As I stated in an earlier post, many residents in the community are extremely upset with the actions of the Danbury Police department stemming from an incident that occurred last Friday at the Danbury Fair carnival. It is alleged by eyewitnesses that officers mishandled innocent people and used racial epithets while breaking up a fight at the event.

They claim that police officers who were dispatched to a fight between three young men, which broke out as a carnival in the mall parking lot wound down, grossly overreacted -- swinging nightsticks, beating innocent people, and using racial epithets against some of the eight people who were eventually taken into custody. Most were charged with breach of peace and trespassing.

[...]

But eyewitnesses said none of those charged were involved in the fight, and many were just waiting in the parking lot for parents or friends to pick them up when they were attacked by police.

"They (the police) were angry. They started riling people up and hitting people," said Alan Perkins, who described watching several of his friends get pounded, manhandled and thrown to the ground.

"One of them grabbed my daughter and threw her against a car, then they stomped on her," said Laurel Quinones, whose 16-year-old daughter, also named Laurel, was taken to the hospital with arm and shoulder injuries.

"They weren't treated like human beings," said Rachel Austin, whose son Quincy also was injured.

Veaundre Williams, a local youth minister who said he knew several victims, drew gasps from the crowd as he told of one of the girls being grabbed by the hair and slammed down by police.

On Monday, a meeting was held at the New Hope Baptist Church where approximately 200+ frustrated and upset minority residents let their feelings about the incident known to Chief of Police Allan Baker and demanded that an immediate investigation be launched to look into the matter.

The Rev. Ivan Pitts, pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church and president of the Danbury chapter of the NAACP, demanded action from Police Chief Alan Baker, who attended the meeting.

"This is a very, very important issue," Pitts said. "We're very upset and we want answers."

[...]

Michael Dinho, 20, said he was trying to leave the carnival when an officer pulled him out of his car and smashed his face against the vehicle, resulting in a broken tooth and a sore neck.

"This is like Birmingham, 1965," one woman in the audience said.

"Things like this aren't supposed to happen in Danbury," another man said.

As I talked to several residents who attened the meeting and others who are still reeling form last week’s incident, most people were highly critical of the absence of one elected official at the meeting Monday night at church...Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton. As of today, Mayor Boughton has yet to formally issue an official public statement, address members of the tense public, or hold a press conference regarding the matter.

Boughton's only comment to date is this blurb, based on a query from a reporter, in the third News-Times article on the incident, which was published on Wednesday.

"We're going to let Internal Affairs do their job. We're going to go out and gather the facts before jumping to conclusions. Part of the problem is everybody is going off what they heard," Boughton said.

Most people I’ve talked to were also quick to point out that although the mayor didn’t say anything publicly, that didn’t stop the police department in releasing a statement in which they state that they have video and audio footage that seems to back up their claim that no one was mistreated. As one person who wishes to say anonymous stated about the incident, “he [Boughton] couldn’t find time to say anything but had the time to let the police to go to the press with their video and audio claim. Aren’t the police the ones who always tell everyone not to jump to conclusions when they’re caught on videotaped beating up someone?”

In my travels across the city over the last two days, it became apparent that many residents are critical at Boughton for mishandling this situation by not issuing a statement and/or reassuring worried residents that the city will get to the bottom of the matter. Using such phrases as “out-of-touch” and “delusional,” people I’ve talked stated that if something like this would have happened in New Haven, Stamford, or Hartford, that those cities mayors (John DeStefano, Dan Malloy, Eddie Perez) would certainly handled the situation differently and gave an alleged incident the seriousness and the priority that is expected from a city’s highest elected official.

Coming on the heels of Boughton's absence, one individual who has been in a state of dismay over the mayor's handling of the situation from the beginning is Democratic Mayoral candidate Helena Abrantes. In an extremely critical statement released to the media this morning, Abrantes calls upon calling on Boughton to "'step up,' assume the role as leader of our community and effectively address continued growing concerns throughout the city."

“Danbury historically has fostered and maintained an environment where people of all races, religions, ethnicities and personal preferences were not only welcome, but embraced. This is what has made Danbury strong throughout its long and proud history,” Abrantes said. “This Mayor, through his actions and his words, has done nothing but polarize this community time and time again by pitting people against people, playing politics for personal gain with those of extremist and destructive views over the best interests of all the people of our city, and playing on the emotions of the so-called hot issues of the day at the expense of our City’s reputation,” she went on to say.

“As Mayor, I would have been present and available to the community at the New Hope Baptist Church to assure concerned members of our city that there would be a thorough and exhaustive investigation regarding the incident that recently occurred at the Danbury Fair. I would charge the Chief of Police to report to me his findings within 10 days. This is a situation that requires full public disclosure once all the facts are determined and immediate and appropriate action, if warranted,” Abrantes stated.

“This Mayor was absent and noncommittal regarding the kind of investigation that this incident demands and displayed a lack of leadership in addressing the serious concerns expressed by African- American citizens of our community in particular.” Our Mayor must be sensitive and genuinely concerned about the sentiments and feelings of each and every member group representative of our city,” said Abrantes. “People over politics is nothing more than an empty slogan and has been proven to be a ‘dyslectic’ approach in the governance of our city under this Mayor,” she further stated.

We’re not even close to fully knowing what actually happened last Friday but one thing is for certain, there is a right way and wrong way to handle situations where allegations racial slurs and police misconduct is involved and so far, Mayor Boughton is not getting a passing grade among the many minority residents in the area.