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Wednesday, April 28, 2021

IT IS TIME FOR DENTURES FOR THE POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY BILL

 


The Police Accountability bill passed in 2020 was supposed to build the public's trust in Law Enforcement and bring much needed transparency to a difficult profession. The Connecticut Legislature in their rush to look politically correct passed the bill.

Unfortunately, with recent everts in the Hartford Police Department after a Police Sergeant assaulted a female prisoner, I had to attempt to navigate the law to try to obtain body cam footage of the event. The law is pretty specific, the video was required to be released within 96 hours after request by a member of the public. Despite my written request to Detective Denise Mendoza , who handles requests at HPD, to release the video, it was ignored.

It was obvious that Hartford Police Chief Jason Thody and his minions had no problem in breaking the law in their efforts to keep their dirty laundry from public view. As the clock continued to tick ,the 96 hour requirement came and went by days. I eventually called a State Senator and asked him to get involved as well as e-mails to various State Officials and Media people and community partners.

One State official I spoke with understood my frustration and reluctantly advised me the Police Accountability Bill "has no teeth". So what good is it if Police Chiefs or others feel they can break the law without any repercussions or any mechanism for enforcement..

I received all types of guesses from everyone I called asking where to turn to get enforcement for someone breaking the Police Accountability Law. Besides being told the bill had no teeth, no one could answer me. Maybe the Attorney General, maybe the Chief States Attorney, maybe the Freedom of Information Commission, maybe I had to hire my own attorney and bring a legal action through the courts.

Should a private citizen have to hire an attorney to get Chief Thody to obey the law?

And despite the spin Thody and Mayor Bronin put on this matter that they did the "right thing" and the system worked, it did not. 

I had originally asked for ALL video of the event, not what they wanted to release to make themselves look good or lessen the impact. (I am not sure that there is anyway to make yourself look good when one of your Officer's punches a female prisoner in the head on video, no matter how you edit it) The arrest warrant affidavit states there were at least four body cams that captured video as well as permanently mounted security cameras recording.

The system might have worked If Thody had honored the letter of the law and released the video in the time frame required. The system might have worked if Thody released ALL of the video as requested.

But corruption only breeds more corruption  when it is allowed to happen. If the Legislature and the Law Enforcement profession are serious about cleaning up their act, changes need to be made. Police Chief's and people like Jason Thody need to be sent a real message that business as usual is no longer acceptable and it is time to clean up their acts.

Monday, April 26, 2021

HPD BODY CAM VIDEO OF PRISONER ASSAULT

LT. Paul Cicero, Booking Commander at the time of the Assault
Hartford Police Chief Jason Thody

A partial, highly edited video of HPD Sergeant James Guzie assaulting a female prisoner. The video contains foul language and the edited version ends right at the time Sergeant Guzie punches the female prisoner. According to the arrest warrant, he then draggted her into a cell by her hair after punching her. Many more questions to be answered on this, such as why the delay in any action by Chief Thody and where is the rest of the video as well as the Internal Security camera video                                                       

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO: HPD SERGEANT GUZIE ASSAULTING FEMALE PRISONER 

HPD CHIEF THODY CONTINUES TO SHOW HE THINKS HE IS ABOVE THE LAW


Hartford Police Chief Jason Thody continues to show that he thinks he is above the law.  He showed it last summer when he evaded a potentially alcohol related accident in his Police vehicle. Thody drove off after hitting a guardrail causing several thousand dollars in damage to the vehicle.

Now, Thody is skirting the law again, apparently to avoid having to explain for one of his corrupt officers. On March 15, 2021, it was alleged that HPD Police Sergeant James Guzie had assaulted a female prisoner while she was in custody at the HPD Booking facility. Guzie was the supervisor on duty at the time and the booking facility was supervised by LT. Paul Cicero. Cicero had previously been the Major Crimes supervisor and was reassigned to booking after the "Deadpool" betting scandal had been revealed. As a sidenote, Cicero has now been reassigned to Patrol as the daytime Lieutenant.

Sergeant Guzie was arrested today on a charge of Assault 3rd.

Back to above the law Thody. One aspect of the Police Accountability bill passed last year was a section regulating Police Bodycam use. One section stated that "{Police accountability bill, Public Act  20-1 ( page 33) "not later than ninety-six hours following the recorded incident, whichever House Bill No. 6004 July Sp. Sess., Public Act No. 20-1 33 of 72 is earlier, such recording shall be disclosed, upon request, to the public, subject to the provisions of subsection (g) of this section"}.


Essentially, it states that body cam and other video footage of a Police misconduct assault MUST be released within 96 hours after requested by a member of the public. I requested the video in writing to HPD by e-mail dated April15, 2021 at 3:41 PM. As of today the video has not been released , even though Connecticut State Law requires its release  and it is well over the 96 hour limit.


