While the recent meeting with the Mayor and the Reverend Ivan Pitts is a step in the right direction, Councilwoman Pauline Basso and Planning Commissioner Joel Urice owe the citizens of this city a forceful and collective apology and must take more concrete steps necessary to bring this matter to a close and spare our city additional tension.

Elected officials represent all citizens equally and are rightly held to a higher standard because of their positions of leadership and the trust the public has vested in them. While that trust is not etched into law it is nevertheless embodied in the spirit of public service for the good of all. Unfortunately, Councilwoman Basso and Mr. Urice have abused this public trust by circulating racially divisive and ethnically charged emails under the guise of humor.

We call on Council President Joseph Cavo to clearly and publicly denounce the conduct of Councilwoman Basso. By her actions she has ceased to be an effective leader and should resign her majority Republican leadership position immediately and while she refuses to resign from office it will be the voters in November to determine her future. However, Mr. Urice is an appointed official and should step down for the good of the Planning Commission and, if he refuses, the Mayor should not reappoint him at the end of his current term.

The people commenting on this board and arguing that everything is okay, that racist emails are funny or benign, clearly have not been the victim of such overt hate themselves.

The comments paint a picture of a community that is crude, cruel and hard hearted. They shine a harsh and unflattering light on a group of people who would rather use hate and stereotypes than get their sh*t together and deal with issues in their community in some way other than bonding through shared hatred.

In the end, all this spewed hatred is accomplishing nothing other than to spread hatred. There is no game plan, no constructive plan to attempt to correct problems or address grievances or even to identify their root causes -- there's just the spewing.

You know what? The notion that a bunch of immigrants caused this group of people the problems they have is utterly laughable. They ha d big problems before any of these immigrants ever crossed the border into the USA. This cretins are just the low life on the totem pole, looking for the next dog to kick.

The citizens of Danbury have a choice: They can seize the opportunity to make Danbury a model city for diversity, one that finds constructive solutions to problems and includes everyone as they seek answers-- or to drag and spiral Danbury downward in a sea of hate and intolerance.

The Republican party already gave a clear signal that it is not interested in diversity when presidential candidates dissed the invitation to the African American GOP presidential debate.

Hatred is not a necessary ingredient in working out the challenges of a widely diverse city. Those GOP members who are trying to convince citizens that knee jerk intolerance is a normal approach to life are pathetic, as are their supporters.

Squawking all together about how normal racist emails are they only reinforce the stereotype of Danbury as a pathetic, small-minded, hardhearted bastion of hatred in Connecticut. Do you think that officials engaging in this sort of ridiculousness will help attract jobs and stabilize the economy in Danbury?

Keep indulging yourselves in your self absorbed petty hatreds and see where it gets you. Sound of Danbury flushing itself down the toilet.

Danbury citizens, Hopefully in November you -- and 10 of your closest friends -- will get together and elect some mature, sober minded representatives of ALL the people, not just card carrying white people. Danbury is far too diverse for that to fly.

cherly boston: Why is racism so bad? Is there a law that says we have love these subhuman primates? Nigs and immigrants are filthy animals, and the world would be a lot better off without them.

[...]

johnynm: get over it. everyone's been subject to a racist joke or comment about their own ethnicity. some people are just looking to be offended.

[...]

Tarheel: It's a joke! IT'S A JOKE!! They don't joke around in Mexico? Is it something in the water that makes you lose your sense of laughter? I thought those e-mails were funny, EVERYONE sends these jokes in e-mails daily and that is why the Danbury VOTING public is not outraged.

ICE is NICE: Tell that Hernandez guy to go stuff it!
He will never have respect because he was a illegal alien who willfully broke American laws and disrespected every American citizen by his criminal actions.

It is offensive to hear him described as an 'immigrant activist'.

[...]

BANNED_AND_LOVIN_IT: Basso, you don't owe Pitts a thing... much less an apology... The fact that you met with this Sharpton wanna-is disappointing.

The Memphis Kid: Koonz [writer of today's article] is pathetic. He's a Democrat party lackey and a journalistic hack.

Brian – did you get a signed affidavit from every single Danbury resident affirming they believed the e-mails to be racist? Of course not. Despite your belief that you’re the anointed spokesperson of all Danbury, there are many, if not most, who believe the e-mails were simply harmless satire. Satire intended to make commentary on legitimate current event issues...In closing, Brian Koonz is an amateur who got his journalistic “credentials” out of a cereal box.

