The leader of the Ansonia NAACP says he hopes to meet with the Alderman who called President Barack Obama and others “traitors to their race” for manufacturing a “racial divide between poor blacks and police.”
Sixth Ward Alderman Patrick Henri wrote a column published Dec. 23 by the Valley Indy in response to the murder of two New York City Police Department officers in Brooklyn.
Henri said President Obama, the Rev. Al Sharpton and New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio were “accomplices to murder” in connection to the killings, committed by a deranged man who cited recent police killings in Staten Island and Ferguson, Mo. as motivation.
Henri, before suggesting people send thank you notes to law enforcement, said the “real problems” are “poverty, lack of well-paying jobs, failing schools, broken families and absent fathers.”
Click here to read Henri’s column.
Greg Johnson Sr., president of the Ansonia NAACP, took exception with Henri’s comments and authored a guest column in response. He said Henri was politicizing the murders and creating an “us” versus “them” mentality in Ansonia.
Click here to read Johnson’s column, and click here to read a subsequent column.
“I welcome the opportunity to sit and have these types of discussions,” Johnson said Wednesday. “But, before we have these discussions, (Henri) needs to come clean, because he cannot make these types of accusations as an Alderman. He needs to come clean in regard to what his position is with regard to the racist remarks that he made.”
After that, leaders can “lay the foundation of how we can resolve some of these issues around race relationships,” Johnson said.
When those discussions will happen remains to be seen.
Henri could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Mayor Cassetti did not return a message for comment Wednesday, but corporation counsel John Marini referred the Valley Indy to a guest column by the mayor published last week.
Phil Tripp, the president of the Ansonia Board of Aldermen, was unavailable for comment Wednesday, as was Kevin Hale, chief of the Ansonia Police Department.
Lorie Vaccaro, a Republican Alderman who Johnson said attended his meeting with the mayor last week, wasn’t available Wednesday either.
The Mayor Meeting
Johnson met with Mayor Cassetti over the controversy last week. However, a follow-up meeting with the mayor, the NAACP and Henri scheduled for this week was canceled.
Johnson said last week’s meeting was “positive.”
The mayor, in a prepared statement, had urged both Henri and Johnson to adopt a nicer tone.
“He did express to me that he doesn’t agree with what Henri is saying, and he doesn’t condone that type of behavior from his elected officials,” Johnson said.
But Johnson wondered why the mayor won’t say so publicly.
“I understand he has to take a political stance,” Johnson said. “But that doesn’t make it right.”
Unnecessarily Divisive
First Ward Aldermen Edward Adamowski is the chairman of the local Democratic party. He said Henri’s comments were “unnecessarily divisive” in the city.
“It’s not something that someone in public office should be spewing their mouth about,” Adamowski said.
He called Henri a “hardcore Republican conservative,” drawing a distinction between Henri and “common sense Republicans.”
“I just happen to think Mr. Henri’s way off the charts on the other end,” Adamowski said. “It was uncalled for, it was unnecessary, and as a public official he should be ashamed of the comments he made.”
Former, Current GOP Chairmen Speak
Henri has found support on the Valley Indy’s Facebook page, in the form of comments posted by readers giving their first and last names. A couple from Newtown contacted the Valley Indy, urging Henri to run for higher office.
Roughly 22 people on the Valley Indy’s Facebook page supported Henri’s statement over three separate posts on social media, while 18 criticized the Alderman. That tally does not include replies readers had to each other within threads on Facebook.
The debate was passionate, to say the least.
Henri is the former chairman of the Ansonia Republican Town Committee, but his fellow Republicans have not been lining up to throw their support to the ideas expressed in the column.
Irving Reed is the current chairman of the Ansonia Republican Town Committee.
When asked if Henri’s views represented the local GOP, Reed said: “I wouldn’t say that we’re in complete agreement.”
“Mr. Henri’s remarks are his own,” Reed said. “He wasn’t saying it as a representative of the party. Other than that, I can’t say I agree with him 100 percent, but I don’t disagree with him 100 percent either.”
Reed faulted (the Rev. Al) Sharpton for “egging on” police protests in New York City after news spread that a police officer would not be indicted in the Staten Island death of a man resisting arrest on a charge of selling loose cigarettes.
Reed referenced a video allegedly showing some of those protestors chanting “What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want them? Now.”
“The rhetoric was a little strong,” Reed said. “That’s a little over the top.”
But he said he doesn’t equate Sharpton and President Obama.
“As far as the White House, I don’t think they really had much input on it,” Reed said.
Marini, when asked why his fellow Republicans are ignoring the issue, said he believes other GOPers “are concerned about extending what has been a rather cantankerous dialogue.”
Marini indicated Mayor Cassetti won’t venture from a prepared statement on the matter.
“It distracts from the city’s work to lower taxes, push economic development, and improve the quality of life for all residents,” Marini said. “The mayor has already made a statement. He would like the leaders involved to address this in a civil and respectful manner.”
Reed said he wasn’t “especially surprised” to be one of only two prominent Republicans in Ansonia willing to talk about Henri’s column.
“They maybe think it’s a little controversial and want to stay away from it, I don’t know,” he said.
Next Steps?
While waiting for a meeting with Henri, Johnson, the president of the Ansonia NAACP, said he hopes to use the controversy as a way to make Ansonia stronger.
Johnson said he’s trying to work with the Human Resources Clubs in Ansonia schools “to get feedback from young folks about how they feel and where they’re at.”
Saleh Hanaif is a local parent who started a “Dad’s Club” at Prendergast Elementary School in 2011.
He said elected officials in a city as diverse as Ansonia should be trying to bring people from different backgrounds together.
“Spanish, African-Americans, Albanians, Middle Easterners, we’ve got everything in Ansonia,” Hanaif said. “We’re all the same … That’s what makes the country beautiful.”
“He should have handled it differently,” Hanaif said of Henri’s column. “This is not what Ansonia’s all about.”
“I understand his frustration,” Hanaif went on. “Everybody was upset. Two of my friends are cops in New York City. They were upset. Everybody’s upset. It’s how we take the situation and make it better. If we start pointing fingers we will never win. Then it becomes a race issue.”
He said Henri’s remarks would give the Alderman “a black eye” in the community.
“People are going to say he’s only one-sided,” Hanaif said. “And this is what we don’t want.”
