01/10/08 - Sam Romeo Let Me Come On The Greenwich Matters Show And Let Me Try And Tell My Side Of The Story.

There Were A Few Byram Residents That Thought That Sam Romeo Was A Little Too Bit Aggressive In His Argument That The Greenwich Police Department Should Not Be Accountable To The Citizens Of Greenwich. However, I Thought Sam Was Fair And Appreciated That He Let Me Come On His "Greenwich Matters Show" On WGCH.

Sam Opened The Show Talking About Former Greenwich Police Detective Paulo

If I had a critism it would be that local callers wanting to talk about local issues were rushed and Sam spent about 60 % of the show talking about national issues like The New Hapshire, Voter Fraud Cases, ACORN, Hillary, The Iraq War, Tax Policy, Gas Prices, All Gore And His Film, an Inconvenient Truth, Etc., etc....

Plus Sam spent a great deal of time going on about a book called Ron Brown's Body.

However, for the most part Sam let me say what I wanted to say on WGCH.

Sam praised Town Officials and the Greenwich Police Department as being fair and open.

Yet a couple of callers complained of a lack of transparency in Greenwich Government. In fact one of Sam's friends named Chris spoke of all of the trouble that Sam and he had from Greenwich Government over the years. Chris and Sam mentioned how they had both been attacked by Greenwich Governmental Officials over the years.

Chris even said that his phone line was tapped and he received Death Threats over his past views about the Cos Cob School.

The Good News Is I Have Not Had My Phone Tapped Or Recieved Death Threats,

Sam even argued that he did expect a fair public hearing concerning the sewer. In fact Sam was trying to Organize a walk out in protest of the public hearing. Moreover, Sam expected things to be so one sided at this Greenwich Public hearing that his Golden WGCH Microphone was not enough.

So he contacted Cablevision's News Center 12 program to cover the Public Hearing For the sewer.

It appears That Sam and Chris are proving my point that Greenwich Government In General and The Greenwich Police Department In Particular need to become more accountable and transparent.

Unfortunately, Greenwich Is A- Go Along To Get Along type of Government That Has A Nasty Reputation Of Those Who May Disagree.

01/10/08 - It looks Like The Town Of Greenwich Is Backing Off It's Threat To Raid My Home And Will Let Me Call The "Greenwich Matters" Show On WGCH

It's About 45 Minutes To The Airing Of The "Greenwich Matters" Show Hosted By Sam Romeo And I Am Nervously Hoping That The Greenwich Police Department Will Not Prevent Me From Exercising My Right To Free Speech.

There Have Been Threats And They Have Even Be Delivered While I Was Talking To WGCH Reporter Dima Joseph. Dima Recorded An Interview Right After The Threats Of A Raid On My Home.

I Have Let My Wife Stay With A Friend In Port Chester This Afternoon In Case The Town Goes Through With It's Threat.

Things are looking up as I prepare to speak to Sam Romeo on Greenwich Matters.

David Cafferelli who is in the Lieutenant Governors Office was going to meet with Governor Rell's Chief Of Staff and get back to me about the problems I have been Having. Mr. Cafferelli said that he would be calling me tomorrow.

There were some folks in Byram that have said that Sam Romeo wont let you speak about the Police misconduct incident, but I don't believe that they are right.

Sure Sam is very opinionated and a very Strong and able debtor who can easily dominate a conversation. But if you listen Mr. Romeo always offers to let those that he criticized to come on his show and tell their side of the story.

I have never heard anyone willing to take up Mr. Romeo's challenge to come on his show, but you have to admit he always offers the opportunity.

The residents of Byram who do agree that Sam Romeo will allow me to speak about Police misconduct say that I will not do to well against the political debating skills of Mr. Romeo.

Sam who demands accountability in every Greenwich Governmental Department except the Greenwich Police Department will probably dominate the conversation and kick my butt, but I am not too worried because I am right about this.

This is not a matter of supporting or not supporting the Greenwich Police Department. My wife has a six year old car and it's covered with six years of Silver Shield Police Union and Greenwich Fire Department stickers. We have never turned down the Silver Shield.

I support the Police, but I also want accountability from those that I support.

Tonight, I am going to try and tell Sam about the poor police coverage Byram. The Cars That Are Constantly Broken into and vandalised in Byram, as well as, the muggings near the Mill Street Bridge. The Gang tags on the Welcome to Greenwich Byram sign and drinking from open containers in public park space.

I then want to tell Sam about all of the Police Lieutenants, Detectives and Police Officers that have been sent to my store, employers, mailbox, landlord and God only knows where else during the last two weeks.