Boughton58: They can delte my posts but they can't silence the truth. Nigs and immigrants are disgusting animals that need to be eradicated or enslaved.

We need to take dominion over the beasts of the field.

Pauline Basso is screening her calls.

Every time we tried to reach the Majority Leader of Danbury's Common Council, the line was either busy or we got an answering machine.

A day ago, the Danbury chapter of the NAACP released emails Basso had forwarded to friends—including Mary Teicholz, a fellow Republican councilwoman, and Joel Urice, an appointee to the city's Planning Commission running for Zoning Commission on the GOP slate—that included:

Local NAACP president Rev. Ivan Pitts stood before City Hall and called the emails "offensive, hateful, racist and dehumanizing."

Both he and Rev. Boise Kimber, president of the Baptist State Convention, demanded the Common Council denounce the emails and Basso apologize and resign. Emad Ismail, president of the Islamic Center of Greater Danbury, and Helena Abrantes, the Democratic mayoral candidate, also said Basso should go. Kimber added, "the mayor of Danbury certainly should stand up and speak out for such words and language of this nature."

A week later, the response from Danbury's Republican leadership has been underwhelming.

Emails to Republican Town Committee President Wayne Baker, Common Council President Joseph Cavo and Joel Urice went unreturned (though Urice told the Danbury News-Times, "I just thought that it was funny").

After repeated phone calls, Mayor Mark Boughton emailed us to say, "Mrs. Basso was wrong by forwarding these e-mails. They are unacceptable and inappropriate." He says he is arranging a meeting between Basso, Urice, and Pitts, believing in "more communication and less confrontation."

That seems to be what those who first got hold of the emails wanted two months ago.

"Someone came up to me said they had received some emails from a public official that made them very uncomfortable," says Rev. Gayle Keeney-Mulligan, of St. John's Episcopal Church in New Milford, who was apparently the first outside Basso's circle to uncover them. After a second person forwarded them to her, she thought "something should be done but I wasn't sure what and by whom." As an outsider from Danbury who was not among the religions and ethnicities the emails targeted (as encompassing as they were), Keeney-Mulligan began anonymously fishing them out to various statewide media and activist groups, including the NAACP.

Pitts says he met with "the power players and tried to resolve this quietly, behind the scenes." He says he got a "half-hearted apology and way to pacify the situation until after the election." Though Basso never met him face-to-face, he has a letter from her, hand-delivered to his church and dated Oct. 1, stating "I have clearly made a poor decision for which I am very sorry." She has not made a public apology.

When statewide news networks WTNH and WVIT were in town, neither the mayor nor the councilwoman returned their calls.

This reporter finally went to Pauline Basso's home, where there was a uncarved pumpkin on the porch, a scarecrow in the bushes, a Re-elect Basso sign on the yard (she's running to retain her representative at large post) and not the slightest indication she was the center of a racial controversy.

"I really have nothing to say," she told us. "I made my apology and that's it."

From The Hartford Courant dated 10.12.07

Indicted Danbury garbage executive James Galante was arrested Friday on charges related to making nearly $40,000 in illegal campaign contributions to state Senators Louis DeLuca and David Cappiello, as well as Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton.

[...]

In cases of bundled donations, individual contributors typically exceed the legal $1,000 contribution limit by passing money through third parties. In Galante's case, he is accused of contributing $15,000 each to DeLuca and Cappiello in 2002 and $8,000 to Boughton in 2003. People familiar with the case said he passed the money in $1,000 increments through employees of his various trash businesses, their family members or their friends.

Boughton acknowledged Friday that one of his political actions committees, People Over Politics, got money from associates of Galante in 2003.

Sources said that eight, $1,000 checks from either Galante employees, friends or associates were donated to People Over Politics on Oct. 26, 2003. Some of them were then reimbursed or told that the donations would help Galante's trash hauling business, which is based in Danbury.

Name: Date of contribution
Shirley Giglio: 10.26.03
Paul DiNardo: 10.26.03
Joe Walkovich: 10.26.03
Frank Russo: 10.26.03
Susan Seri: 10.26.03
Anthony DiNardo: 10.26.03
Jackie DiNardo: 10.30.03
Robert DiNardo: 10.23.03

Name: Date of contribution
Maria Rullo: 01.15.03
Nina DiNardo: 01.14.03
Joe Walkovich: 01.18.03
Susan Seri: 01.15.03
Paul DiNardo: 1.17.03

Kevin J. O'Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that MARIA "Mary" RULLO, age 45, [...] waived indictment and pleaded guilty today before Senior United States District Judge Ellen Bree Burns in New Haven to one felony count of filing a false tax return.

