There is no doubt about it, the last few months, and probably even longer, have been very difficult times for police community relations. At the same time Hartford residents and the Hartford Police Department have been working together to come up with solutions to avoid the next Ferguson or Baltimore here in our own City.
It is a difficult tightrope that Police Chiefs across this country must walk every day knowing they are one step away from the next incident that could ignite a community. It almost seems ironic that at the very same time I am working on this posting, Chief Rovella is in a meeting with several of Hartford's African American leaders to make sure the bridges HPD has built over the years remain strong, and accessible.
But. as the saying goes " one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch". And now it becomes an issue of throwing out the bad apples before they can do any damage. I think, actually no, I hope the picking is swift and decisive in this case to send a strong message to both HPD Officers and Hartford residents that racism within HPD will not be tolerated in any form by anyone.
Recently a Hartford Police Officer, Kamil Stachowitz attended a whisky tasting event at a Connecticut Casino. While there he apparently tasted too much of the whisky. Stachowitz, according to numerous sources within HPD ,created a disturbance at the casino. The Tribal Police were called to apparently remove Stachowitz from the Casino. Also according to sources, an African American Tribal Police Officer responded to the call. Upon confronting Stachowitz, the officer reported that Srtachowitz began yelling the "N" word and went into a racist verbal tirade, yelling at the Officer at one point "My family used to own people like you" and "My Grandfather used to own slaves".
For some reason , no arrest was made, even though the Tribal Police were recently given full powers of arrest by State Statute after the State Police were removed from the Casino's. It may have to do something with Stachowitz identifying himself as a Police Officer, but I think any professional courtesy should have ended once Stachowitz started yelling the "N" word.
Stachowitz, according to sources, is now out on sick leave under the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Stachowitz has hired an attorney and may be planning on making a claim under the American's With Disabilities Act. Apparently he may be claiming that alcohol dependency or problems with alcohol would alleviate his behavior.
That may be true , but the streets of Hartford are no place for a racist cop. The alcohol helped the words come out, but the mindset already exists for someone that can freely use hateful language like that used by Stachowitz. He needs to go, too much is on the line for Chief Rovella to tolerate such behavior, and I am very confident he will not, EAP leave or not.
I will post the incident report and any video I receive through FOI requests here when it is received.
An Internal Affairs investigation is ongoing within HPD.
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24 comments:
Kamil is completely out of his mind. He is always involved in some form of nonsense. He goes skydiving while on sick time and even posted pics on his facebook page.
Shame on those tribal officers for no item A . Now he will play the old tracey green games abusing eap and claiming unfair treatment.
Rovella can earn a lot of trust back if he gets rid of this fool quickly. Im sure the casino has tape of it
Im just glad i dont have to work the meadows bike detail with stack this year.....he is stange.
Hired a lawyer ? For what? What attorney would defend a racist cop. Fire him the minute he gets off eap. He cant hide there forever.
He is also a pretty lousy cop and only cares about pjs and abusing sick time .
Always a lawyer ready to defend someone like him, that is how some lawyers live, unless of course they get a job as a Hartford city council person to supplement their income
Hey brookman,
Any details on the missing soviet/ european antique assault weapon turned in to hpd by an old lady ? And a certain officer taking pictures with it. A missing or mis managed assault weapon is a serious " federal" crime and all the meetings and mis direction attempts cant hide the truth. I bet you dont dig this story, based on whom it involves ..........
I already did look into it, and you might want to get a few more facts before you try to discredit someone "anonymously". The assault rifle you mention was actually turned in by an elderly woman at a gun buy back. The rifle was an antique from the Hitler era and Officer Cavanna recognized it as having considerable value. It was properly removed from the guns turned in so that a piece of history wasn't melted down and destroyed. The woman was advised of the circumstances and HPD directed her through the process of finding a firearms dealer to handle the sale and also obtain the proper permits for the sale to be legal. All properly documented, and I believe also investigated by IAD to make sure everything as done legit I believe the woman also obtained a sizeable payment for the gun , which she wouldn't have if it was melted down and I understand the money was very helpful to her. Just as a sidenote, I as never going to mention this, but since you seem hell bent on discrediting Officer Cavanna, I might as well give you something else to show what a terrible person John is. Last week when I posted about Representative Arce trying to help out a Hartford family burned out of their apartment on Brownell. Within minutes my phone rang asking for details about the family's needs. It was Officer John Cavanna offering up a single family house on his family's farm, free of charge to the family until they got back on their feet. Both John and his family were willing to help a family they never met, In the meantime , Rep. Arce had already secured an apartment in Hartford for them, but good try attempting to discredit a good family.
Maybe you can go back to counting your stolen ammo and having your wife e-mail the I-phone videos to the media. And yes, I will continue to cover for Cavanna and his "terrible acts". I know there are Hartford people that have benefitted from his goodwill and would differ with your Anonymous negativity
Also, I think several media outlets covered the antique gun when it happened, so I don't think it was a very well kept dirty secret.
