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Wednesday, September 11, 2013

SAVE THE DATE , SUPPORT OUR POLICE DEPARTMENT

The Hartford City Council has called a special meeting for Monday at 5:30PM .. According to the meeting notice below, the intent of the meeting is to discuss the City violence with the Hartford Police Department . Please show up and voice your concerns on the increase in crime and gun violence, approximately a 10% increase over this time last year.

State representative Angel Arce, from Hartford's 4th District has asked me to help get the word out on this important meeting.

We need to get honest answers from the Council and hold them accountable for the budget cuts they made to Mayor Segarra and Chief Rovella's recommended budget for 2013/2014

 The Council has begun a disturbing trend of submitting and acting on resolutions that only attempt to micromanage the operations of the Police Department from the size of engines ordered in new cars to who can use the Police Department gym. The focus should be on making sure the police department is properly funded and staffed and our neighborhoods are safe

 Despite the Councils announcement to the complaining public at Monday nights meeting, Councilman Cruz announced that a "Police Academy Class " was graduating today to address the issue of attrition. The real truth is that there was no "class". One, yes one, officer graduated today from the Meriden Police Academy. That hardly is a net increase over the eight officers that have announced their departure in the last week and many more are expected to depart in the near future as they qualify for their pensions after 20 years.

It is important that we let the Council know that we support Chief Rovella and his efforts and we expect that HPD be properly funded to do the job that we know, and he has shown, that he can do when given the proper resources.

Please show up and make your voices heard.

Just your attendance in support of a properly funded Police Department will make a difference

AN UNUSUAL THANK YOU TO A DRUG DEALER

No I haven't lost my mind. Recently I posted about a Seymour Street landlord that was intimidated by a local thug drug dealer  after he tried to rid his property of the drug dealer. You can read more about that here

 The problem is that the dealer opened up a huge can of worms by his actions, that has now , at least temporarily , put his fellow entrepreneurs and amateur neighborhood pharmacists , out of business and some behind bars.

When I first got the complaint about the Seymour Street neighborhood and the vandalism done to Stan Gutt's property , I spent some time observing the activity on the street. The blatant open-air drug dealing was amazing. The street was busier with hand to hand drug deals than the McDonald's Drive thru around the corner. The drug dealer Wesley  or Ricky, depending which name he is going by this week. created a firestorm.

Within days, about every resource available was brought to bear to take this street back. The Shooting Task Force, the HPD Traffic Division ,Narcotics Officers, Condition Units , DEA and I am sure I am missing a few others. Thank you Wesley, this wouldn't have happened without you or your boys slicing a few tires and smashing some windows. On Monday a full scale sweep of the area produced numerous arrests of the same drug dealers that were dragging the neighborhood down.

The residents of Seymour Street are appreciative today. They can call 911 and report quality of life incidents all day long, but Wesley made it happen. This afternoon when I spent some time on Seymour Street, there were no drug dealers peddling their wares, the Community Service Officer Ghami Perez was making his presence known and it was a much different street than I saw just a week earlier. Even most of the lawns were free of trash and garbage, the street was clean with one exception

The only real exception was the Seymour Street side of the rear lot of the DCF  Hudson Street Headquarters. Apparently the landlord that makes a decent amount of money off the State of Connecticut has forgotten that he needs to clean up his Seymour Street frontage. Neighbors pointed out the recliner and discarded tires as well as the lawn that hasn't been cut for moths, definitely an eyesore.

Thank you Wesley, this wouldn't have been possible without your initial actions, the street has been cleaned up and you drew HPD's attention to the drug dealing. Good Job. Next time you drive by as you did today while we were out there, stop and say hello to Officer Perez. He might even thank you for your help ( be careful though, her might  have a warrant for you )

THE GOOD AND THE BAD

With the money that Hartford dumps into Media spokespeople at City Hall, they continue to miss the boat. A lot of good stories are happening in this City, but very rarely will you see that in a press release. Typically it is like pulling teeth to get the details on positive stories.

I regularly take heat for writing the negative stories, but I gladly post positive stories  when they are  made available to me.

Here are just a couple of examples that should have made a press release out of the Mayor's Office, but unfortunately haven't. They might actually take a little more work to put together than the next ribbon cutting, but these are the things that might actually begin to turn around the City's image.

The first one comes out of the Hartford Police Department and the Emergency Dispatch Center. The Dispatch Center has taken a bashing recently, but there are good people that work in there and combined with a Hartford Police Officer, are trying to make a difference.