According to documents filed with the Court and statements made in court, RULLO failed to report alimony income on personal tax returns she filed with the Internal Revenue Service. During the course of an investigation, the IRS obtained an affidavit signed by RULLO in 2003 in which she stated she received $40,000 in alimony, an amount that she omitted from her tax return for that year.

RULLO has agreed to pay $34,436 to the IRS for material omissions to her returns filed for the 2001 through 2004 tax years.

Judge Burns has scheduled sentencing for October 19, 2007, at which time RULLO faces a maximum term of imprisonment of three years and a fine of up to $100,000.

RULLO was released on a $25,000 non-surety bond and was ordered not to have any direct or indirect contact with the defendants and witnesses named in United States v. Ianniello, et al, Case Number 3:06cr161(EBB).

Lets take a look at Case Number 3:06cr161, United States v. Ianniello, et al. and see which witness and defendants Rullo should have no direct or indirect contact with.

The defendant Matthew Ianniello is the 86 year old former acting boss of the Genovese Organized Crime Family. Save for a period of approximately six years in the 1990s when he was incarcerated on racketeering charges, Mr. Ianniello has for decades served the Genovese family well as one of its top "earners." At this late junction in his career, Mr. Ianniello faces in this case a term of incarceration of 24 to 30 months and a fine of $4,000 to $40,000. For the reasons that follow, the government respectfully submits that a sentence at the high end of this range - to be served concurrent to a 15 month sentence recently imposed in another district - is appropriate.


BACKGROUND
On December 20, 2006, the defendant pleaded guilty to Count Two of the Indictment, which charges that he and others engaged in a racketeering conspiracy designed to control Connecticut's refuse industry, and Count Sixty-Two, which charges him with conspiring to defraud the United States Revenue Service (IRS). See 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d) (Racketeering Conspiracy) and 18 U.S.C. § 371 ("Klein conspiracy"). The defendant faces a maximum term of incarceration of twenty years on Count Two and a maximum term of incarceration of five years on Count Sixty-Two.

In this case, the government conducted eleven months of court-authorized

wiretaps on a number of telephones connected to James Galante, owner of

approximately twenty-nine carting-related entities in southwestern Connecticut. (PSR at ¶ 15) The wiretaps ran from August 2004 to July 2005, at which point law enforcement officials executed over thirty-five search warrants, including searches of Mr. Ianniello's residence and Mr. Galante's office. Agents seized thousands of boxes of documents, including a sheet of paper from Galante's office that listed a series of quarterly payments made by Galante to the defendant between August 2001 and April 2005. The payments stopped after the government executed the aforementioned searches in July 2005.

With respect to the search of Mr. Ianniello's residence, the Connecticut FBI seized approximately $130,680 in cash. In addition to the wiretaps and searches, agents interviewed many witnesses connected to the case.

This Court authorized wiretaps on phones utilized by, among others, Galante, Richard Galietti (Galante's lead salesman), Christopher Rayner (accountant to defendants Milo and Galante), Ciro Viento (Galante's operations manager), and Richard Caccavale (Galante employee).

To date, Viento and Caccavale have pleaded guilty to the racketeering conspiracy charged in Count Two; the other listed defendants await trial.

Follow the money trail and help me see how far this rabbit hole goes.

1. Pauline Basso has offered NO apology to the public for her actions and a half-hearted two paragraph to NAACP President Rev. Ivon Pitts.

2. Pauline Basso has only offered this flippant statement to the press.

"I really have nothing to say...I sent an apology and that's it."

3. "Cowboy" Urice thinks the whole thing is a "joke" and offered this boneheaded response to the News-Times Brian Koonz that only inflamed the level of outrage.

I just thought that it was funny," said Urice, an outspoken opponent of illegal immigration. "There was nothing intended about anything.

"I am definitely a believer in law and order," he said. "Once again, these people are a burden on our tax system and we're forced to pay for them. It was in no way a racial slur."

Of course, Urice's "these people" remark speaks louder than any denial.

4. Our mayor, the last honest man in Danbury and leader of the seventh largest city in Connecticut, was too afraid to take questions from the networks, refuse to return calls from the networks, didn't give the impression that he took the matter seriously when first informed, didn't make a public statement condemning Basso's actions at this month's Common Council meeting, AND is attempting to distance himself from the matter by playing the role of "The Mediator."

