Ansonia Alderman Who Called Obama Administration Accomplices To Murder Declines NAACP Meet

photo:ethan fryAnsonia Alderman Patrick Henri said Tuesday he won’t meet with the Ansonia NAACP president to talk about a controversial column Henri wrote last month.

Henri wrote a column saying that President Barack Obama and others manufactured a racial divide between poor blacks and police,” leading to the murder of two New York City Police Department officers.

Mayor David Cassetti had said he wanted to arrange a meeting with Henri and Ansonia NAACP President Greg Johnson Sr., who said Henri’s comments were racist.

A scheduled meeting was canceled at the last minute, and Henri told the Valley Indy he is not interested in rescheduling.

Henri also sent an e‑mail Thursday morning saying that he didn’t call Obama an accomplice to murder specifically.

I never mentioned the office of president nor the man’s name. That is speculation on your part. These are not facts. If you want to editorialize then do so properly. There are hundreds, if not thousands of people in the White House administration,” Henri said Thursday, offering the first specific remarks on his column since it was published last month.

Johnson issued a prepared statement Thursday morning, saying he’s willing to walk away from Mr. Henri,” but he won’t walk away from an honest discussion on race relations in Ansonia.

Yesterday’s News’

Henri spoke to the Valley Indy briefly after the Jan. 14 Board of Aldermen meeting.

Asked if he would meet with Johnson and Cassetti, Henri said: No. I had my say in my column.”

Cassetti was out of town Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. His corporation counsel, John Marini, said he hadn’t talked with Henri since Tuesday night’s meeting.

Asked why he doesn’t want to meet with Johnson, Henri said he’s been targeted unfairly.

He’s (Johnson) tried me in the paper,” Henri said. He’s called the mayor instead of me … If he wanted to talk to me, he could have called me, emailed me.”

Johnson said he had an obligation to respond to Henri’s comments because they were inflammatory and created a hostile environment.

Johnson said Henri’s refusal to work toward a solution demonstrates he is part of the problem.

Alderman Henri’s refusal to participate in any dialogue to improve the community he has been elected to serve as Alderman of the Sixth Ward is definitely being part of the problem,” he said in a statement. We do not need any more problems; we need problem solvers and solutions.”

Johnson said his offer to talk about race relations is still extended to other leaders in the community.

We will not allow negativity, hate and ignorance to stop positive growth and understanding,” Johnson said. People of good will want progress that is inclusive of all people.”

Henri Tuesday also declined to talk about the specifics of his column — and say what specific statements from Obama, Al Sharpton, and New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio led him to label them as accomplices to murder.

I don’t want to get into it,” Henri said. I’m just happy that the police chiefs association, printed in your publication a week later, pointed out the same national negativity toward the police and called for cards and letters to your local police department, which was my intent.”

But when an elected official alleges the President of the United States is complicit in the murders of police officers, shouldn’t that official be willing to talk about his comments publicly?

I’m not a talk show host, I’m not a debate team,” Henri said. I said what I had to say. People are smart enough to take from it or any of the articles what they want, see through them, see what’s going on.”

Henri said he was surprised the column touched off such a debate.

I did not anticipate such a response, the amount of response,” Henri said. I am happy for the overwhelming support I got on it. I expect to have the usual political opposition.”

Henri said he took issue with one comment, from Rick Dunne, the executive director of the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments.

Dunne, the son of a police officer, wrote that he highly resents politicians who use the killing of a law enforcement officer to advance their own political image and agenda,” telling Henri to shut up” and calling him a whore, trading on the deaths of men who put their lives at risk for us.”

The comment was posted on the Valley Indy site and on the Valley Indy Facebook page.

I didn’t really care for the executive director of the VCOG, Rick Dunne, who is a public servant, takes tax money from Ansonia, telling me, a veteran, to shut up and calling me a whore,” Henri said. I didn’t really like that. He’s getting a pass on that. Nobody seems to care.”

Dunne said Thursday Henri had no right to exploit the deaths of two police officers to score political points.

Background

Henri wrote a column published Dec. 23 by the Valley Indy in response to the murders of two New York City Police Departments officers.

In it, Henri said President Obama, 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.

Before concluding the column by suggesting people send thank you notes to law enforcement, Henri wrote that the real problems” are poverty, lack of well-paying jobs, failing schools, broken families and absent fathers.”

Click here to read the column.

Johnson, president of the Ansonia NAACP, took exception with Henri’s comments and authored a guest column in response saying 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.

Johnson met with Mayor David Cassetti — who authored a guest column of his own urging both men to use a nicer tone.

Leading Democrats also called Henri’s comments unnecessarily divisive, and said city officials should be trying to bring people together.

Local Republicans did not know about Henri’s column until it was published.

Keep local reporting alive. Donate.ValleyIndy.org