Today the Courant reports that a grand jury has been appointed to investigate the mayor. Though they do not say what exactly he is being investigated for, it could be a number of things.
While some have stated that Hartford residents deserve what we get because this place is just a “cesspool” anyway, I would like to take this chance to remind would-be pundits and Hartford haters that while, yes, it’s unfortunate that people chose to re-elect Perez, there are many other douche bags (note to high school kids wanting to name call on their blogs– “douche” has an “e” at the end. It’s a French term. Always spell as correctly as possible when it will come back to haunt you) who have been elected and re-elected in this country.
Case in point: George W. Bush. For all of Hartford’s mayor’s crimes, at least Perez is not a war criminal. A few thousand voted Perez back in. For Bush, the number is in the millions. If I were to oversimplify this, I could reach the conclusion that Americans are more comfortable with a person who has no regard for human life, than they are with a person who gets involved in relatively minor (though still unethical and illegal) crimes. It’s more complicated than that, and as much as I do not respect Perez or any leader that is made more of hubris than humility, I think we do need to keep things in perspective.
I’ve said before how much I hate politics, yet I have a political blog. My faith in politics is at the local level. This is where people have more power, where one vote really can count. This is where neighbors can hold neighbors accountable. Nationally, we have Pelosi and the Dems who are doing nothing to hold Bush and Cheney accountable for their illegal decisions. Locally, we now have the Working Families Party as the minority party in the City Council. There is one Republican. The newcomers, other than Matt Ritter, don’t seem like they are beholden to anyone but the voters, the people. As shitty as it is that Perez is back, I do feel like the new blood on Council have some chance at keeping Perez in check.