We’ve had many discussions on OIB this year about an increase in crime impacting all neighborhoods. The East Side and West Side have been hard hit by violent crime. A collective community roar will occur if neighborhoods such as Black Rock, Brooklawn and the North End continue to experience the horror of what the cousin of Gabrielle Parisi suffered leaving a Black Rock bar and grill on Fairfield Avenue. Parisi shares this commentary with OIB.
Okay, so we have a pesky little crime problem in Bridgeport. Okay, so we have a treacherous crime problem in Bridgeport. Never has this fact been more apparent to me than at 12:15 AM this morning, September 23, 2012, when I experienced the rudest of awakenings. My young cousin, housemate, and very best friend, woke me up from what was a pretty decent dream, to invite me into the nightmare of her evening. After a fun night out with her besties at Brennan’s Shebeen, she was held up by a thug brandishing a big, shiny, silver semi-automatic weapon.
The thug proceeded to knock one of the women to the ground (a recent cancer survivor, I might add, still limping from the surgery on her bone-cancer stricken knee), and relieve her of her valuables. Cursing and manhandling the three women involved, this sicko conducted himself as if he was entitled to their hard-earned dough, their smart phones and their handbags. After all, this is Bridgeport, right?
Day after day I read about shootings, murders, robberies and other various and sundry sordid and violent Bridgeport events, but now it’s PERSONAL.
How wretched it is one has to expect to be violated if one chooses to live here and patronize the small businesses in this city. We pay a ton of taxes, we are active in the community, we care about our neighbors, we keep our yards neat and groomed, and we can’t even use the City we pay so dearly to live in.
This, for me, as a VERY frustrated citizen, begs the question: What are we going to do about it? And when?
I am of course grateful she was not hurt, but I feel responsible because it’s MY house she lives in, and I chose Bridgeport. I am beginning to think this choice may have been a monumental lapse in judgment. I hope someday someone will convince me otherwise.
Gabrielle A. Parisi
I wonder if the cops notified the Block Watch?
Interesting that there were no shrines or marches for the UB boy’s murder by the city? I forgot that under the Finch admin. they are known as Who U … B?
Now that you mention it, I haven’t heard one word about the murder of the UB student from the Mayor or the Chief of Police.
But now that I think about it, I haven’t heard one word about the crime rate and the constant, unabating random and senseless murders we’ve had in Bridgeport over the last 18 months or so that has meant anything–no leadership, no guts and no heart.
Gabrielle: I am sorry you have had to deal with this crap. I am sorry your young cousin experienced this awful experience. While I have not been the recipient of physical injuries caused by one of these dirtbags, I have had several crimes against property that cost me thousands of dollars.
I received no police response and was told to go to the PD for a report. I hope your cousin and her friends got better service.
The problem as I have written about the PD many times and also spoke to chief Gaudett about it many times is there are only 21 cops patrolling the city on any given shift. There are so few cops on patrol they do not for the most part respond to quality of life issues anymore.
We are now going to have these same 21 heroes taking care of juveniles who are out past a certain hour thus putting all of us in further danger.
The dirtbags out there know the chances of them being caught by a patrolmen on patrol are slim to none. The crooks know there are only limited patrols. I don’t care what the police report as crime stats, I know these stats are higher than they’ve ever been. The upper management of the PD does not have a clue and won’t change the present policies even though they know they are not working.
I am sorry for Gabrielle and her young cousin. I have had similar experiences myself growing up here, and have posited it has gotten better the last twenty years, but I pay attention to these little details and to me it is not a good sign. What is Mayor Moonbeam going to do? As Mr. Fardy related, I am also the victim of so much annoying thefts costing me thousands of dollars. Houston, we have a problem.
Maybe the citizens of B’port have to start firing back. Police aren’t doing anything.
Thank you Gabrielle Parisi for reporting this ugly and dangerous incident of an aggressive and armed male acting as predator on young women leaving a Fairfield Ave business. (I had left the Shebeen about 70 minutes earlier than this incident after listening to the female lead singer and band performing for about one hour.)
Let’s think about this a moment. Isn’t the Mayor ACCOUNTABLE on this issue? I mean, he is responsible for presenting the Police budget each year. And he is in the forefront when a large capital purchase has been made like the fleet of cars a couple years ago. And doesn’t he appoint the members of the Police Commission? I mean, isn’t that what he wants to do with the Board of Education, if the public approves the Charter question–appoint the members of the BOE? So he can be accountable?