5. The OTHER COMMON COUNCIL MEMBER WHO'S RECEIVED THE EMAILS HASN'T COME FORWARD AND OFFERED AN EXPLANATION IN REGARDS TO HER/HIS ROLE IN THE MATTER. You know who you are, I know you read this blog and your silence on this matter speaks volumes and will not be forgotten.

6. In an act of complete arrogance, word has it from several people who've either talked to, or talk to people who chatted with Basso is that she will not offer a public apology to the residents of Danbury (who had to endure the pain she has created) nor will she resign.

The FEC reports are starting to trickle in and David Cappiello followed up his breakout fundraising quarter, one that put him on the radar of the national Republicans and raised him almost $200,000, with a rather weak effort of $70,470 ($48,961 spent for a CoH of $204,368).

Not only did Cappiello’s fundraising decline by 65%, not only was he outraised this quarter by the guy who could only manage $30k last quarter, but he is sitting in a much more winnable district for the Republicans than is Sean Sullivan (not to mention that this comes a few days after Cappiello’s name and the words “illegal campaign contributions” appeared in the same article). Although the 2nd was decided by 1.3 votes last cycle, it was the most Democratic district in the country (by registration) that was represented by a Republican (that, obviously, included the 5th).

Net-Net, this is as disastrous as a fundraising number could be for Cappiello. He was in a $600,000 CoH hole following last quarter to begin with and this number isn’t going to help that situation at all. Add to that the cash flow problem the NRCC is having right now, and the probable need they will have to spend money to defend Chris Shays, and $70,000 is simply not part of a winning formula for taking back the 5th District seat.

To recap, here are the other numbers that have been reported so far:

Sean Sullivan (R-CT-02): $100k in 3Q, $132k total this cycle

Joe Courtney (D-CT-02): $260k in 3Q, apx. $1 million total this cycle, $770k cash on hand

Jim Himes (D-CT-04): $250k in 3Q, over $610k this cycle

James Galante, who owns trash hauling companies in Danbury and Putnam County, N.Y., first tried to get into the hockey business in New Haven, but he eventually realized the city's team couldn't be saved. When Danbury opened its ice arena in 2001, Mr. Galante saw another opportunity. He had watched his son play hockey in high school and noticed that young people from the area were signing up for junior and pee wee leagues. A hockey team, he realized, could take root here.

[...]

The team will also be paying for major renovations to the ice arena, expanding the capacity from 750 seats to as many as 2,500. The renovation still needs the city's approval, said Kevin McCormack, regional manager for New Jersey-based Floyd Hall Enterprises, which owns the arena. The arena had also not signed a final contract with the team, Mr. McCormack said.

The arena, which holds two rinks, already logs 400,000 to 500,000 total visits a year for youth leagues, adult leagues and recreational skating, among other events, Mr. McCormack said. None of those activities will be curtailed by the hockey team, he said. He expected the team to boost interest in the arena, rather than drive it away. Danbury residents are already coming to the ice arena asking where they can buy season tickets, Mr. McCormack said.

Increasing the seating was a prerequisite for admission into the league, Mr. Brosal, the U.H.L. president, said. He also said he was not concerned that James Galante had served a federal sentence in connection with filing false corporate tax returns.

FBI agents searched an undisclosed number of homes and businesses in western Connecticut and suburban New York late Tuesday as part of an organized crime and political corruption case that centers on the refuse hauling business.

Shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday, dozens of agents began sifting through business records at the offices of Automated Waste Disposal Inc. in Danbury. Automated dominates the refuse hauling business in southwestern Connecticut, and its owner was linked in federal court in the middle 1990s to mob efforts to stifle competition in the industry in Westchester County, N.Y.

Automated is owned by James E. Galante, 52, of New Fairfield, who was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and fined $ 100,000 in 1999 for assisting in the preparation of false corporate tax returns.

FBI agents also appeared at the law offices in Danbury of Galante attorney Jack E. Garamella, a law enforcement source said late Tuesday. In addition, agents armed with search warrants were at Galante's home and the homes of several of his senior employees, said a source familiar with the investigation.

[...]

The indictment alleged that Milo and the others -- including Mario Gigante, the brother of then Genovese crime family boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante -- were part of a mob cartel that used arson, bribery and violence to dominate the garbage-hauling industry in the suburbs north of New York City.

[...]

Galante also owns a professional, minor-league hockey team that he named the Danbury Trashers. It is part of the United Hockey League and plays in the city-owned ice rink in downtown Danbury. Galante bought the team as an 18th birthday present for his son, who is general manager.

[...]

