Today, the News-Times wrote what possibly is the most honest and hard-hitting editorial on Mayor Boughton and this whole ICE spectacle and I couldn't agree more.

Danbury was big news last week. Satellite trucks from Connecticut and New York City television stations were on hand.

The New York stations created maps so viewers unfamiliar with Danbury would know the exact location -- there it is, in Connecticut but on the New York border.

Were these television stations publicizing Danbury's nice restaurants? Its lakes and parks? Its community events? Its churches? Its history? Its hospital? Its university?

No, of course not. Danbury was once again in the news for all the wrong reasons, portrayed as a city overrun by anger and illegal immigrants.

Can the city blame "the media" for this? No. This spectacle was orchestrated by Danbury's top elected officials.

It started last October when members of the Common Council decided to make a campaign issue of forming a police partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

They wrote a letter to Mayor Mark Boughton, who thought it would be a dandy idea for the council to get involved in the running of the Danbury Police Department.

And the fun was on. It culminated Wednesday night when the council voted to authorize the police to work with ICE -- as a cordon of police officers stood around City Hall and thousands of people chanted in the streets.

The police department works with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. It is the police department that should decide if such partnerships are beneficial, not the politicians.

[...]

This decision did not require a public spectacle. It did not require a council vote -- as ICE spokesmen made clear to The News-Times.

When Boughton and the council decided to politicize the issue, people concerned about ICE went political too.

They assumed the worst about what would happen -- from racial profiling against legal immigrants and citizens to mass roundups of illegal immigrants. And why not? If this was just about routine law enforcement, it would have been left to the police department, not the politicians.

[...]

Sadly, Police Chief Al Baker has come out of this controversy looking pretty weak. He was silent at first, saying he wanted to stay out of the politics.

Then he found his voice and showed he was perfectly capable of handling any law enforcement issue that comes up.

But the mayor and the council wouldn't leave law enforcement to the chief. No, they needed to have their spectacle.

Now it will be the job of the chief to heal the wounds that were needlessly opened by this controversy between the police department, the immigrant community and others in Danbury.

The mayor's shown no interest in bringing people together. He's laughably issuing recounts of the crowd that gathered Wednesday night outside City Hall.

The council's shown no interest in bringing people together. It saw this controversy spiraling out of control, dividing this city, damaging Danbury's image. But the council refused to step back and leave a law enforcement matter to the police department.

Danbury's weathered many challenges over the years and triumphed over them. It will weather this one, too.

Perhaps the city's religious communities can show the way. Unfortunately, Danbury's elected officials have shown they lack the leadership qualities needed at a moment like this.

To back up the News-Times editorial, I'm going to do something that's been in the works since this whole "using ICE ACCESS for political purposes" started.

From local media pundits/anti-immigrant supporters who spread unchallenged LIES since October, and Boughton's latest laughable PR stunt,to comments from members of the council who had audacity to blame the spread of so-called "misinformation" on immigrant newspapers and people who opposed the program, I'm going to set the record straight once and for all.

Thanks to the News-Times for staying on top of this story from day one and seeing the true nature of this program...wait till I add my information to the story and go on MY media campaign.