[kidyankee764]

'Cancerous cadre': FBI arrests 4 East Haven cops in profiling probe; chief not charged, but labeled 'co-conspirator' (video)- The New Haven Register - Serving New Haven, Connecticut

A few highlights in the indictment:

They falsely accused Latino citizens of wrongdoing.
They conducted unlawful searches and seizures.
They physically assaulted Latinos while they were handcuffed.
They filed false reports to cover up their wrongdoing.

On top of it, the mayor "supports" these four, but also claims to welcome Latinos into the East Haven community, saying he'll "go home and eat tacos" to show his support.

All of you regulars know how against illegal immigration I am, and I don't want to turn this into an illegal immigration debate, but I'm curious to see what you all think of it.

My opinion? This is an embarrassment to the town of East Haven, the state of Connecticut, and the profession of law enforcement as a whole. These bad apples make the rest of them, who take pride in their job and the citizens they protect, look like a joke. Hopefully the chief (who has been identified as an enabler) will be cited and fired. The entire department needs an overhaul.

[kidyankee764]

I'm not sure who gave me the rep point with the comment, but I wanted to share your comment in the thread, because I feel similar. Reading those comments is quite scary and frankly, very very sad...

"Whats even sadder is to read the "comments", below the article of the readers and you get a pulse on the true colors of a lot of people. There are many closet racists in this state."

[MikefromCT]

Well, it's definitely a black eye for the town. I'm sure plenty of EH residents are truly embarassed by this, including white residents who are frowning on this behavior. For the mayor to say what he did, that speaks volumes about the kind of person he is and it's a true sign of bigotry - he reeks of it.

Unfortunately, however, there's still a great deal of intolerance in this state, despite us being widely regarded as a blue state (and apparently that's the basis for making us an open-minded one). But dig a little deeper and there's still a great deal of condescension among people - whether it be based on race, religion, income, sexual preference, income, etc. It's sad that we're still talking about this in 2012. It seems whenever we're about to go one step forward we end up taking two steps back.

[Mike 75]

And then he goes and makes the taco remark on camera (to a reporter who's Hispanic no less)

[wma152]

Police abusing their Power, what else is new? Then you have the illegals without much resistance to police authority or abuse. The illegals were easy targets for the police.

[mlassoff]

It is embarrassing. I trust Connecticut police to not be corrupt. Here I look at the police as a force to help. Not sure I saw it that way in Texas where corruption was (I thought) more prevalent.

When I look at the accusations, I have to wonder "to what end..." Meaning-- Why were they after the immigrant/Hispanic community with such aggression? Simple racisim-- or was there also racketeering occurring. I doubt they were harassing Hispanics for fun. If they were, that's even scarier.

The mayor sounds like a real tool. Glad they brought him back

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by mlassoff

The mayor sounds like a real tool. Glad they brought him back

I'll bet the former mayor, April Capone, who brought all of this to the surface, is sitting back laughing at East Haven. She had beef with the [current] chief when she was in office, she fired him, she was voted out, and the new mayor (taco guy) reinstated him.

The town is a friggen circus.

[Stylo]

Tacos? Really?

[mlassoff]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

The town is a friggen circus.

The only thing I know about East Haven residents is that they have a fondness for buying a house at the end of the runway at Tweed and then complaining about airplane noise. I saw an interview with a resident on Channel 8 last year complaining about the USAir flight "gunning it's engines" at 6:30 in the morning...

(Did you not see the airport when you bought the house!?)

[Mike 75]

Not to mention that the chief had the former mayor arrested.
Police Chief Wants Mayor Arrested for Tow Incident | NBC Connecticut