Galante and employees of his businesses have been generous contributors to Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton. Boughton could not be reached Tuesday night for comment.

Some senior city employees, who asked not be identified because they fear retribution, have said the city of Danbury allowed Galante to spend millions to quickly renovate the ice rink to comply with league standards -- but without timely city inspections for code violations. The arena was too small for league standards and needed to be expanded to a capacity of more than 3,000. The city employees said they felt pressured to quickly approve the renovations.

Shortly after Boughton became mayor in 2001, Galante requested and received a permit to increase the numberof tons per day of garbage he could bring into the transfer station from 950 to 1,250. Boughton said he didn't become aware of the application until 2003, but under the terms of the previous contract Galante had the option to apply for expansion to the regional trash authority.

Galante recently has asked for another expansion to 1,900 tons a day. That application is pending, Boughton said.

[...]

The city's handling of the expansion of the ice rink has raised questions with Boughton's critics. Galante would not have been able to open the season without expanding the seating capacity at the Danbury Arena to meet United Hockey League regulations.

Danbury garbage executive James Galante turned himself in to the state police Friday morning to face charges of making nearly $40,000 in illegal campaign contributions, as a third political figure acknowledged being the recipient of $8,000 in questionable money.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, a Republican, said Friday that one of his political action committees received money from Galante in 2003 that was disguised through third-party, or "straw" donors. Sources familiar with the campaign finance case said this week that Boughton got the money in October 2003.

[...]

As Danbury's mayor, Boughton has worked closely with Galante, whose network of trash-related businesses is a major presence in the city. In particular, the Boughton administration worked with Galante on issues related to the rehabilitation of a city ice rink where Galante's minor league professional hockey team, the Danbury Trashers, played. Boughton dismissed local critics who said the city bent rules to rush approval of an occupancy permit for the rink. Boughton also said he is not close to Galante socially.

1. Pauline Basso has offered NO apology to the public for her actions and a half-hearted two paragraph to NAACP President Rev. Ivon Pitts.

2. Pauline Basso has only offered this flippant statement to the press.

"I really have nothing to say...I sent an apology and that's it."

3. "Cowboy" Urice thinks the whole thing is a "joke" and offered this boneheaded response to the News-Times Brian Koonz that only inflamed the level of outrage.

I just thought that it was funny," said Urice, an outspoken opponent of illegal immigration. "There was nothing intended about anything.

"I am definitely a believer in law and order," he said. "Once again, these people are a burden on our tax system and we're forced to pay for them. It was in no way a racial slur."

Of course, Urice's "these people" remark speaks louder than any denial.

4. Our mayor, the last honest man in Danbury and leader of the seventh largest city in Connecticut, was too afraid to take questions from the networks, refuse to return calls from the networks, didn't give the impression that he took the matter seriously when first informed, didn't make a public statement condemning Basso's actions at this month's Common Council meeting, AND is attempting to distance himself from the matter by playing the role of "The Mediator."

and most importantly...

5. The OTHER COMMON COUNCIL MEMBER WHO'S RECEIVED THE EMAILS HASN'T COME FORWARD AND OFFERED AN EXPLANATION IN REGARDS TO HER/HIS ROLE IN THE MATTER. You know who you are, I know you read this blog and your silence on this matter speaks volumes and will not be forgotten.

Ahmad Noori, a U.S. citizen from Afghanistan, makes his living as a real estate expert for Cartus Corp. in Danbury.

But he also knows a thing or two about teaching.

Like many Danbury residents, Noori was shocked by last week's news that Common Council majority leader Pauline Basso and Planning Commission member Joel Urice had circulated racist e-mails about African women, Latinos and Muslims.

He saw the e-mailed photos of masked Muslim extremists holding up signs that read, "Behead Those Who Insult Islam" and "Be Prepared For The Real Holocaust."

And yet, tangled among the choking images of hatred and bigotry, Noori saw a lesson to be learned. Others in Danbury's ethnic community saw it, too.

Together, they're trying to undo the damage caused by Basso and Urice.

"I don't agree with suicide bombings. I don't agree with the hateful and extremist views that were shown in those pictures," Noori said Friday. "But I do want (Basso) and other people to know there's a big difference.

"For the majority of Muslims in America, particularly in Danbury, we are a peaceful people. We contribute to the community," he said. "For me, what hurts the most is that she's a public official. She knows better."

[...]

Noori was a teen-ager when he immigrated to Danbury in 1990. The city never used to be this way, he'll tell you. It was always a welcoming place, a palette where the colors complemented each other.

