It’s generally not a good idea to tell city police officers you think you’re an important person in town, especially when they’re about to arrest you. City Councilman Jose Casco, who sits on two key committees, Budget and Appropriations and Ordinances, was arrested Sunday night in a domestic violence dispute involving his wife. He has represented the 136th District that covers a portion of the East Side and the Hollow since March of 2015, filling out the term of Ricky DeJesus and then winning a full two-year term last November.
CT Post reporter Dan Tepfer has more on this:
Okay, they get it: Jose Casco is a city councilman.
Police said when they arrested Casco Sunday night on allegations of domestic violence he just repeated over and over, “I’m a city councilman.”
“He was pretty belligerent about it,” added an officer who didn’t want his name used.
Casco, 49, of Marrian Street, was charged with disorderly conduct. He was appointed to the council in March, 2015 to fill a vacancy and last November won a full two-year term. Casco is also head of the Latino Advocacy Foundation.
Initially held in lieu of $1,000 bond, Superior Court Judge William Holden released Casco on a promise to appear in court, but imposed a protective order barring the councilman from further contact with his wife.
Full story here.
Jose Casco needs to apologize, first to his wife, then apologize to his district and the council for his action and he should have already done this. Right or wrong, he needs to do this.
Ron,
I agree with you on this issue.
No bueno.
Come on, Ron and Frank! A city councilmen should at least be allowed to have some control or access to his cable and television. What he needs to do now is stop paying for the cable. I’d imagine when the wife turns on the TV and finds out the cable is gone, she will say “no bueno.”
IT’S TIME FOR HIM TO LEAVE THE COUNCIL.
Councilman Casco is a human being capable of making mistakes like the rest of us. Some mistakes are small mistakes. Some are more significant as I have learned in my life.
Mistakes within a family often start off with minor issues, like a TV remote, but then escalate rapidly as every unsettled item from past years is brought up so you can be a “winner” in the marital contest. When a marital contest gets martial, arrests, fines and protective orders are part of the system. No winners.
So far, nothing strikes me, except what Tepfer reports Casco said: “I’m a City Council man.” Did he mean that fact excuses or explains his behavior? Did he mean it gets him different treatment like a ‘get out of jail game pass?’ Or perhaps a pass for his personal and family activity being out of bounds and closed to the public? Where would he gain such an idea? Is it included in the City Council rule book to which Tom McCarthy sticks (as long as it provides him support)? Or is it part of the ether breathed in Council meetings that carries over into Council member lives? Of course I do not mean each and every Council person, and I am not picking on Mr. Casco although he may feel so as his behavior in public has caused him to be in review at this moment.
But there are previous Council persons, approved by the Democratic Town Committee whose behavior has been immature, dishonest, financially lacking, subject to issues of emotional control, in general not for the purpose of modeling responsible and respectable behavior to the community he/she was elected to represent. Is that just the way it is, or are people selected because their adult moral compass is compromised in a way known to DTC representatives as a method of control? Makes it easy to control outcomes in the legislature, possibly? Just one friendly family and if you ‘see something,’ remember you ‘say nothing’ contrary to the alternative community dictum: If you see something, say something, meaning you are able and willing to have the backs of your neighbors.
I have no idea what caused the meltdown, but being a Council person is likely not the cause (unless his wife owns taxable property and she found out how he voted). However, it might be suggested Council man Casco reflect deeply on what he needs for himself and his family at this time, and consider it might mean stepping away from this role for a time. Time will tell.
I don’t think the police officers, or any reasonable person, would have had any doubt what he intended by his repeated protestations he was a “Council man.” Like too many of his colleagues, both now and in the past, he seems to believe his office entitles him to special treatment. Just the latest example of the “what’s in it for me’ attitude of too many elected and appointed city officials.
I’m sure when the officers asked him if he voted for the 30% tax increase, the handcuffs came out. If the Judge set bail, I hope he had his city stipend debit card ready!
He sees the Clintons can get away with it, so why not a councilman?
QD, no, he saw Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon get away with it.