I don't know all of the specifics, but Hartford Police Officer Matt Labbe and a dispatcher named Betty ( sorry, but no one has provided me with more details, including her name) went above and beyond after a recent incident. If I have the details wrong, please feel free to correct me in the comments.

Apparently Officer Labbe had a contact recently with a homeless family . The mother was confined to a wheelchair, but still the family found themselves on the streets. Now I am not sure how, but apparently Labbe and Betty arranged for shelter at a local motel temporarily. I am not sure if they paid for the room or if the hotel stepped up and provided a vacant room, but the homeless family was offered a roof and accommodation's.

The next problem occurred with transportation of the wheelchair bound mother  to the hotel. Betty the Dispatcher stepped up and made a call to someone she knew at American Medical Response, (AMR) who in addition to their ambulances operates a wheelchair transport service. Betty was able to convince AMR to step up and transport the mother  and her wheelchair to the hotel free of charge.

These are the type of things that should be put out to the public daily instead of the usual nonsense about where Mayor Segarra is cutting the next ribbon No one cares about him and his golden scissors, but a police officer and a dispatcher making a difference would send a good message about the people in our City.

This next story I can already picture on CNN or the national news. He isn't going to be happy with this posting because I don't think he wanted it out, but this is a great story. A Hartford Police Lieutenant who has asked me to remain anonymous, is known  as an accomplished runner. Anonymous LT, has run numerous marathons and is constantly training to shave the few seconds off his times. Sometimes a tough job for an older guy edging closer to retirement.

Again I don't have all the specifics, but  the LT. was recently approached to take part in a rare opportunity for Public Service and it has nothing to do with police work. Because of his reputation as an accomplished runner, he was asked to work with a blind runner who is a middle school student in a suburban school, who is participating in Cross Country running. He runs with her and apparently she wears very dark glasses and even in the bright sun, combined with the glasses she can make out his silhouette to follow him

The Lieutenant says he has to wear a white shirt so she can see him. He is not able to offer her any encouragement as they run, since that would be an unfair advantage apparently, but he calls out obstacles and guidance to her such as curbs, roots, turns  etc. She apparently gave the aging Lieutenant a run for his money today in the heat as she runs an under 7 minute mile.

I am sure there is a lot more positive things going on around our City, but I need to be made aware of them. If you have some good new, feel free to e-mail me or call me. If City Hall won't put it out, I will. And thank you to our City employees that are willing to go above and beyond.

UPDATE: After the original posting , the Lieutenant , who was originally named, asked me to remove his name because he is doing this  to do the right thing, not for publicity. I also removed identifiers as to the students school. Anyone familiar with HPD will know immediately his identity, but at his request I have removed his name.

TIME FOR A NEW PIC

 
Channel 3, WFSB's Hartford Bureau Chief Len Besthoff  has called it quits at Channel 3.Besthoff's last day on the air at Channel 3 was apparently yesterday after he notified station management that he was making the move to WVIT Channel 30 according to sources . Besthoff is apparently under contract to Channel 3 until October 6, 2013
 
Staff at both Channel 3 and Channel 30 were advised of the move yesterday through e-mails to employees.
 
Besthoff has been hired by NBC/Comcast as the Chief Investigative Reporter at the West Hartford affiliate and will be assigned full time to the Troubleshooters Investigative Team. This is apparently the model nationwide for the Comcast stations and their Investigative units to make a strong commitment to in depth Investigative reporting committing a large amount of money and manpower to the effort..
 
For those that have enjoyed Besthoff's reporting style and investigative journalism for the last eleven years on 3, he will be making his on-air debut at WVIT 30 after October 7, 2013. It is only one click up on most remotes in the Hartford area to be able to follow Len to his new home.
 
According to sources, Besthoff may be the first of upcoming departures of on air personalities from the station. WFSB is owned by the Meredith Corporation.
 
For more on this, check out the Connecticut Laurel Blog. The Laurel focuses on Connecticut Media personalities and their moves. The management e-mail and more on Len's departure is posted there
 
Best of Luck Len in your new endeavor

Monday, September 9, 2013

THE BEGINNING OF THE END?

Sources are confirming that the Connecticut Appeals Court has  ruled against State Representative Minnie Gonzalez and her appeal of charges levied by the State Elections Enforcement. This may open the way for a referral to the Office of the Chief State's Attorney for criminal prosecution.

Gonzalez does apparently have the option of appealing the ruling to the CT Supreme Court

The official ruling can be viewed below:



The case stems from allegations of voter and ballot fraud brought against Gonzalez in a 2006 case before the State Elections Enforcement Commission.