A violent Monday night sent several victims to hospitals. From Steve Krauchick, Doing It Local:
Just after 11:30 Monday night shots rang out for the third time in the city with three people being shot at Greene Homes near building four by the horseshoe area. A large area was taped off as a crime scene. Shots were fired and shell casings recovered in the road in front of Junco’s on Highland Avenue. A large crowd formed as could be expected and police had to deal with crowd control in addition to other duties. No official word but my sources tell me that the victims were young, ages 18-24. One was shot in the stomach, another in the upper extremities and the third in the leg. My source says all three pulled through.
Earlier around 7:30pm a man and a woman were shot in front of the Reservoir Deli on Reservoir Drive. Around 2:30am two more people were shot on Harral Avenue.State Representative Christopher Rosario who represents the Hollow will be appealing to the governor for state police assistance in the morning.
THE GUNS OF AUGUST, written by Barbara Tuchman in the early ’60s deals with August 1914 that was the first month of the outbreak of WWI.
The count of gun violence in the City of Bridgeport this year in this month, may change our point of reference for this phrase. The guns are there. The targets are, too. The housing offered by Park City Communities seems to link many of these shootings. Public safety is on the job. Many people working through agencies and programs have contacts, but the war continues, drug marketing continues and people are at risk. What will cause the guns to stand down? Time will tell.
JoAnn Kennedy is a powerful advocate for our students and the BPS and is the former PTSO President of Bassick High School. One of those shot at the Greene Apts. was her 18-year-old son.
The bullet ruptured an artery in his leg, therefore he had surgery and is in ICU.
We had a wonderful forum at Bassick High School last night and JoAnn was right there in the front row. How quickly one’s life can change.
The Housing Authority has been in turmoil for years, and now there is no Director, again.
I truly feel sad.
Maybe it’s time to change the law. Maybe a person carrying an unlicensed gun should get a 10-year automatic sentence. For all the bleeding hearts out there who believe there should be a reduction in jail sentences, would you feel that was if your relative were an innocent victim of a shooting?
Let’s face it, we are never going to get rid of guns so let’s make the people who should not have guns pay the price.
Well stated, Andy. I would also recommend legalizing marijuana at least. Removing the profit motive should largely reduce black market sales and violence. A former Green Party candidate for governor proposed what he called “medicalization” of illicit drugs. Legalized under the supervision of a physician. Interesting concept but the devil is in the details.
No Andy, maybe it’s time for the city, the state and the federal government to take action to regulate access to firearms.
Gun laws do not work.
Recent history shows even the suggestion of any regulation actually increases gun ownership.
www .washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/05/guns-in-the-united-states-one-for-every-man-woman-and-child-and-then-some/
Regulating criminals’ access to guns is a great idea. Propose a law that criminals can’t have guns.
That is because after every mass gun murder incident, the psychopaths need to run to the closest gun dealer and buy MORE, AND MORE, AND MORE GUNS. Unfortunately, the NRA has created gun owners to become psychopaths. Today, fewer Americans own firearms, but those who do own a much larger personal arsenal. If gun owners see any publicity about gun crimes, they just go out and buy MORE, and MORE, and MORE GUNS.
Gun regulation does not keep guns out of criminal hands. Maybe a stiff jail sentence could be a help.
Where are the black lives matter liberals?????????
They’re all campaigning for Donald Trump.
donj, they are in Detroit waiting for Donald Trump and you to tell us why black lives matter. I truly hope you got to see Donald Trump when he was here and now maybe you can tell us how your discussion with Trump was.
donj was able to have a discussion with Presidential Candidate Trump? How did he get that special privilege?
(Go, donj!)
A lot of young, Bridgeport men are up very late at night energetically going about their “business” in the city’s housing projects and less orderly neighborhoods. While other young men in more prosperous settings and on college campuses are resting in order to report refreshed for regular, gainful employment in the AM (or studying for the next day’s college classes), a lot of young Bridgeport men are out and about very late, into the wee hours, taking part in and/or exposing themselves to violence.
Maybe a different economic dynamic, one with available, living-wage jobs, training programs, and on-demand addiction-treatment availability could help to stem the violent activity in this dying city.
