Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch is vowing to crack down on gun violence in his city but some local leaders are questioning why he waited so long.
According to an article in the Connecticut Post, “As of Sunday afternoon, Mayor Bill Finch, following a U.S. Senate debate at the Klein Memorial Auditorium, had no plans to hold a news conference about the early Saturday murders of Chinese restaurant owner Mi Lin Zhao and 15-year-old Keijahnae “Nu-Nu” Robinson.
Then an unidentified man was shot and became the city’s 14th homicide of the year at 1:30 Monday afternoon. By 5:30 p.m. Finch, Police Chief Joseph Gaudett, City Council members and clergy were gathered before television cameras at police headquarters promising justice for the victims and to work together to secure the city.
Some local leaders feel the mayor and other leaders should have acted sooner.
Ron Pinciaro, executive director of Connecticut Against Gun Violence, based in Fairfield, was at the news conference and also questioned the delay in reaction. He said, “Maybe the third time’s the charm?” In an opinion piece published in the Hartford Courant, Pinciaro said, “Connecticut is ranked as having the fifth strongest gun laws among the states and we also have the fifth lowest rate of gun deaths per 100,000 population. Gun laws matter.”
Bridgeport NAACP President Carolyn Vermont, who also attended, agreed the administration should not have waited until Monday evening. “Now people are feeling, even more, a sense of hopelessness, and they need to hear from our mayor and police chief they’re doing everything to hold the crime down and catch the perpetrators,” Vermont said in the Connecticut Post article written by Brian Lockhart.
Read the entire Connecticut Post article on the mayor’s delayed reaction to gun violence in Bridgeport.