They even enlisted the help of Brian McMahon of Port Chester to get involved in their smear campaign.

Maybe, this deployment of police officers against me is why the the vandalism that Byram routinely experiences has spread to Cos Cob, Glenville and Mianus. If officers are spending a good part of their time following and verbally attacking a Police Critic, they are not patrolling the neighborhood streets of Greenwich.

Then I want to tell him about the Town employees visiting my Landlord once again and demanding that he get me to resign from the RTM or he will be retaliated against.

I then want to tell Sam about the Big shot Republican that lives in district 11 on Clapridge Road, but checked into the Delmar Hotel the night, before the election so that he could use the Hotel as an address to run and bump a democrat of the district 2 RTM.

I will also tell Sam about the owners of Champion Fuel that sit on my RTM district 4 legislative body even though they live at Lafayette Court which is near the United Way Offices at the Top Of Greenwich Avenue. The Town website even lists 2 Lafayette Court as their official residence.

The I want to tell Sam Romeo how RTM Leaders Tom Byrne and Joan Caldwell have both said they had no problem with my taking my Legislative Seat in district 4 Byram so long as I Had Slept in Byram the night before the election.

Not only did I sleep in Byram before the night before the election. At 4 am on election morning I was sworn in as a Greenwich Election Official and served the voters of Greenwich for 18 hours that day. Moreover, the Town recently, called me in to be sworn in again to be a Greenwich Election Official for the audits of districts 5 and 7.

Further, I am scheduled to be once again sworn in February to serve as a Greenwich Election Official again.

I then want to tell Sam that I live in a residential unit that has a nonconforming use exemption. The unit is in a residential building in a residential zone of Greenwich. My tenancy is month to month and the CL&P Bill and other utility bills are addressed to Apartment 1 Front.

The former owner of the building lived in the space and operated a business long before any current zoning regulations applied to the property.

Moreover, I want to tell Sam that if there is a question about the certificate of occupancy (CO) there is nothing I ca do about it. Only the landlord can apply for or fix the CO. The tenant has no say in the buildings CO what-so-ever.

Now the Town Of Greenwich has two options.

Number one, they can arbitrarily throw me in the street and Connecticut State law says the Town must find me housing in Town and this will expose the Town Of Greenwich to a civil suit from my wife and I.

Number two, the Town can cite my Landlord and let an independent housing court judge decide if the Town is right or if my landlord is right. If my landlord is wrong then the housing court judge will come to a fair and equitable solution between my landlord and I. The judge might tell me leave in 24 hours or 24 days. Who Knows?

If the housing judge says my landlord is right, then the Town Of Greenwich would have the right to appeal the judges ruling.

Solution number two is the most fair, because it puts any decision in the hands of an independent judge in Norwalk who will not be pressured by local politics or the police department.

No one is going to be stupid enough to tell the judge if this Byram Legislator does not resign his seat, we are going to retaliate against him and his landlord.

I hope Sam will listen to all the facts surrounding this issue before he begins his arguments in support of the Greenwich Police Department not being held accountable to the public.

12/27/07 - They Did A Lindy Urso On Me - Greenwich Police Raid At 6pm Prevents Me From Speking To Sam Romeo On WGCH

All day long the thin skinned Greenwich Police Chief David Ridberg has been publicly and unprofessionally blasting attorney Lindy Urso for questioning how the police department. Thin skinned Greenwich Police Chief David Ridberg is all over the WGCH airwaves attacking attorney Lindy Urso for questioning police tactics and suggesting that the Greenwich Police Department might want to pursue other leads. For 18 long months the Police Brass have been sticking to this lame brain theory that the 16 million dollar swindler Andrew Kissel hired a guy to tie his hands and feet in Flex Cuffs, pull his T-shirt over his head and then be stabbed four or five times in the back, because he couldn't bring himself to commit suicide. Maybe Greenwich Police Chief David Ridberg should hire disgraced Los Angeles Detective Mark Furman to come solve this murder and then write a second book about it. Then maybe Police Chief David Ridberg can let disgraced Los Angeles detective go solve the murder of that poor little boy in the Pemberwick section of Greenwich. The Port Chester Police Department, The Rye Brook Police Department, The Rye City Police Department doesn't have all of these unsolved murders laying around. Why does the Greenwich Police Department have all of these unsolved murders. Maybe, because the other police departments do not have a thin skinned Police Chief that goes on the radio and attacks critics and those trying to help.

The thin skinned Police Chief's hypersensitivity has reached an absurd level at the Greenwich Police Department. Things are so bad that David Ridberg feels the need to lash out at critics on WGCH.

