New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
NAACP asks state’s attorney to probe cop for hate crimes
BRIDGEPORT — State and local NAACP leaders want the chief state’s attorney to investigate recently retired police Capt. Mark Straubel for alleged hate crimes.
“You’re talking about starting race wars,” said Scot X. Esdaile, president of the Connecticut NAACP, referring to one of several text messages that Straubel, who was a key aide to Police Chief Armando Perez, was accused of sending.
Perez placed Straubel on paid administrative leave in July after Ken Kubel, a retired Bridgeport police sergeant who now works for the Stratford Police Department, filed a complaint about Straubel in June with Bridgeport’s Internal Affairs office.
Straubel, who is white, in some of the texts obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media, allegedly stated that he hates African Americans, that they are “a cancer” and that he hoped for a race war.
One text read: “I asked (an African-American officer) if he had seen (the film) Planet of the Apes. He said ‘yes.’ I asked him if it made him homesick.”
In still another text, Straubel allegedly complained about having to march in an unnamed parade that he claimed involved mostly black people, and used a racist term to describe the event.
“I am appalled by the allegations regarding disparaging remarks against African-Americans that were made by a senior aide in the Bridgeport Police Department,” Mayor Joe Ganim said Monday. “These or any comments or statements that create any impression of discrimination or divisiveness cannot and will not be tolerated.
“My administration, and the community, were more than patient as this matter was being handled with a formal investigation by the Office of Internal Affairs. This investigation concluded with the permanent resignation of Captain Straubel on Aug. 14. Any further action that is allowable by law will be taken in this matter.
“Lastly, again, these type of comments or behavior will not tolerated by anyone in the police department or the administration,” Ganim said.
Straubel retired Aug. 13 with the internal probe still pending — a move Esdaile and Bridgeport NAACP President George Mintz said they feared would quietly put an end to the investigation.
“That’s what we’ve been dealing with all across the country — rogue police officers retiring and not being held accountable for their actions,” Esdaile told Hearst Monday.
So he and Mintz and Tamara Lanier, who is in charge of criminal justice matters for the Connecticut NAACP, late last week wrote a letter to Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane urging his office to take up the Straubel case under state hate crime statutes.
They also suggested that Kane look into whether Perez dragged his heels in placing Straubel on leave.
“Even if you try to run and get your pension and retire, that doesn’t exempt you from these
(hate crime) laws on the books,” Esdaile said.
City officials Monday did not immediately answer a request from Hearst about whether the Internal Affairs case into Straubel ended with the captain’s departure from the police department.
A spokesman for Kane confirmed his office had received the NAACP letter and will respond.
Straubel has been a member of the Bridgeport department for more than 20 years and was promoted to captain in 2016. He has been a right-hand man to Perez and often joined the chief at meetings with various officials and community leaders.