Any of my regular readers already know that I fully support Law Enforcement. Some might say to a fault, but I think most people would also agree that I am fair in my support. I have posted both the good and the bad of actions by Hartford Police Officers.
Sergeant Steve Barone was a somewhat difficult call. Although I don't agree 100% with his tactics, mostly the "overtime" comment regarding the paperwork comment if he shot someone. His other comments I find less objectionable and recognize as a tactic to control a potentially dangerous situation.
Did he violate anyone Civil Rights? No. Was he discourteous to anyone in the vehicle? No, and actually he seemed to be quite professional in dealing with individuals in a car that , according to the confidential informant, had guns on them. Combine that with the fact that I am told two individuals fled from the car when Barone pulled up. Does anyone looking at this objectively think that possibly they might have been the subject of the CI's information and ran taking their guns with them.
It is also aggravating that Mayor Bronin is inserting himself in Police matters much more frequently lately. What was the reason for the hastily called meeting in the Mayor's Office Friiday morning and the press release later in the day. wouldn't it have served a better purpose for the Mayor and Council President to issue a statement that they heave full confidence in Chief Rosado and HPD to fully investigate the matter and wait for the final report. As another interference of Mayoral interference, should Bronin really be ordering HPD officers away from an ICE protest recently at the Federal building because the Police presence "looked bad" being live streamed on Facebook?
In this current climate, if there was no visible police presence and "alternative" protestors or white supremacists or whatever we are calling them these days happened to show up and ICE protestors were injured because there were no HPD presence, I can fully see Chief Rosado and HPD being thrown under the bus by Bronin. I doubt that he would stand in front of the media and take blame for his police meddling.
The attached video is actual Police Bodycam video with real cops facing real life and death daily issues.
Watch how fast these situations can go bad, especially when an officer is by himself or herself. And listen to the officer in the bodycam video when he approaches the suspects in the car that he believes have guns on them. At one point he tells the suspect to keep his hands in sight or listen at 1:41 as the Officer says "I will blow your f***ing brains out" He didn't mention his itchy trigger finger or the overtime for reports if he had to shoot them, but maybe he should have because they eventually pulled a gun on the officer and he returned fire and shot them. And he probably wasn't suspended either, except for the shooting investigation
Police work is not always pretty and requires quick judgments by our Officers to hopefully go home at the end or their shift alive. As Sergeant Barone assessed the situation do you think he was gullible enough to believe the story that the people were in front of the property at 10:00pm for a potential real estate transaction on the abandoned property. Or do you think maybe he was seeing the red flags for people parked in high crime and high drug traffic area reportedly with guns in their possession
situations.
Considering the number of guns Sergeant Barone and other HPD Officers take off our streets everyday, I for one am not opposed to a little subterfuge or whatever you want to call it to maintain
control of a situation
Or does our Mayor and Council President (and some media reporters) expect our officers to have to wait to see the muzzle flash and the red hot lead hitting their bullet proof vests before they act.
Would that be the more polite thing to do?
I will hopefully be posting real bodycam video regularly so people can actually see what goes on during these high stress situations and gain a better understanding of what goes on out in our streets
As a note, HPD bodycams should be in use by October.
Last time a Republican was Mayor in the following cities:
ReplyDeleteAtlanta 1879
Chicago 1931
Baltimore 1967
Detroit 1962
Hartford 1971
New Orleans 1872
Pittsburgh 1934
Seattle 1946
Philadelphia 1952
Cincinnati 1971
No wonder they have failing schools, high crime, poverty and zero support for the police (at least on Bronin’s part).
8:40 PM
Delete2 cities in your list - Seattle and Atlanta - are doing quiet well. The other 8 cities - well, that's a whole lot different story.
Seattle is an absolute disaster. Atlanta has so many homicides they made a tv show- Atlanta Homicide.
DeleteYour gravely mistaken.
You can try an spin this all you want Berone was wrong dead wrong he should not be policing a community if he is Trigger Happy an then the total disregard for human life saying its paperwork an overtime if he had to kill them thank God he was recorded
ReplyDeleteThis police officer used language he felt was necessary and it posed a threat to his suspects. The language was effective and scared
ReplyDeletethe four. We need not be so sensitive. This was a very stressful situation for that officer. He did not use profanity, no racial slurs and no demeaning language. He did his job. The mayor should back officers like this. I will bet that Chicago would like 1000 Barone’s on the force!
This police officer used language he felt was necessary and it posed a threat to his suspects. The language was effective and scared
ReplyDeletethe four. We need not be so sensitive. This was a very stressful situation for that officer. He did not use profanity, no racial slurs and no demeaning language. He did his job. The mayor should back officers like this. I will bet that Chicago would like 1000 Barone’s on the force!
That situation illustrates the dangers faced by police everywhere when making vehicle stops.
ReplyDeleteThe individual who was shot did not listen to commands and continued to question the officer making the stop. He acted like a true criminal caught like a rat in a trap. The B/S about wanting to call mommy was a part of his ruse to get away or to get clearance to shoot the officer. The screaming after the shooting is all part of the distraction game played by criminal supporters and this amps up adrenaline and the onlookers against police.
The officer used good judgement, gave clear commands to the crook and then protected himself from a violent person.
This is what police officers face every day.
To detractors of law enforcement maybe you should try the job before commenting.
The Crook? These guys weren't arrested or charged with anything crawl back to your hole at 200 Bloomfield Ave
DeleteWTF are you talking about or referring to 7:05PM. You make no sense.
Delete