August 10, 2021
To the Editor,
It should concern voters, regardless of political affiliation, when candidates show a blatant disregard for the truth. That’s the case with Ryan Fazio, the Republican candidate running for State Senate in the Aug 17 special election.
Fazio has demonized the police accountability bill that passed last summer in the wake of the George Floyd murder, making patently false claims about its impact and the process that led to its passage. He has committed to repeal the law if elected.
At a candidate debate last week, Fazio recalled his prediction last year that the bill would lead to a “massive precipitation of crime and violence” and then pointed to the sharp increase in gun homicide in Connecticut during the pandemic as proof of his assertion. There’s just one inconvenient truth for Fazio: the accountability provisions he calls “awful” don’t go into effect until 2022.
Fazio characterizes the bill as being “swept into law in the middle of the night,” which is another fabrication of his. The bill passed after weeks of debate, public listening sessions and some 60 hours of discussion among legislative leaders. Hundreds of conversations were held between proponents of the bill and representatives of law enforcement. Both State Representative Stephen Meskers, and former Senator Alex Kasser, Greenwich Democrats who voted for the bill, spoke directly with rank and file members of the Greenwich Police Department and its leadership.
Fazio has been endorsed by the Silver Shield Association, the Greenwich police union whose leadership continues to stand in opposition to the bill, calling those who advocate for police reform an “out-of-control nationwide anti-police movement.”
People who support police reform are not “anti-police.” The legislation was designed to improve policing practices to better respect the sanctity of human life and the dignity that all individuals deserve. As Rev. Thomas Nins, the Greenwich police chaplain, so poignantly expressed at the Black Lives Matter rally at Town Hall last summer, “I stand for a community that is tired of being stood upon.” The law holds accountable police who demonstrate a willful disregard for these norms.
We have enormous respect for the Greenwich police officers who put their lives at risk every day to protect our community. But wanting greater accountability and transparency to ensure equitable policing is not the attack on law enforcement that Fazio claims.
Voters who want to be represented by a state senator who truly cares about public safety and reducing gun violence should vote for Alexis Gevanter. Unlike the misleading rhetoric coming from her opponent, Gevanter walks the talk. She was the Connecticut State Leader of Moms Demand Action, mobilizing advocates across the state to lobby for stronger laws to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. She has also lobbied to increase funding for evidence-informed, community-based violence prevention programs, including Project Longevity, a group violence intervention program run by police departments in Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven.
On the strength of her past work, and stated policy positions, Gevanter is endorsed by CT Against Gun Violence, Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety. Her opponent refuses to share where he stands on strong gun laws and other measures designed to reduce gun violence; the issue is not addressed on his campaign website.
Nothing about the police accountability law should be controversial to anyone who wants to be part of a civil society. It requires police officers to intervene when a colleague is using excessive illegal force, bans potentially fatal chokeholds in most circumstances and clarifies that deadly force can be used only when all reasonable alternatives are exhausted. It creates uniform police training, including on implicit bias. The act establishes an independent office to investigate deaths caused by police. It empowers the Police Officers Training and Standards Council to set policies on use of force and to decertify officers when in the interest of public safety.
Police officers who respect human rights and follow the law have no reason for concern. The act requires municipalities to indemnify police officers from financial exposure, except when a court determines an officer deprived a person of his constitutional rights by committing a “malicious, wanton or willful act.”
Much is at stake in this election. Cast your vote for Alexis Gevanter, by absentee ballot or in person on August 17. You can get details on how to vote here.
Jonathan Perloe, Cos Cob
Joined by these Greenwich voters:
Betsy Keller, Cos Cob
Karen Royce, Greenwich
Sandra Soule, Riverside
Jay Wilson, Cos Cob
Robert Brady, Riverside
Susan Rattray, Cos Cob
Lori Jackson, Old Greenwich
Janet Murphey, Old Greenwich
Andrea Levine, Greenwich
Jean Moore, Greenwich
Lucy Krasnor, Riverside
Rommel Nobay, Cos Cob
Danielle Rudolph , Cos Cob
Stephanie D’Alton Barrett, Riverside
Courtney Weil, Cos Cob
Anna Mukerjee, Old Greenwich
Nicole Heath, Greenwich
Shelley Meltzer, Greenwich
Dina Lunder, Greenwich
Monica Prihoda, Old Greenwich
Susan Rudolph, Greenwich
Melissa Devaney, Greenwich
Lynne Rohrer, Greenwich
Marianne Weill, Greenwich
Lorelei O’Hagan, Cos Cob
Gerald Pollack, Old Greenwich
Jen Barro, Greenwich
Hector Arzeno, Greenwich
Dan Edelstein, Old Greenwich
Emily Bierman, Greenwich
Judd Cohen, Greenwich
Mary Ellen Markowitz, Cos Cob
Joan Thakor, Greenwich
Anne Wichman, Riverside
Marianne Schorer, Greenwich
Clifford Schorer, Greenwich
Deborah Michals, Riverside
Clifford Schorer, Greenwich
David Snyder, Old Greenwich
John Cooper, Greenwich
Mark Goldstein, Greenwich
Linda Waterbury, Greenwich
Lucy von Brachel, Greenwich
Joseph Smith, Riverside
Elizabeth Perry, Greenwich
Janet McMahon, Cos Cob
Caryn Rosenbaum, Cos Cob
Scott Kalb, Greenwich
Natalie Jarnstedt, Greenwich
Hale McSharry, Riverside
Andrew Winston, Old Greenwich
Phyllis Alexander, Greenwich
Mareta Hamre, Greenwich
The deadline to submit letters to the editor for candidates in the Aug 17 special election for State Senate 36th district was Aug 10, 2021