Take a good look at what Mayoral appointment process means in Bridgeport. The Police Commission has seven authorized members and there are no current vacancies. Good. However, starting with Chairman Roach whose term expired on 12/31/05, five other members are serving expired terms that ended on 12/31/08, 09, 10 and 2011. Only one member is serving a term that ends 12/31/14 (though how a two-year term ends more than two years from today is a mystery to me at this moment). I do not plan to ask City Attorney Mark Anastasi for an opinion on this one.
The reality today is most Board and Commission positions are set up so people continue to serve until new members are appointed to replace them. You get no grading or evaluation for your term (like teachers are facing and performance evaluations are a fact of life in private employment, other public employment and many NGO boards, but not in Bridgeport). (That means if you do the bidding or continue to follow the lead of the Mayor and his team you remain appointed. However, if you ask too many questions and you will be replaced. Look at certain land use board replacements in recent years for ‘smoking gun’ evidence of this.)
The Police Commission meets on the third Tuesday of each month. The members are our appointed representatives. Perhaps they need some questions and comments from citizens from all parts of the City? Get in touch with Cruz, Brown, Castillo, Farrow, Lyons, Norman and Dan Roach. What do they have to say about police coverage in the City, about the special teams that drain manpower from regular police presence, about sickness, injury, or malingering that retirement might better serve as Andy has recently questioned? Time will tell.
*** The holidays are right around the corner with no sign of any major improvements concerning crime in general which usually means “it’s going to get worse!” You can only do so much with the limited number of cops the city has out on patrol now and during the holidays, which is probably fewer. Money must be found somewhere for O.T. for local and state PDs if they are to temp join forces for a pre- and post-holiday special operation to address street crime, etc. Crime can spread like cancer in urban cities and the sooner tough measures are taken to address the issues the better it is for all residents and visitors in general. *** CAMERAS RECORD CRIME AND HELP CATCH CRIMINALS! ***
Unmotivated cops lead by a brain-dead sycophant.
I think instead of blaming the people who are here in the city trying to make a difference like the usual JML essay I instead take the approach the county should also be at fault.
The shebeen is walking distance from PT Barnum housing projects … Concentrated poverty the result of a failed government social experiment from 30-40 years ago (where were you then JML?). As long as Bridgeport is forced to shoulder the burden of affordable housing alone there will continue to be a high rate of crime regardless of the police presence.
I don’t blame the mayor or police … I blame the rich yuppie schmucks from Fairfield, Trumbull and beyond in Fairfield county for putting up a virtual wall stopping many hard-working families the opportunity to move out of the city and subsequently deconcentrate poverty and correspondingly reduce crime.
Brick,
Do you think I am a social experimenter? How can ‘the county’ be at fault? What person or governmental structure would you identify when you say ‘the county?’ Where is the ‘wall’ you speak of? Money talks. And you know what walks! You save money first, at whatever level you start, to fund your hopes and dreams. You can buy a property, maybe not the one of your dreams initially, and keep developing and growing. Hard-working families by the thousands have left Bridgeport because they could and found lower taxes, good schools, a more secure feeling regarding threats to person and property and other attractive qualities. Why did they leave? Partly because our infrastructure is not accountable to the needs of the people.
Come back to the topic of Board and Commission terms expiring so more than 80% of these positions are either vacant or long overdue for re-appointment or replacement. Who are the schmucks in the City who allow this to happen year after year, with neither knowledge nor complaint? Time will tell.
I know the players involved somewhat and Gabrielle’s next-door neighbor also has a daughter who attends UB and she is close to Gabrielle’s family. The neighbor also apparently went to high school with Mayor Finch. Needless to say, the Mayor got a phone call today. Who knows if that means a hill of beans.
*** Word on the street is these weekend stick-up boys are not from Bpt; so the club being in the same district as the P.T. Barnum housing apts. and past failed gov. experiments resulting in possible social poverty may not have any bearing in this incident! *** MIB ***
The fact that in a city with high crime and 150,000 residents, to have only 21 cops on the street at any given time is frightening.
*** Bpt P/D is top heavy in brass and overall officer seniority with 25 years plus holding down positions that limits shift and promotional advancements and which also limits opportunity and money for new officer recruits to increase the force size. When you figure in the salaries, insurance, benefits, O.T., pensions, workman’s comp. etc. and add the F/D to the list, it’s a wonder we have as many as we do now! *** Does Crime Pay? ***
I still can’t get over the fact Mayor Finch has not expressed his sympathy to the UB community.
smoker, you are not the only one feeling that way. The irony is this is the second violent, gun-related crime in as many weeks, that touches Mary-Jane Foster. Gabrielle was the Treasurer on MJ’s campaign, and her cousin Michelle was a volunteer with the campaign. Michelle is also a UB student. AND this crime happened in Black Rock. Holy Guacamole …
*** As Mayor his reasons are always just and well thought out, no? ***