The New York Times did a piece on the aftermath of the anthrax nonsense in Danbury and lets just say that our Mayor is a REAL classy guy.

When Ase-AmenRa Kariamu and his wife, Althea, returned to their house here after nearly four months, it neither felt nor looked like home. The odor of chlorine was so powerful that they had to wear masks. A baby portrait of their eldest daughter in an upstairs hallway was a pale bronze, as if a relic from generations past.

Tools, supplies and art pieces from Mr. Kariamu’s backyard workshop were piled in the basement.

“It looks like junk right now,” he said on Friday, picking up a half-broken shekere, a beaded gourd instrument, whose net of beads had been torn. “Oh, man,” he said, laughing. “Really just unbelievable.”

But at least he and his family were healthy and the house was free of anthrax.

Last summer, Mr. Kariamu, 49, and his 9-year-old son, Seku-Baye, contracted cutaneous anthrax, an infection of the skin. It was an ordeal that turned the family’s life — and home — upside down and wreaked economic havoc on the city’s north end.

[...]

Now, after three and a half months of a cleanup that included treating surfaces in the rental house with chlorine bleach and pumping it full of spore-killing gas, the Connecticut Department of Public Health declared it safe for occupancy on Dec. 22.

The path to the back porch of the gray clapboard house at 69 Padanaram Road was littered with a pile of plastic sheeting. A heavy-duty forklift, a crane and a portable toilet, all from the cleanup effort, crowded the small backyard, and tire tracks six inches deep crisscrossed what had been a swath of grass.

While the federal Environmental Protection Agency said it might reimburse Mr. Kariamu for damage caused by the fumigation, he said he had not been able to work with his drums and had not paid rent since September.

His landlord, Donald Lombardo, said he was being “patient” about the rent. “Basically, I called him and told him, ‘Pay me what you can. And if you can’t, somehow we’ll work it out in the end,’” Mr. Lombardo said.

But not only did the City of Danbury turn down Mr. Kariamu’s request for emergency financial assistance, Mayor Mark D. Boughton seemed anything but sympathetic.

Danbury incurred about $100,000 in overtime charges for police and fire personnel, Mr. Boughton said, adding that he was most concerned about the cost to local businesses. A stretch of Padanaram Road — a main thoroughfare through this city — was blocked off, sometimes for days at a time, as work at the contaminated property proceeded.

A pizza parlor nearly went out of business because of financial losses brought on by the road closing, Mr. Boughton said, suggesting that some local establishments might sue Mr. Kariamu to recoup lost revenue.

“He certainly does bear responsibility,” the mayor said.

So much for people over politics. By his own words, Boughton was MOST concerned about the local businesses rather than:

• The health and well being of the Kariamu family and or,
• How in a post-9111 world, how an imported item with LACED WITH ANTHRAX was allowed into the country.

The last honest man puts on his arrogant hat and point the finger at the victim. Unbelievable.

I'll let the New York Times explain why Mayor Mark is off the deep end...

Mr. Kariamu, the director of a West African drumming program at the nonprofit Danbury Music Center, said he did not see it that way. He said the New York City hide dealer who had sold him the infected skin had assured him it had been legally imported.

He said he had assumed that if it were contaminated, it would not have been allowed in the country.

BINGO!

How can one hold Kariamu (or anyone who PURCHASED IMPORTED ITEMS) responsible for the incident when 1: He had no idea that skins were contaminated and 2: Was assured by the dealer that the skins were safe? You have to look at the screening process of imported items (a.k.a point the finger at the feds). Anyone who attempts to sue him (including the city) would be laughed out of the courthouse.

All this tough talk while no one INCLUDING THE MAYOR had an answer for FOX61's reporter Eric Zager when he put them on the spot and revealed that:

• The car used to transport the skins made it's way to a car dealership and,

• Tony Alves, an employee of a local car towing company towed the CONTANIMATED car from the dealership BACK to the home, as opposed to health officials taking care of the situation and,

• When FOX61 did their report, NO ONE, including Mike Nalipinski of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, COULD ANSWER THEIR QUESTIONS until days later.

• What about the people at the dealership who came in contact with the car (including workers who cleaned the car for sale and buyers who were interested in the car)...what ever happened to them?

Oh, I forgot, according to the last honest man, it was outrageous to suggest that anyone dropped the ball. This is from the same man who stated that the City of Danbury played NO PART in the Sept 2006 ICE raid on the day-laborers at Kennedy Park.

whatever.

Hey, you get what you voted for...at least my conscious is clear.

photo courtesy of the NYTimes