Shouldn't a Police Chief uphold the law rather than be above it? Is this Thody's  version of transparency?

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

WHO DO YOU CALL WHEN THE POLICE BREAK THE LAW?


 One section of the 2020 Police Accountability Bill relates directly to the release of body cam video, especially as it relates to police misconduct and police assaults.    

The section seems pretty clear, as follows:  {Police accountability bill, Public Act  20-1 ( page 33) "not later than ninety-six hours following the recorded incident, whichever  is earlier, such recording shall be disclosed, upon request, to the public, subject to the provisions of subsection (g) of this section".

Body camera footage as well as internal surveillance video apparently exists of an alleged assault by Hartford Police Sergeant James Guzie against a female prisoner in the HPD booking facility  in the beginning of March.

This incident was acknowledged by HPD Chief Thody and Guzie was suspended from duty .

I have requested the video, but as of this time HPD has not complied with my request in accordance with Connecticut State law.

This the hypocrisy of  HPD Chief  Jason Thody and Mayor Luke Bronin as they claim publicly that they want to change the culture of HPD but they do the opposite  and cover for problem officers.

Covering for bad cops does not bring about change, it only empowers bad cops to continue unchecked without any fear of being held accountable.

Has  Hartford not learned anything from the Chauvin trial?


IT'S TIME TO SHOW YOUR IRISH PRIDE


 As the saying goes, everyone is Irish on Saint Patrick's Day. Now is your chance to be a part of the Irish heritage and pride all year long..

The Irish Home in Glastonbury is facing tough times and the building itself is in need of repairs. As with many businesses and organizations, the Covid 19 pandemic has caused some difficult times. The home was established in 1945.

The Irish home has survived over the years with memberships and revenue derived from renting the hall for events such as parties and weddings. Since the bottom fell out of the market over a year ago, the Irish Home has been dealing with a shortage of revenues .

Hopefully that revenue stream will start to rebound once  things start getting back to normal, but there is no guarantee of  when that will happen.

If you can, please try to make a donation to the "Go Fund me" page to help save the Irish Home and help Irish events such as the Annual Saint Patrick's Day events survive. Click here to donate please, .https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/irishamericanhome

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

LUKE, YOU HAVE A PROBLEM.. HPD'S VERSION OF THE CRUMBLING FOUNDATION PROBLEM

 

                             PAGE 1 OF HPD'S ATTRITION/ EXIT INTERVIEW DOCUMENT

The good men and women doing great work everyday are the actual foundation of the Hartford Police  Department. It is not the Chief or Assistant Chiefs or Command Staff . That foundation is crumbling under Hartford Police Chief Jason Thody and his administration. Since Thody took over in April of  2019 , nearly 50 officers have quit, many of them minority and female officers..

It took the Hartford Police Department over a month to comply, but they eventually released a document I had requested detailing the data under the Freedom of Information Act 

I  had asked for the exit interview information on Hartford Police Officers that have resigned from the Hartford Police Department. I was hoping to see how many officers have left under the tenure of Jason Thody as Chief. The numbers even surprised me.

I knew it was bad, but I didn't think it was quite as bad as the numbers show. It is also very troubling to me the number of African Americans, Hispanics and women that have bailed. Much work had been put into minority recruitment by Thody's two predecessors, James Rovella and David Rosado. Thody has single handedly reversed that entire process faster than a Tahoe  evading a guardrail crash.

Hartford needs to have a Police Department that reflects the demographics of the City they serve and at this point Hartford is the employment recruiter for every other Department that understands diversity and gladly welcomes disgruntled Hartford Officers looking for better grounds.

The loss of trained officers is an issue. The loss of losing qualified minority officers after the hiring and training process is a much bigger issue for HPD  as well as the taxpayers that have made the investment in these officers. It is e4stimated that it may be upwards of $200,000 per officer to recruit, hire and train a Police Officer for their first year on the job, including salary and benefits

The details of why officers are leaving are also spelled out on the report. The majority seem to be over wages and benefits, but there also are some troubling comments that point to a deeper problem. Comments such as one officer claiming they were "setting him up for failure". Another officer claimed "I was encouraged by senior officers, Sergeants ,Lieutenants and Captains to leave from day one .I was told that things would not get better here and to leave as soon as possible". That must be encouraging to a new employee.

Another employee was quoted as saying they "didn't feel valued" another "didn't learn anything during FTO (Field Training Officer period) another officer "not feeling any support and select sergeants  made work toxic instead of helping him", another "poor equipment, low morale" and the list goes on and on.

Now I know not everyone is always going to be happy, but these numbers seem to be extreme losses for a struggling Department tasked with patrolling a very violent City. The bleeding needs to stop , both literally and figuratively if Hartford is going to survive.   VIEW THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT HERE  https://www.scribd.com/document/503071155/Responsive-Records-3https://www.scribd.com/document/503071155/Responsive-Records-3