Today, a video is quickly making the rounds of a Hartford Police Sergeant and comments he made captured on a recording. Lets start from the beginning of the story and see if this makes any more sense.
Hartford Police Sergeant Stephen Barone received information from a Hartford Police Detective. The detective related to Barone that he had a confidential informant who provided information that there was a group of people hanging out at an abandoned building in the area of Hazel Street and Capitol Avenue in Hartford. At least one of the people in the group , according to the CI had a gun on them.
Sergeant Barone responded to the area and located a vehicle in front of the abandoned property. Barone, who was by himself until his backup arrived, approached the vehicle and as he did, two men apparently took off running. Barone apparently attempted to control the situation by containing the remaining individuals in the car.
The red flags for Barone as a Police Officer approaching a potential gun situation , alone, on a dark side street must have been flying high.
Barone, probably trying to act like a tough police officer trying to show that he was in charge of the situation, used language that can't be considered as acceptable in this day and age..Barone is quoted as saying "Anybody who wants to fight or run, I’m a little trigger happy guys, I’m not gonna lie. You know I could [get] a ton of money on overtime if I have to shoot somebody"
Assistant Chief Rafael Medina sent the following e-mail out to HPD's Community partners soon after the incident was revealed:
To our community partners:
I wanted to reach out to you as
soon as possible to discuss a very troubling interaction one
of our officers had in the community that came to our
attention this morning. During a field interview of a group
of people, our officer was evidently recorded telling the
group that they would be checked for drugs and weapons, and
that if they tried to flee or fight, he was “a little trigger
happy, I’m not going to lie,” and he didn’t want to have to
shoot somebody if they did flee or fight, so they shouldn’t
“do anything stupid.” We are still investigating the
circumstances of the field interview.
Regardless of the context or the
intent, those statements are entirely unacceptable and
represent a fundamental disregard for the conduct we expect
and the standards we hold ourselves to. We look at it from
the perspective of the person on the other end of the field
interview, and to hear those words isn’t just scary, it
projects an image of law enforcement officers who take use of
force lightly. As I hope you know, we do not take any use of
force lightly as a Department.
We have placed the officer on
administrative leave effective immediately, and internal
affairs has already begun an investigation.
The Hartford Police Department has
worked closely with many of you to build a stronger
relationship with the community based on respect and trust.
The ties we have built are our most valuable asset in serving
the community, and incidents like this do not represent the
department we strive to be, the relationship of trust we’ve
worked to build, or the work we do in our community on a daily
basis. We are committed to true community policing and true
community partnership, and in this case that means being
fully transparent and direct about this incident.
Please feel free to reach out
to me to discuss this or anything else. I will be
available today and over the weekend. My cell number is .
Thank you.
Rafael Medina
Assistant Chief of Police
Now I will be the first to admit Sergeant's Barone's comments were inappropriate but without seeing the full context of the interaction is it appropriat5e because a TV reporter wants to sensationalize the incident for "exclusive" ratings
Rushing to judgement on incidents like these are unfair to both our community as well as to the Officer involved. I think we all have enough confidence in our Police Department to know that matters such as this will be handled and dealt with appropriately once all of the facts are in A rush to judgement because of a quickly called meeting in the Mayor's Office will most likely do more harm than good.
Again, until we start hiring robots as Police Officers we still have Police Officers protecting us who are human beings, subject to the same frailties and faults as the rest of us/ And because we are human beings, sometimes that filter between our brains and our lips just don't engage quick enough and stupid things are said, This isn't the first time and surely won't be the last, but how we deal with it could mean a lot to Police /community relations.
15 comments:
Brian foley smells blood in the water. He is a filthy human being. Hpd gave foley a life. But it turns out he is still a zero. Way to go brian. You have done ten fold worse. Your lucky those polaroids from your parkville days never made the news. You know the ones that you would pose nude behind city residents in. Exactly.
At least your gone from the building. Someone would be turning over i their grave if they saw your antics.
Foley is complete garbage.
Not much different that “bitches be trippin”.
It’s very obvious Foley has an ax to grind with Rosado and Medina for showing him the door.
And how is Foley’s quote that he used when referring to Barone as talking to “brown people” ok and accepted?
Fox 61 may soon have pics of their "chief investigative reporter" with the b*#!@es be trippin car and him next to the spray painted derogatory name for gays with that stupid expression on his face. What will they think of their star reporter then? I know what was said by that sergeant was inappropriate, but Chief Medina has to remember city policing is a lot different than handing out speeding tickets on I-84.
We'll see if this gets published!!
If the same statements/words were made by a private citizen, including the owner of the property, they would more than likely be subjected to a RISK WARRANT application seeking the seizure of all firearms owned by the individual making the firearm related statements.
If there was no video of this incident, Sgt. "Muscle Memory Barone" would be denying any and all reports or complaints regarding his statements. He would simply say "I don't Recall" if asked if he claimed to be Trigger Happy. Police officer who answer by saying "I don't Recall" is the police equivalent of a private citizen's 5th Amendment Right to remain silent.
Barone got caught and cannot justify his choice of words.
Publish the foley pics. They exist. Certain retired hpd members have them. Its time. Release them before its too late. Its time.
This excuse is complete b s.
Barone was wrong during the HPD pursuit into West Hartford during 2016. He tamperes with evidence then and lied to investigators. Now, it appears individuals are stupid enough to make up lame vague confidential informant stories
No he cant
Kevin it seems Brian is on a mission to destroy an discredit HPD are you still close friends with him???
#1 did you find out about why freemn is acting housing director
#2 Artists Collective story is a prime example of state and cyt and federafgl and cdbg waste $$$
I think that the anonymous posters need a lesson in policing. If they are actual police officers the city is surely in trouble.
I do not know Sgt. Barone at all. Not a supporter or detractor. That would take personal knowledge of him. I believe he made a mistake referencing being trigger happy or using the overtime reference. That’s enough for a departmental punishment. Since I was on the street until the end of my career dealing with gangs, their members, drug dealers and customers etc....there were many times I used forceful language to control a situation.Never pretty and I wouldn’t ever want my mother to hear me talk like that but it was effective. Forceful and strong language is understood by the creeps police encounter everyday. No ambiguity and no questions. Never looks good but it’s part of daily business. That doesn’t mean abusive language either. Straight to the point and people behaving badly understand that.
Finally all the members of the “clergy” who are so angry about Sgt. Barones,s commentary said nothing when Hartford residents were shot to death on city streets.Except for Reverend Henry Brown the murders of Ashley Spence, Cameron Mounds, Deon Palmer, Aaron Talley, Kendall and Chris Terry, Edward Bell and many others were not mentioned once by these now aggrieved “men of the cloth”.
Selective outrage is easy to spot as the persons espousing such sentiments talk out of both sides of their mouths.
Why did you delete comments, Kevin?
Obviously he still is close friends with him since he deleted comments regarding him!
I deleted a couple comments after I figured out what the references in the comments meant. The comments had nothing to do with the posting other than a veiled attempt at attacking some ones character I need to go back to only allowing comments that pertain to the topic. Your personality conflicts with any individual should be handled one on one as adults and not anonymously on social media. That is why I deleted the comments
Yet you let an anonymous poster relentlessly bully LT Mertes on here.
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