Hamid Raza, who owns Dollar Discount in Bethel, was also offended by the e-mails. Raza stood behind the counter Friday and shook his head.

"It's a very bad thing. It's not right," said Raza, a Danbury resident whose brother, Ahmed, leads the mosque in Monroe.

"You can't judge people on the basis of their color, or their religion, or their race," he said. "We are all God's children.

"Politicians are supposed to be the bridge that brings communities together," he went on. "They're not supposed to divide them and break them up and create more hate in the world."

[...]

"These kinds of things -- racist e-mails and photos, nooses -- they're symbolic of things that are usually swept under the rug in our society," said Dr. Carina Bandhauer, an associate professor of sociology at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury.

"But these particular symbols indicate there are bigger, unresolved issues with race and power and understanding," she observed.

Bandhauer said the situation becomes more intolerable when elected officials violate the public's trust. The professor also said she doubts Basso's two-paragraph apology to Pitts was sufficient to heal the city's wounds.

"It's particularly offensive when political figures are responsible," Bandhauer said. "(Basso) couldn't possibly have come to terms with what she did, just by writing one brief letter, to understand the issues affecting all of these groups and communities."

Willie Knight, who served as president of the Greater Danbury NAACP from 1984-94, agreed.

"Some of these things, the e-mails and the like, have become too permissible," Knight said. "But collectively, I still believe we have a very good community here in Danbury.

"But when something like this happens, I think it's even more reason to encourage people to take part in the voting process," he added. "You can make a difference. Your vote does count."

It's no different in the Islamic community or the Latino community. The pain might come in different colors, you see, but the votes still count the same.

If enough people keep Basso and Urice out of office Nov. 6, the healing can finally begin in Danbury.

"You can't hide behind the excuse of saying, 'Oh, well. It's just a joke.' This isn't humorous. It's not humorous at all," Knight said.

"When you're an elected official, you have to maintain a higher standard," he said. "Everybody in the city, especially our children, looks up to these people as role models. Martin Luther King said we shall overcome. Well, we're not there yet."

The controversy swirling around Danbury officials who forwarded offensive e-mails about ethnic groups has brightened the already glaring spotlight on the insensitivity with which many minorities are still treated in this city and, indeed, this country.

It is truly a sad commentary that such intolerance and bigotry continue to exist in 2007 Danbury and America.

The controversy also highlights the need for community leaders to encourage residents to be more tolerant -- and certainly to refrain from behavior that perpetuates bigoted stereotypes.

We are saddened and concerned that two Danbury officials -- Common Council majority leader Pauline Basso and Planning Commission member Joel Urice -- forwarded tasteless, offensive e-mails targeting Mexicans, African women and Muslims.

We don't have a clue why anyone would find humor in these ugly e-mails, or why they would want to share them with others.

And we certainly can't comprehend how or why two elected officials -- one of them the Republican leader of the Common Council -- would participate in spreading around such hateful material.

Criticism of those officials' behavior is not a matter of political correctness run wild, as some defenders of Basso and Urice contend.

This is not a matter of Basso's and Urice's critics failing to have a sense of humor, since it is difficult to find any humor in the e-mails.

Rather, this is a matter of two public officials viewing bigoted, offensive material, apparently finding it amusing, and forwarding it on to others.

It is a matter of two elected officials -- and most notably Basso -- who displayed very poor judgment in spreading incendiary material in a city where emotions already run high over the immigration issue.

Basso's and Urice's behavior raises serious questions about their suitability to serve the city of Danbury.

In Basso's case in particular, it is disturbing to know that an individual in such a key position -- and one who should be spearheading efforts to heal the ethnic divisions in Danbury -- apparently finds offensive ethnic e-mails funny.

And all of this is especially disturbing against the backdrop of racial conflict in Louisiana and the appearance of symbols of hatred like the noose and swastika signs at Columbia University and elsewhere.

What Danbury needs, what America needs are leaders who can heal, not those who exacerbate the divisiveness by perpetuating stereotypes.

[...]

We also call on Mayor Boughton to take greater advantage of his bully pulpit to work aggressively to increase tolerance and sensitivity, reduce bigotry and hostility, and create a more harmonious atmosphere in Danbury.

As for Basso and Urice, at the very least they both owe the community at large a sincere apology for their insensitive behavior.

And all Danbury residents -- leaders and ordinary citizens alike -- need to learn from this unfortunate scenario and make sure they act in a tolerant, sensitive, open-minded manner.