Not much movement in regard to effective urban agenda proposals from any of the state, congressional, or presidential candidates at this point in time.
Mayor Ganim. How about using your mayor’s voice to call out the candidates on the creation and implementation of an urban agenda for Bridgeport and other cities like Bridgeport? Maybe come up with something that encompasses economic development and employment needs, as well as public safety needs. Has your administration done any study calculations on what our city needs to become viable again? What increase in taxable grand list do we need? How much job creation? In what economic sectors? What is our public safety deficiency? How can it be remediated?
It doesn’t seem the administration has much of a grip on things. Need some help? Ask for it. There are a lot of Bridgeporters looking for ways to resonate with a real City Hall agenda.
To your point, all young people want some money in their pockets. If there is no parent with income to share and no economy to supply the kids with the ability to legally earn, they will create their own economy, illegal drug and gun sales being the fastest and most profitable economy on the streets.
Jeff, you live in a dream world. These want-to-be gangsters don’t want a job, they want easy money. They want the kind of money they think will get them a fancy ride and a hot girlfriend. With a few exceptions this will not happen but try to tell an 18-year-old that.
BREAKING NEWS: DONALD TRUMP TO VISIT BRIDGEPORT TO TELL US WHY WE NEED HIM. HE WILL GO TO A BLACK CHURCH AND TALK TO BLACK PEOPLE LIKE THEY ARE UNINFORMED IDIOTS AND MAKE HIS CASE!
THIS IS A VERY SAD SITUATION. MY HEART GOES OUT TO ALL THE FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF THESE VICTIMS. IT JUST DOESN’T SEEM TO END. IT MAY BE TIME TO REALIZE BRIDGEPORT’S BEST DAYS HAVE PASSED BY.
“BREAKING NEWS. DONALD TRUMP TO VISIT BRIDGEPORT TO TELL US WHY WE NEED HIM. HE WILL GO TO A BLACK CHURCH AND TALK TO BLACK PEOPLE LIKE THEY ARE UNINFORMED IDIOTS AND MAKE HIS CASE!”
Like Joe Ganim did, Steve?
Is that what Joe Ganim did? 🙂 Well, I like Joe and I despise Trump. But since you brought it up, Trump just may be able to make his case. He has already hired black surrogates to flood the airwaves and turn Clinton into a bigot and him as the savior. Oye veh, we are FUCKED!
VOTE DONALD TRUMP “2016”
Jennifer, you are absolutely correct. All young people want some ching in their pockets and Andy, they do want a nice car and a girlfriend, but Andy you are as wrong as two left shoes. All my people would prefer to work than to sling in the streets. The fact is Andy you have no idea what young black males want, would or wouldn’t do as your perception of blacks are what you see on TV or in the news. You’ve never talked to young blacks, male or otherwise and inquired about their career aspirations.
Stop stereotyping all young black males and just limit your conversation to something you know a little about, the City of Bridgeport government.
Donald, I know more about black youth than you think. I started a baseball league where the majority of kids were black and yes we talked about a lot of things. I know quite a bit about the ghetto and its residents. Your statement above is pure bullshit. “All my people would prefer to work than to sling in the streets.” That statement is total bullshit, you sanctimonious blowhard. You may have counseled fire candidates but you spent no time talking to these gangbangers and what they want. They don’t want to work and if they did the gang would settle that shit right away because their main work is selling drugs. Don’t think because you are black, you know everything about blacks, you are only black in color, period.
Andy: Finding gainful employment for a young person in Bridgeport is beyond daunting. Finding work in Bridgeport is impossible. There simply aren’t any available jobs. If a young person has access to a car, they might be able to find something part-time, regionally.
Training programs for living-wage jobs that might be available within commuting distance are also practically non-existent, inaccessible for all but the best-prepared, best-supported young Bridgeporters.
