The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
State cops under investigation
Arrogance seems to have taken hold of the Connecticut state police under Commissioner Dora B. Schriro of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.
For more than a year the department has refused to act against three state troopers who were caught on an audio recording fabricating evidence for the arrest of a political protester. Now the state police have been caught concealing a vicious assault in Bolton.
It happened Feb. 28 when a man was stabbed repeatedly and beaten with a car jack. State police from Troop K in Colchester responded but issued no alert or statement about it. The attack came to light only five days later when Hartford police sought the public’s help in locating the suspect and then announced that they had captured him at Union Station. The Hartford police statement described the crime in Bolton.
Why had the state police said nothing about the crime for five days? The Journal Inquirer put the question to Sgt. Eric J. Haglund in the state police public information office. His reply was ludicrous and contemptible.
Haglund wrote: “This was an isolated incident where the accused was known by the victim, there was no threat to the public, and there was an active investigation occurring, so information was not released regarding it.”
But the state police often issue reports about crimes where the accused knew the victim, even when it is believed that there is no threat to the public. The state police also often issue reports about crimes remaining under investigation. As for there supposedly being no threat to the public from the assailant in Bolton, he had stabbed his victim many times and was on the run for five days. Had he promised the state police not to hurt anyone else?
The report from the Hartford police exploded the state police claim that there had been no threat to the public. The Hartford report disclosed that there were outstanding warrants against the accused, that he had been convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping, and that he was being sought for violating his parole.
So why did the state police conceal the crime even as Hartford police were soliciting the public’s help in finding its perpetrator? Why did the state police go on to lie about it?
Maybe Commissioner Schriro can explain it after she explains why the troopers who were caught fabricating evidence a year ago were never disciplined. *** State government’s finances have collapsed. Governor Malloy has proposed a budget that looks like abdication, slashing financial aid to local education and demanding huge concessions from the state employee unions. The General Assembly has yet to offer an alternative.
Instead the governor and legislators are whiling away the legislative session just by pandering and posturing.
This week legislators announced their desire to outlaw psychological therapy that tries to change the sexual orientation of homosexual minors. Such therapy is dubious but prohibiting it raises a First Amendment issue even as there is no evidence that the therapy is being attempted in Connecticut. No, legislators are just trying to get their ticket punched with the homosexual lobby, as if Connecticut hasn’t already fully validated homosexuality.
Also this week Governor Malloy announced that his administration would reimburse Planned Parenthood in Connecticut for any federal funds taken away by the Trump administration because the organization provides abortions.
The governor’s announcement must have produced rueful laughter among the disabled whose state assistance he has cut and among the towns whose education aid he would slash. But supposedly liberal Democrats like the governor like to pose as if abortion is the highest social good.