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Tuesday, August 9, 2011

MURTHA PREVAILS

All indications are that Officer Robert Murtha will be serving the people of Hartford as a police officer in the near future.

The details are being worked out, but the final settlement should be in excess of $600,000 and Murtha will be hired back with his proper seniority ranking as of the time he left. A major portion of that figure will be used to cover legal expenses Murtha incurred during his prolonged battle with the City to clear his name and regain his job after he was cleared of all charges by a jury during his trial.

Click here to read a previous posting that will give you some more background on the Murtha case if you aren't familiar with it

Monday, August 8, 2011

CITY EXPECTED TO SETTLE MURTHA LAWSUIT TONIGHT

The Hartford City Council is expected to go into executive session tonight to vote on a proposed settlement in the Robert Murtha case.

Murtha was a Hartford Police officer who was involved in an on-duty shooting in 2003. That shooting resulted in his arrest on criminal charges. Murtha was eventually exonerated by a jury and cleared of the charges.

Even after being exonerated, the City of Hartford refused to hire him back, a decision that has resulted in prolonged litigation and expense to the City's taxpayers.

Former Corporation John Rose had recommended to the Council in 2009 that they settle the case, the Council rejected Rose's advice and continued to fight against returning Murtha to work.

Several sources are advising me that tonight's settlement will most likely include returning Murtha to work as a Hartford Police office as well as a payment in excess of $1,000,000,000.

Here is Rose's letter to the Council from 2009:

Rose Settlement Letter to Council

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

NOW THIS IS PARKING ENFORCEMENT



Apparently the Mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania was upset by the chronic parking violations blocking the City's bike lanes. He took matters into his own hands, accompanied by the driver of an armored personnel carrier, and sent a message to the illegal parkers. (double click on the video to watch it full screen)

This might send a good message in Hartford, but I'm not sure HPD could afford the lost cruisers.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE

Early this morning, Hartford recorded its 21st homicide for the year. That might not seem too bad for those that compare us to New Haven, we have been running neck and neck for the lead with them. New Haven currently is at 19 homicides for 2011.

New haven isn't known for any stellar government operations and neither is Hartford. But then look at the greater picture and let's compare Hartford to Boston. Boston, a city almost five times as large as Hartford population wise (Population in July 2009: 645,169) is only at 26 total homicides for the year. What are they doing right as compared to what we are doing wrong.

I hate to beat a dead horse here, but when we brand the City as recommended by the Canadian marketing firm, do you think visitors or potential companies moving here will pay more attention to the crime statitics and how many cops we have on the streets or do you think they will feel more comfortable coming here knowing that Hartford's Chief Operationg Officer, David panagore, is hiring four new assistants?

It still does not make any sense to me that we consider spending $100,000,000, yes that is $100 million dollars, on some crazy skating rink proposal to link Bushnell Park to the Riverfront at the same time we have eliminated money from the Police department budget and cut new officers from the latest recruit class.

What am I missing? Can anyone apply some logic to this to help me understand?

Maybe a suggestioin for a possible "brand", let me know Canadian's what you think of this if we keep going in the direction we are going..."Hartford, we are better than Boston...when it comes to homicides"

HOMICIDE 21 IS DONE

Hartford's 21'st homicide of the year took place this morning after an early morning shooting at 125 Benton Street.

The victim was pronounced dead at Hartford Hospital at 5:06am.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

A RESPONE TO AN ANONYMOUS COMMENTER

This response is going to be a little long, so rather than post it in the comments section, I am choosing to put it here.

Whenever I need a good laugh, all I have to do is read some of the Anonymous posts.

Anonymous commented at 3:57pm under "Wrong, wrong, wrong and finally Wrong"is one of those. It just makes you wonder if some people should be allowed access to the Internet.

Anonymous at 3:57PM commented; "Hey Kevin, rather than hiding behind this post, grow a set and tell us the officer's name or better yet the cruiser number or plate. While you're at it, tell us if your buddy who sent you the photo (...one of your friends from the building across the street at 525) did his job and put a ticket on the van or is he just stirring the pot some more like usual???

You start your post saying you're a friend to the HPD but when one of your friends looks bad you just leave it alone. A true politician!