Tonight as many of you know I was going to go on Greenwich Matters, which is hosted by Sam Romeo at WGCH in Greenwich and complain about how poorly the Greenwich Police Department was being managed by the Greenwich Police chief David Ridberg.

I was also planning to take Mr. Romeo to task, because I feel that he seems to demand accountability of every Greenwich governmental department except the Greenwich Police Department.

Over the last week I had been reporting that I had been planning to call Mr. Romeo at WGCH.

Last night and very early this morning I had been blogging about how I intended to call about how the four to midnight police shift is managed in Byram.
I was going to write more about how Greenwich Police Chief David Ridberg was mis-managing the Greenwich Police Department, but I had the usual illegal parked car problem in front of my wives store in Byram.

Around one o'clock an car with Virginia tags parks in front of my wives's store where there is 30 minute parking.

About two o'clock I start calling the Town Hall switchboard operator to reach Parking Services to get someone to come to mark the tires and issue a ticket. No one from parking services comes out so I again call Town Hall to get parking services again I am told that a parking enforcement officer would be dispatched.

I then call Hall again after another 30 minutes a parking enforcement officer is promised and none is delivered.

Just before 4 pm I get the same run around from parking services.

About 20 minutes later I have to call the Greenwich Police Department to be connected to the Parking Services Office, because the Town Switchboard Operator is through for the day. The operator answering the police non-emergency number connects me to the parking office and some one picks up and then hangs up the phone.

I then have to call back the police dispatcher again and explain to her that the call was somehow disconnected and then get put through to the parking services office again. This time I get an answering machine and I leave a message saying I have been requesting a parking enforcement officer for about two and a half hours.

Later I again call the Police Department non-emergency number and ask the operator if she could please send out the police officer for Byram. She says she will send him out. Later I see a police car drive by and I hope that is the Byram officer noting the illegally parked car from Virginia and not just another police dough nut run to Johnny Cakes in Byram.

I then start planning what I am going to say to Sam Romeo when his show comes on in an hour. I thinking of something smart alack to say like ...

Tommy Hillfiger's ex-wife doesn't have to call parking services and the police for four hours to get an illegally parked car taken care of in front of her store on Greenwich Avenue, but the merchants and residents of Byram complaints are ignored.

I then thought I would continue my rant by saying.....

Tommy Hillfiger's ex-wife doesn't have to put up with a poor old man drinking from open containers just down the street from her store on Greenwich Avenue, but the merchants and residents of have to put up with this everyday.

Then I was going to add that...

Tommy Hillfiger's ex-wife doesn't have street signage with gang graffiti scrawled all over it near her store, but the merchants and residents of Byram have to look at this everyday. Nor does Tommy Hillfiger's ex-wife have to worry that her car windows will be smashed or that her tires will be slashed like the merchants and residents of Byram have to.

But First, I decided to be fair I would call the Greenwich Police Department non-emergency number again at 5:40 pm and give the Byram Officer another chance to ticket the car. If he came I could tell Sam Romeo that it took about four hours to get an illegally parked car taken care of in Byram. If he didn't come I could say see what I mean, Sam.

The police dispatcher told me that the officer has noted the illegally parked car at 5:10 pm and she did not know why the officer had not returned to ticket the car. I asked her to please ask the officer one more time if he would come out and ticket this illegally parked car.

She said that she would once again ask the officer to take care of the illegally parked car.

So at 6 when the Sam Romeo show starts to come on two police officers come into my wives store asking for me. They tell me they ticketed the car that I had been complaining about and now they were going to inspect my wives's store for infractions.

They took down my name, address, social security number, date of birth, and social security number, but they did not ask for my frighten wives's information.

Then they were demanding that I give them a drivers license. I told them I did not drive, because I did not drive. I have a glass eye in my right eye and that I do not see to good out of my left eye.

Then officers started telling me that my photo ID was not good enough, They then started telling me that they were going to have to arrest me and have me make bond for the ticket they were going to write up. They started claiming that they did not know who I was.

I then told the officers that they knew exactly who I was, because one of the officers had made remarks to me previously, because I had filed a civilian complaint against a police officer, who latter sued the Greenwich Police Department for discrimination and said the Greenwich Police were inappropriately using road blocks to profile poor and minority residents of Byram.

I then added that the officer who all of a sudden did not know who I was had improperly written me a parking ticket as I placed merchandise in my wives's car a couple of weeks ago. I had to call up a police Sargent and complain about the improper ticket. The police Sargent then instructed me to go to First Selectman's Office and go before a hearing officer. My wive and I explained everything to the hearing officer who voided the ticket.

