When I started this blog more than 10 years ago, I was afraid I would run out of material but even local news headlines never fail to come through. Here are some from last Friday's CT Post.
Like clockwork, we watch for skullduggery in Bridgeport, at every election, or at least allegations of misdeeds, and more often than not the state’s largest city comes through. Now we’re living through a repeat of the 2019 mayoral primary when a challenger to Mayor Joe Ganim won the machine vote on primary day, then lost the election due to Ganim’s superior performance in absentee ballots, then accused Ganim supporters of wrongdoing.
Comment: The front-page lead article in last Friday’s CT Post by reporter Dan Haar indicated that election fraud has long been the norm in Bridgeport, Connecticut’s largest city. As the headline indicated Harr ‘s concern was not just with the local Democratic primary but with its potential impact on the whole state. He believed that absentee ballot fraud would just heighten voter suspicion concerning the fairness and validity of all elections in the minds of the electorate. Moreover, he argued that Bridgeport’s absentee ballot accusations might ruin the chances of next year’s proposed referendum to provide unlimited, no-excuse absentee ballot for all.
Despite the misuse of absentee ballots, Democratic reformers just want to expand their usage. They believe that this will lead to greater voter participation and expand democracy. Reformers regard opposition to unlimited absentee voting as a threat to democracy. Bridgeport is Connecticut’s largest city with a population of about 150,000. In the last mayoral election in 2019, less than 15,000 people voted. The Democratic incumbent received 9,500 votes, twice as much as his nearest competitor, another Democrat, received. The Republican candidate got only 1583 votes. Once the incumbent won the Democratic primary, it was all over.
Most of the large cities in Blue-State Connecticut resemble Bridgeport. They are one party cities run by a political machine. If history is any guide, absentee balloting has always worked to increase their stranglehold on government. Unlimited absentee balloting will just play into their hands. Of course, when Democrats complain about election fraud, they are exercising their rights. Newspaper articles support them, and commissions are appointed to investigate. But when Republicans complain about fraud, they are considered to be threats to democracy, and they become the objects of investigation and prosecution.
Actually, the real threat to Democracy in this country can be seen in some other headlines in that same issue of the CT. Post.
Headline 1: Suspect claims he wasn’t involved in carjacking.
“Freed on bond Thursday, a Berlin man, charged in connection with the carjacking of an Aston Martin from a Westport garage claimed his arrest had been a mistake …. Mcgill was referring to video police released to media showing two masked men, one of whom hits the owner of the luxury sports car, in the garage of the victim’s Bayberry Lane home on Sunday afternoon before driving off with the car.
McGill was arrested Monday at this Berlin home after police said they found the stolen Aston Martin in Mcgill’s garage along with a Porsche Macan GTS reported stolen in Rhode Island, a BMW X4 stolen in Ridgefield, a BMW sedan and a BMW sport utility vehicle stolen in Westport.”
Headline 2: Video shows a Fairfield business owner and customer stop car theft.
“Marc Vitaliani, the owner of the Auto Spa in Fairfield, said he and a customer foiled a brazen daytime car theft attempt last week. Vitaliani was within 10 feet of a red BMW M3, that was being detailed at the Post Road business when four people showed up in a BMW X6 and attempted to steal the vehicle… The male suspect who tried to drive off with the car was wearing a mask …"
Headline 3: 3 Bridgeport men arrested on drug, gun charges during shooting probe.
“Three city men were arrested on Sanford Avenue Tuesday night after being found with drugs and a gun according to police ….
During the interaction, [Police officer] Gilleran said, Tyree Heard, 24, was found to be in possession of illegal narcotics, packaged for sale and a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun with a high capacity magazine. Gilleran said the firearm also has its serial number altered.”
Headline 4: Bridgeport man, 27, sentenced to over 4 years on gang-related charges.
“A city man was sentenced to over four years in prison for his involvement in a violent street gang, according to officials. …
East end gang members distributed heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and Percoset pills, used and shared firearms, and committed at least six murders and other acts of violence against rival gang members and other individuals, the release said.”
The rampant crime in our city streets is the real threat to democracy. If unchecked, it will lead to mob rule where whole neighborhoods are terrorized by gang members. Ultimately, mob rule leads to dictatorship of one form or another.
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