Frank's report should be out soon and I'll bet you'll only criticize him and the report cuz it aint gonna look good! (but it'll be the truth)"


You advised me to "grow a set" rather than "hide behind this post". OK, I'm confused, what am I hiding behind? I posted the picture, I took action with HPD upon observing something I believe was wrong and I believe it will be addressed further. In fact, after the officer received a call stating that someone was complaining about his parking, he came out from City Hall and confronted me and asked if I had a problem. I replied yes and was willing to go head to head with him rather than back down from something I felt was wrong.

Now you probably would have run away and remain "Anonymous" rather than take a stand in public, so you might want to "grow a set" yourself.Maybe you might want to "grow a set" and take ownership of your comments under your own name and put your name with your comments as I do here day in and day out.

As far as your second comment "You start your post saying you're a friend to the HPD but when one of your friends looks bad you just leave it alone. A true politician!" Can you clarify that as to who you are speaking about. I have quite a few friends at HPD as you seem to be well aware and I think I have called it like it is on many situations. I have posted quite a bit about one of my friends Hector Robles. I have posted quite a bit about another person I consider a friend, Chief Daryl Roberts, some good, some bad, but definitely not one sided.

I can only assume the one you are taking issue with is Lt. Neville Brooks, again, someone I consider a friend and a friendship that probably goes back over 40 years. I am loyal, but definitely not blind and I posted the facts that were available at the time. If there was negative information that I had on Neville, that would have been posted also.

I will admit that I do have facts that I have not posted that in the end might be relevant to how Lt. Brooks and others have been treated when it comes to varying levels of discipline. None of those facts relate directly to Lt. Brooks, but they do relate to other officers who have engaged in egregious behavior that in some cases should have most likely resulted in demotion or termination, but nothing happened to them. My intent here is not to ruin any ones career, but I will not turn a blind eye to anyone, especially a friend of mine, when I feel they are being singled out for doing their job. Neville is one such case.

I also took a strong stand here on the blog and in public for Officer Matthew Secore. Secore did do something wrong, and something he readily admitted. I knew nothing of him before we met and I learned the facts of his case. I firmly believe that if I didn't persist in pushing on Secore's case and if there wasn't a change in leadership at the HPD Union, Secore would still be struggling get the justice ordered by the Labor Board and the Courts in his case.

Although I didn't agree with his actions, after seeing all of the facts, I did agree with the Labor Board decision. Officer Secore is back on the job today after learning a very valuable, and personally costly lesson and I believe he will be an asset to the residents of Hartford.

As far as the Rudewicz report, don't hold your breath waiting for a written report. As of this point, all indications are that the City is being very careful to make sure that Rudewicz has apparently only reported orally directly to the Corporation Counsel. If they continue in that direction it will allow the City to hide behind the veil of "Attorney Client Privilege".

That, I think, could potentially be political suicide for Mayor Segarra and would stink of a cover up, but then again Hartford doesn't always make the most strategic moves when it comes to the public trust. I also know from sources that request was made to possibly expand the scope based on things the investigators found and that request was apparently denied.

I am also very interested in hearing the results of the Rudewicz Investigation and I have no doubt that it will be thorough and I have trust in Frank's integrity. It is up to his client, the City of Hartford as to what to do with the report though, not Rudewicz. I know that they have interviewed a wide scope of people, myself included, trying to get to the truth and the facts.

I do know that some of the gossip thrown around was that cases were lagging and the productivity in IAD was less than stellar while Neville was Commander of IAD. But it is also hard to command a unit when you are on an extended medical leave and fighting a potential life threatening medical issue. That was up to the Chief to ensure that IAD ran properly while Brooks was out and have an "acting supervisor" in place who was capable or replace Brooks all together if needed . That was not Neville's responsibility, it rests squarely with the Chief.

As far as the Dunkin Donuts parking issue, maybe you can start a blog of your own, if and when you "grow a set", and then look into who is giving out parking tickets. In the meantime, by posting the pictures here, maybe the Hartford Parking Authority will step up and do their own work to correct the issue.

But thanks for the comment, you gave me something to post about today. And to all the police officers that have called and texted today (as well as everyone else) agreeing that it was "wrong, wrong,wrong" to park a cruiser in a handicapped space, thanks for your support.

Oh and by the way Anonymous 3:57PM, a quick computer lesson. If you would like to know the identity of the cruiser or the officer, double click on the picture of the cruiser in the handicap parking space and that should bring bring up a full screen image of the cruiser that should make it very easy for you to read the "352" next to the license plate. Sorry for "hiding" that from you, I just assume my readers are computer literate, my mistake. I'll leave it up to you to do the rest of the legwork to figure out who "352" is.