The officers were illegally searching non-public areas of our store without probable cause, a court warrant or our permission. The officers were taking pictures of my wives store, and demanding that we take down window signs.

These officers were pouring over town regulations just trying to find something wrong, they were issuing tickets and then latter taking the tickets back.

Moreover, these officers were using personal cell phones to communicate to avoid using authorized and legitimate police communications equipment during this rouge raid on my wives's store.

I had to call 911 three times to get a police supervisor down to my wives's store. The 911 operator told me that there was only one Sargent on duty for the whole Town Of Greenwich, while my wives's store was suffering a rouge police raid during the Sam Romeo show.

I guess thin skinned Police Chief was so busy attacking attorney Lindsy Urso on WGCH all day, he did not have time to make sure the four to midnight shifts was adequately, competently and safely staffed.

In all about four police cars were dispatched to my wives's store during the Sam Romeo show. I guess Glenville, Central Greenwich and the back country had no police coverage during this roguish retaliatory illegal search and raid..

When I finally, got the Greenwich Police Sargent to my wives's store he huddled with the two of the police officers. They again poured over law books and decided that there was no infraction in the store.

Then the Sargent and another officer berated me and then started instructing the officer to start taking certain actions against me in the morning.

I repeatedly asked to file a civilian complaint as the police officer I was complaining about was allowed to threaten and interrupt me.. The police Sargent refused to take a statement and denied that a ticket had ever been written.

I told him the ticket had been fully completed and said just give me the number on the ticket. The Sargent said officially no ticket was written unless I signed it and refused to give me the number of the unsigned ticket.

I called the 911 operator and told about the ticket and once again my desire to file a civilian complaint over the incident.

I was told to go down to the police department and obtain the forms. I then walked to the police department and obtained the form.

I am going to complete the form and file a freedom information request for the 911 calls and the police radio communications.

Further, I am going to file a freedom information request for the ticket that was completed and then withdrawn under the orders of a Greenwich Police Sargent.

I will probably put all of the audio and documents up here at Greenwich Roundup.

More than a few times I have spoken out on by filing complaints, calling WGCH, speaking at Selectman's meetings and have suffered retaliation from Greenwich officials and police officers.

I have had thin skinned Greenwich Officials retaliating attacking me on WGCH all day long just for speaking out at a First Selectman's meeting.

I am putting the Town of Greenwich on notice to cease and desist using selective enforcement, intimidation tactics and illegal searches to deny me my constitutionally protected right to free speech.

If Greenwich Police Chief David Ridberg and his police officers are going to try and do a "Lindy Urso" on me for speaking out on his poor performance, then Police Chief and the Town Attorney are going to get their butts dragged before a Federal Judge to account for violating my civil rights.

It is easy to see how the incompetent and out of control managers of Greenwich keep getting the taxpayers of the Town sued for massive amounts of money.
I have repeatedly sent letters to Town Attorney Wayne Fox complaining about the Town Of Greenwich retaliating against my self and others for exercising their constitutionally protected right to freedom of speech.
Yet, time and time again Town Attorney Wayne Fox fails to take steps to protect the civil rights of those who complain about the management of the Town Of Greenwich.

12/27/07 - Greenwich Matters Is On Tonight On WGCH

Tonight it will be time again for Greenwich Matter's to air on WGCH from 6 pm to 7 pm.

The Show Features Sam Romeo has been strong critic of Greenwich Governmental Departments.

He demands accountability and sound management practices of the Greenwich Governmental Departments That He Goes After.

However, Sam Romeo Turns A Blind Eye To The Greenwich Police Department.

Mr. Romeo will make excuses for the Police Department Leadership, but he refuses to demand accountability.

Mr. Romeo strongly supports the Greenwich Police Department, as everyone in Greenwich does.

I personally believe that there are many outstanding officers in the Greenwich Police Department, but the management of those officers is a joke.

I live in Byram and the officers are poorly managed.

But Byram is always ignored, by the Police Brass.

Windows get smashed, tires get slashed, mirrors get knocked off cars, while the Byram police officer just sits on US1 looking for broken taillights on cars.

Vandals do not run rampant in Mr. Romeo's neck of the woods, so he is satisfied with the Greenwich Police officers.

Tonight, I am going to call Sam Romeo again and complain about the poorly managed police officers who are responsible for patrolling Byram,

I am especially going to complain about the 4 to Midnight shift when most of the vandalism occurs.

The Police Chief should start having that officer patrol the streets of Byram instead of just sitting on the Post Road while Vandals destroy the character of Byram.