Okay Council President McCarthy, what are you going to do?
You and Mayor Finch tried to throw me off the council based on a phone message I left.
This council member was arrested.
Different standards, Tommy?
Bob, great point. The way that was played up in the media one would have thought you were John Gotti.
Or maybe Ron, Council President McCarthy feels racially insensitive remarks are much more punishable than spousal abuse.
No Bubba, different time. Tom doesn’t have the juice he thought he had then and he knows he doesn’t have it now.
Wow! We carry on like one, big, happy Bridgeport family on this blog. (Sometimes the nosy neighbors hear us and can’t resist the temptation to egg us on or take sides. I guess it’s not Mr. Roger’s neighborhood.)
President Nixon did not get away with it, he was forced to resign. On the other hand President Clinton was impeached and finished his term and Hillary was just raked over the coals by the FBI with no charges filed. I will agree with Quentin.
John, you’re wrong, the bigger issue with President Nixon was the illegal break-in of the office of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), located in the Watergate building, then what came along with it like wiretaps, members of Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President, “hush money” for the burglars, trying to stop the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from investigating the crime, destroying evidence and firing uncooperative staff members. These are just a few things that almost destroyed the democracy of America. Clinton was about sex and he hurt his family and friends but Nixon’s actions hurt America for lying and the abuse of power.
Ron–I think the point made here was in response to your assertion Nixon “got away with it,” which is hardly the case since he was forced to resign the presidency in disgrace. Of course none of this has to do with the matter at hand. How unusual is that?
Ron, my response to your post is not wrong, you said he got away with it and he did not. I think your response to my post is more proof Hillary should not be President as her act is “Hurt America for lying and the abuse of power.”
Nixon got away with the system of distrust of power America still has and the fact the voters’ power has decreased.
Ron. I hope all is well. Sounds like you are a Trump man.
Marc, that’s good, we need a little humor.
“Nixon’s Enemies List” ruined the lives of a lot of people’s careers and organizations, that is just a example of getting away with something, it’s the permanent damage he did to so many people. Getting thrown out of office didn’t help anyone on “Nixon’s Enemies List.”
Ron, first of all Nixon didn’t get away with it. Impeachment proceedings forced him to resign in disgrace. Also why are you leaving out half of the facts, especially for those who are too young to know the history? As wrong as Nixon was, he did what he did because of the election fraud and the criminal acts of Joe Kennedy and the Chicago mob in the first election. Nixon felt his actions were necessary because he felt, and the facts support it, he was robbed in that election. Not saying it was right, just the facts of the entire history.
Also how are we going to change the injustices of today by keep going back in history to make excuses for the wrongdoers of the present?
We must understand and learn from history, not use it as an excuse.
When we put our political parties ahead of our fellow citizens and when stop being a country of laws and become a country of men, we are doomed as a country and as a free people.
*** THE WORST THING HE DID OTHER THAN DRINK TOO MUCH AND FIGHT WITH HIS WIFE WAS TO MENTION THE FACT HE IS AN ACTIVE BPT CITY COUNCILMAN. HE’S A CITIZEN JUST LIKE ANYONE ELSE AND NEEDS TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE AND; PLAY A BIG BOY’S GAME! IF HE WERE REALLY DOING A GOOD COUNCILMAN’S JOB AND WORKING HIS DISTRICT AND BPT IN GENERAL, SOME RESIDENTS, CITY WORKERS, POLICE AND FIRE DEPT PERSONAL, ETC. WOULD HAVE KNOWN WHO HE WAS AND HE PROBABLY COULD HAVE GOTTEN A PTA AT THE STATION AFTER A FEW HOURS TO COOL OFF. ***
*** A MINOR DOMESTIC OFFENSE, THAT’S REALLY NOTHING NEW IN BPT BY A CITY COUNCIL MEMBER WHO THOUGHT HIS CITY POSITION CARRIES A GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD! *** MAYBE IF HE LIVED ON BOARDWALK OR PARK PLACE HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO PASS GO AND JAIL, THEN COLLECT $200. *** WAKE-UP CALL! ***