing to do with race or ethnicity; it has everything to do with class.
It’s more than just our Mayor and Police Chief who are more concerned with perception than reality. Sad reality. True as taxes.
Yes, Donald. You have just defined Bridgeport’s problems in a nutshell; perception is reality in Bridgeport. (That is the Finch Campaign’s mantra.)
The Governor and Mayor and Congressional delegation crank up and resonate with the Bridgeport Propaganda Machine–with the Connecticut Post, under the leadership of the Hearst organization, playing a central role in this deception, and everything in Bridgeport magically becomes safer than ever, greener than ever, cleaner than ever, and more honestly and efficiently run than ever.
Forget about the terrorist gang-related mass shootings and killings of young men. The brilliant, original idea to have a gun buyback program will solve that problem.
And the expensive creation of special “water parks” and “waterfront parks” on land better suited for passive recreation, with respect to the former, and industrial uses, with respect to the latter, will magically solve Bridgeport’s massive unemployment, revenue problems, and broken school system.
And let’s not forget the 52-acre Strip-Mall-By-The-Sea at Steal Point, which will generate “thousands of jobs” and attract tourists from all over the Northeast, and thereby propel Bridgeport into the economic stratosphere. (The greatest BS story ever told.)
Those of use who are more interested in being able to live in Bridgeport for the long term and see Bridgeport’s people live prosperously, securely–and with hope of being part of the dream–know better. We know our city is desperately ill, on life support, and being treated by political witch doctors (Snake oil salesmen) with leaches and prayer rattles so the region can harvest our body parts for their benefit.
Before Bridgeport can get better, people need to know the truth. The smart money knows that.
Only the people anxious to unload real estate or who are trying to curry favor with the political establishment and/or big money down-county are singing the “Better-every-day”/on-the-way-to-the-slaughterhouse song.
And speaking of PD manpower shortages; how on earth is Bridgeport going to safely host the Vibes and maintain public safety in the rest of the city this weekend?! (We might all do well to spend the weekend out of town!)
This turned into a discussion about police overtime. This story is not about police officers earning overtime pay. It is about a group of women who have lost children to gun violence in Bridgeport. Did any of you read the news copy?
“In 1993, Theresa Grant lost her son after he was shot 24 times in front of her home.”
“On Saturday evening, 33-year-old Derrick Hill was shot and killed at Rootsman Kitchen at 500 Park Ave. On Sunday afternoon Kendall Jamar Willis was found hugging the wheel of his car on 36 Staples Street with a gunshot wound to the head.”
People are dying in the streets. Police overtime isn’t killing them. It is the culture of violence the Finch administration has allowed to foment in the city’s poorer neighborhoods. Neglect is like that.
Bridgeport Kid: You are correct to try to keep us on topic; but please keep in mind those of us who strayed off-topic can’t help but think in terms of the big Bridgeport picture that takes form as we are reminded of the single, most essential aspect of the Bridgeport dilemma–the devaluation and tragic loss of human life as a result of the socioeconomic dilemma that defines the reality of our city and the inexcusable reason(s) for that dilemma. You summed it up as “neglect;” I would add it is “purposeful neglect.”
Bridgeport Kid is right. This is a story about a group of women who lost children to gun violence. This is deplorable. But there is also a group of men who lost these same children. And they should be recognized as well. It’s all so very sad.
The Finch administration is cynically trying make urban beautification and “JOE GANIM IS A FELON!” the only issues of the campaign. People are losing husbands, fathers, brothers, cousins to gunfire, gunfire from street gangs fighting over “turf,” the right to sell drugs on property they don’t even legally own.
If the Finch administration really, TRULY cared about the people of the city of Bridgeport, the mayor and the self-important clowns who make all the decisions for him would be creating jobs that pay 50% more than the Department of Social Services doles out in cash benefits and food stamps every month to the average welfare recipient. When the Bluefish came to town there were job fairs at the ballpark. Some of the people hired had never worked before and needed help obtaining social security numbers. Now they have employment and are off the dole.