Against endorsing DeLauro opponent

As a retired New Haven detective with 27 years of service including union vice president and Grievance Committee chairman, I take strong exception to the New Haven Police Union’s recent leadership decision to publicly support Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro’s Republican opponent. Fact: For decades Rosa has always been there for police in funding essential equipment while legislating for their safety. Her influence secured significant federal funding in the early 1990s to establish one of the nation’s first community police programs in

New Haven – a model which the current mayor wholeheartedly endorses.

Presently, DeLauro Chairs the LHHS and Education Appropriations Subcommittee with a probability of becoming chairman of the full Appropriations Committee that brings with it financial discretion over billions in federal dollars.

So what caused such an irrational decision: Was it due to her common sense background checks and opposition to assault weapons following the killing of 20 6- to 7-year-old Sandy Hook children in 5 minutes from a 20year-old with a Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle and 10 magazines with 30 rounds each? The congresswoman led a seven-year battle with the NRA finally securing 25 million to prevent gun violence in 2019. Or was it her co-sponsoring the Justice in Policing Act 2020 that bans chokeholds and no-knock warrants while requiring improved police transparency, investigation of police misconduct, making lynching a federal crime, all elements central to a police officer’s sacred oath to equally protect?

This president has severely defunded police within municipalities while encouraging militias and white supremacists, making the police’s job even more difficult. Never in my years as a union member have I witnessed a more ill-conceived endorsement

— a betrayal to police officers’ long-time, dedicated friend. Thomas F. Morrissey Jr. Cheshire