New Haven CT Police Union Protests
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Hester
02/21/2011
Mon Feb 21, 2011 at 03:40 PM EST
New Haven CT Police Union Protests
by hester
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The hospital guards used to escort me to my car after I worked the late shift at the YNHH Emergency room as a Medical resident. Why? Because New Haven is the second most dangerous city in Connecticut after Bridgeport. It's 37th in the country.
And one night when I was working they brought a 18 y.o. black women to the medical part of the ER from the psych unit? Why, because her heart rate was 150 beats per minute. Well, that's way above normal, so I proceeded to examine her after talking with her.
Turns out her ex-boy friend was chasing her down Howard Avenue with a knife. After a short time, her heart rate returned to normal, her exam checked out fine so I escorted her back to the doctor who had brought her to see me.
He asked: "Why are you bringing her back here?"
Me: "Her heart rate is normal now. There's nothing physically the matter with her."
Him: "Well, something must be the matter with her heart"
Me: "Nope, her ex boyfriend was chasing her down the street brandishing a knife. If someone was chasing you down Howard Avenue with a knife, your heart rate would be 150 also."
I tell you this because the Police are a vital part of New Haven and the city cannot afford to lose one of them. But the mayor of New Haven, a life-long democrat and son of a policeman laid off 16 police last week (budget cuts) and there was a protest in reaction. That was last thursday. Some of the protesting officers were on duty. Thursday night there was a staged "sick-out".
The protest, which lasted over three hours, began at the NHPD headquarters on Union Ave and ended at the foot of City Hall. It represented the culmination of weeks of budget tensions that began with Mayor John DeStefano'??s call to reevaluate the city's pension plan and ended in the dismissal of 16 officers. Following the march, union leadership squared off against the mayor in a closed-door meeting in his office for over an hour in a last-ditch effort to save the jobs. But the two sides could not resolve their differences, and the protest ultimately failed to prevent the layoffs and the 16 officers handed in their guns and badges later that afternoon.
This is one of the hardest days of my career, NHPD Chief Frank Limon said. The [laid-off] officers are not happy and they don'??t like the way they'??ve been treated¦ They weren'??t treated with a lot of respect.
He criticized the way the city handled the layoffs, and said that he would like to keep every officer. The march started at 9:30 a.m. and ended at City Hall, where DeStefano stood by his decision to lay off the officers.
The union met to discuss the issues. The following day at 9:30 the off-duty officers met w the Police Chief and were dissatisfied with the response so the 16 'fired' officers (who the night b/f refused to hand in their badges) plus union leaders led a protest of about 250 to City Hall.
I'll hand to to Mayor DeStefano, He invited the union executive board and it's attorney to meet on the spot.. The union rep proposed a plan that would allow the officers to work for 60 days while a resolution was worked out since about 30-50 retirements are expected this year..
The union was also OPEN to temporarily working w/o pay
DeStefano refused. Union president Cavaliere emphasized the risks to the citizens, as the force is already understaffed . Indeed many officers urged citizens to arm themselves. Although DeStefano claimed there was no increased danger.
New Haven has a $5.5 million budget gap. The 16 laid-off policeman were just a fraction (albeit a large one) of the 82 city workers laid off.
What is different about this from Ohio, Wisconsin and Indiana is that the mayor is a life-long democrat. He ran to the left of Dan Malloy for governor. His dad was a union member. Not only that, the contracts that are considered so unaffordable, are one Mayor DeStefano himself negotiated.
The following day four men stood in front of City Hall with signs calling for redirecting military spending to meet human needs at home. Why weren'??t more people joining them?
"What do you think this is—Cairo?" joked Henry Lowendorf
(pictured),
The protesters point out that Mayor John DeStefano is calling for belt-tightening among city workers to bridge a $5.5 million gap in the current year'??s budget and a projected $22 million gap in the next fiscal year's. Meanwhile, according to the National Priorities Project, New Haven taxpayers will pay $84 million for FY2011 in total Iraq and Afghanistan war spending - ??or $1,766 per household -?? which is ??more than enough to cover the projected budget deficit, Lowendorf said.
Maureen Fisher
(pictured) lives in West Haven and works at a bank near City Hall. On her way home Friday, she stopped to say that instead of spending billions on ??unnecessary? wars, ??We should be spending more money on our children and families. When I walk here in the mornings, I see people who have nowhere to go. We need to build shelters for them. And also we need to not lay off the police officers. We need them, Fisher said.