It is not surprising that you only have three comments on Stachowitz's post. This incident is apparently not displeasing enough to get the attention it needs. Racist officers like Stachowitz and there are a few in the department create distrust and friction between the community and police. Cops like Stachowitz are a liability to the city. I would not be surprise that people who were arrested by this cop start coming forward with lawsuits against the city for wrongful arrest. Cop like him create a safety hazard for good police officers in the department. As you said I your article one bad apple spoils the bunch so many residents will have the impression that all white offices are racist when in fact that is not true. I cannot see how any black officer could work alongside this officer. There is no way that he should be able to remain a police officer in the city of Hartford or anywhere at all. This type of prejudice behavior have no place in public service. Just like him, many officers forget that the are entrusted by the public not only to enforce laws but to serve. Stachowitz is a disgrace to the HPD. It is unfortunate that the casino police did not arrest him. Officers like him contribute to the negative perceptions the community towards officers. Stachowitz should do himself a favor and just resign.
Whats's the big deal Chief rovella kept Racist Sergeant Kessler on the force for referring to blacks as gorillas in the mist and the N Word is just as bad as calling a black person a gorilla, now with that said what would the public and city officials say if they knew hartford cops could not qualify at the gun range for 6 months because there were no bullets? And furthermore who forged that paperwork to say that the officers did qualify?
WHy is Sergeant Kessler still on the PD?????
The relationship between blacks hispanics an other people of color with police departments across America are forever tarnished thanks to racist cops and the media
Speak facts Mister Garvey......facts please. Complete false information, never has there been a situation that we (HPD) couldn't qualify because there were no bullets, never happened. Check yourself and your information please.
The relationship between blacks hispanics an other people of color with police departments across America are forever tarnished thanks to racist cops and the media
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(CNN)It started as a traffic stop and ended in a hail of gunfire. Now two police officers in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, are dead, four suspects are facing charges and a community is mourning.
Officers Benjamin Deen, 34, and Liquori Tate, 24, were making a traffic stop Saturday evening when they were shot, Mayor Johnny DuPree said. They were taken to a hospital, but did not survive.
Was it documented was there an arrest ? if not rule of thumb never happened wheres the paperwork are doing things on Hearsay?
Congratulations Officer Dudley not guilty on all charges i forsee the city paying out millions again shame on you Chief Rovella!!!!
yes it was documented. I am awaiting a copy of the incident report , which will be posted here when I get it
5:37PM, an officer kills a man by his driving, whether innocent or guilty, what did you expect HPD to do, to just ignore it? Shame on Chief Rovella? Is Chief Rovella now issuing arrest warrants or did a prosecutor and a Judge see fit to sign the warrant for Officer Dudley's arrest?
Dudley walks around with a rather large chip on his shoulder for being such a new officer. I know his classmates have tried many times to help him out, even with the driving issues on c sqaud. ( everyone knows u can drive differently on mids because of the lack of traffic) He is lucky chief rovella did not fire him. It is dudleys reckless operation of a cruiser that an innocent person died. Not the citys fault, Not the ford motor corp, or the innocent citizens .
The civil aspect will still play a large number here. Probably in the millions . And so Dudley will not be operating any city vehicle for quite a while.
Not guilty, congrads, but civil liability has a much lower standard. The city will pay millions on this one. Dudley will also be held liable in civil court, basically becuase hartford is not going to just write a check.
Dont forget dudley violated several internal hpd policies. The camera system was not operating or full, dispite either is the responsibility of the officer to report equipment that is not working. If my 83 was damaged, i would surely get it checked. These new guys dont listen from elders and the " yah " yah" yah" know it all answer is becoming more and more an issue. I dont FTO anymore because it was not worth arguing with a guy with 2 days on the job telling me how to do my job. I dont have any personnal issues with dudley, but he has cost the city a lot.
The fact that that man was a cousin of chief state prosecutor Gail hardy is the only reason Dudley was arrested and faced a trial that man had alcohol an cocaine in his system an never should of been on the road thankfully he didnt crash into a child and now they wanna go after Dudley administratively three years later? I smell BS and a witch hunt hopefully they will jack this up like they did the wrongful arrest
Whats going on with Officer Highland i heard hes going completely crazy as well threw his 83 on a table an threatened to quit an sue the dept? Seems alot of cops are going 44 since Rovella took over
All this talk about "racist" cops. I have been working with these guys for 14 years on the street in Hartford. I have never seen an act of overt racism by an HPD officer towards a civilian or anyone else in that time period. Perhaps we should stop referring to people who disagree with or challenge black society as racists. Yes, wash out any bad cops of any color, but the vast majority are not born haters. This raises another issue, is this so called "racism" a learned behavior resulting from the considerable hatred shown by the black community toward the police?
I stated that I have never seen overt racism from an HPD officer, yet I hear racist comments directed towards them on a daily basis from members of the "community". Its getting to the point where American society as a whole is simply turning its back on the black people. Like the mayor of Baltimore said, go ahead burn it down...the OT will be great.
Anyone who says that there is no racism at all at HPD is probably part of it.
Spoken like a true member of the "community".
RACISM among the ranks of HPD has been clearly documented in the Hartford Courant and on this blog. Be it a dispatcher using the "N WORD" over the radio or a Sergeant saying "Gorillas in the midst" when referring to a group of african americans. Lets not pretend it does not exist...ITS ALIVE & WELL in Connecticut and HPD is NO EXCEPTION. The real problem at HPD is that there is NO ACCOUNTABILITY especially with First Line Supervisors (Sergeants)
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