These young men are taking the path that is most realistic for them. I don’t think any of them is particularly enamored of the idea of getting killed or maimed in the course of any given day. If they had a viable way out, they would take it. But a part-time, minimum wage job without benefits can’t compete with a pocket full of money and an exciting, extravagant, on-the-edge lifestyle with all its perks. A living-wage job with benefits and the realistic prospect of upward mobility, and the possibility of living long enough to collect social security and a pension, could probably compete with a pocket full of money, getting shot at/killed by your peers, and constantly hassled by the cops. These kids are hard and damaged, but most of them are intelligent to see and make reasonable choices if such choices are available and realistically presented. (BS talk from teachers, counselors/social workers, clergy people, activists and politicians doesn’t qualify; jobs fairs, held by real companies, offering training and real, living-wage jobs qualify.)
And for addict-dealers; the addiction component has to be addressed before any else can register and take root. We need massive-scale treatment-on-demand availability to address the addiction component of street violence.
It is very frustrating to see a presidential/congressional election year wasted by state and local politicians. There should be very loud demands coming out of the cities and state capitals for national leadership in creating and implementing real effective measures to address the socioeconomic problems of our distressed/dying cities.
But just using Connecticut and Bridgeport as examples, there is no real leadership to take the part of the people. We have only clueless, self-serving dolts looking only to feather their own political/financial nests. And the rest of the US can be similarly indicted. It takes extreme violence before political to-do/to-not-do lists are drawn up, and then only to placate the media and angry factions of the public. All the mindless, misdirected, violent acting-out of this summer that has focused on our police officers in such a vicious, evil way, doesn’t make any sense. And indeed, it is absolutely senseless and purposeless unless it can be described in terms of cause and effect. While some would say the cause is unequivocally attributable to the police and their treatment of minorities, there are strong indications it isn’t that simple, it is due to a destructive police-public dynamic rooted in the violence of poverty and frustration in our cities, which is the actual catalyst for the pattern of destructive, violent interaction between the police and the public.
It is the angry, volatile, edgy psyche of an urban society mired in poverty and frustration that has resulted in the violence of our cities this summer. The cause is a lot bigger than the cops and the victims of destructive, violent police-public interaction. The cause lies outside of both the victims and the police, it lies in the destructive atmosphere of our distressed cities, negatively charged by poverty and the violence of poverty. And this poverty is largely traceable to bad policy choices at the national level. We export jobs and war, and we import poverty, drugs, gang-violence/terrorism, and angry hopelessness. And then we look for someone to blame; and it winds up being the two factions that serve as the shock absorbers for the rest of society, the cops and those on the margins of the economy in the poor, urban areas.
It’s an election year. Time for City Hall and Hartford to make some noise at the national level. No $/jobs FOR Bridgeport, no votes FROM Bridgeport.
Another great commentary by Jeff. You hit every nail on the head. Are these issues all by design? Since politicians can’t improve the voter’s economic status, other than gov. assistance programs, is crime and gang fighting their savior to get re-elected?
Lol. Andy what, “don’t think because you are black you know everything about blacks, you are only black in color, period.” I’m only black in color? I don’t know much, but I’m pretty damned sure all black people are only black in color.
Andy, I won’t debate with you about my blackness because you know nothing of how black I am, but I will remind you your involvement with a baseball league that served black youth was 30 to 40 years ago and those kids ain’t these kids. You have no idea what’s on the minds of 21st century young Black America. You have no idea!
Neither do you.
It seems the instrument of a crime is the first thing that is attacked. What about the person who commits the crime? A gun makes it easy to do harm if you are intending to do so. If you can’t get a gun you will use whatever you can get your hands on. What has to change is what is in a person’s heart. Too many people use violence to get their point across no matter what it is. Violence is far too often the first club out of the bag.
No matter if you are in a so-called “Gang” or you want to settle a dispute over a posting on social media. More often than not there is going to be a fight, if not one-on-one it’s going to be many who have nothing to gain by getting involved in someone else’s battle.
Why battle at all, why not agree to disagree and leave it at that and walk away? What does punching or shooting someone over a petty dispute do to solve it?
Nothing, it just perpetuates the never-ending cycle of violence that has plagued this country since the dawn of time.
It does not have to be this way and it can be stopped if people care to.
It goes back to if you know better then you will do better.